I have a challenge for my readers and listeners.
The US DoD has spent trillions of dollars and still can’t defend the homeland against the ICBM/IRBM threat. “U.S. defense officials have stated that both existing terrestrial- and space-based sensor architectures are insufficient to detect and track hypersonic weapons…”
Reentry warheads from ICBMs are by definition hypersonic weapons that re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere at very high velocities, on the order of 6–8 kilometers per second (22,000–29,000 km/h; 13,000–18,000 mph) at ICBM ranges.
The Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD), as of 2018, the system is composed of two interceptor staging bases in the states of Alaska and California, with 40 staged in the former, 4 staged in the latter, for a total of 44 interceptors, as well as the component early warning and targeting sensors based on land, sea, and in orbit. The cost is approximately 53 billion dollars so far (effective 2020).
44.
GMD has a failing test record: a success rate of just 55 percent in highly scripted tests, including three misses in the last six tries. The potential ICBM MIRV rain on North America is significant and the normal engagement strategy is a minimum of two missiles sent aloft to intercept a single target.
If someone shot ONE nuclear missile at the US then yes, definitely. If you shot one defense missile against an incoming ICBM your chances of shooting it down are 53%. Use four defense missiles and it’s 97%.
The Russians are the only ones updating their arsenal. The RS-28 Sarmat made its first test flight on 20 April 2022. On 16 August 2022, a state contract was signed for the manufacture and supply of the Sarmat strategic missile system. The missile officially entered operational service in September 2023, as the world’s longest range and most powerful extant ICBM system.
The US Sentinel system is still at least a decade away from replacing the arthritic and aging Minuteman ICBM inventory.
Yet the US keeps threatening Russia in a fashion that invites nuclear exchange. Why? Where are the cool heads in the mandarin class of the US government?
https://news.usni.org/2024/06/25/report-to-congress-on-hypersonic-missile-defense-4
Email me at cgpodcast@pm.me
