NEW 'ERA OF MISSILE-CENTRIC WARFARE' HAS ARRIVED, ELEVATING IMPORT OF BMD

"The conflicts in Ukraine and Israel have ushered in a new "era of missile-centric warfare" and elevated the importance of missile defense systems, demonstrating in real-world events capabilities previously relegated to intelligence forecasts and baked into key policy documents, including the 2022 National Defense Strategy, according to a senior Pentagon official.

John Hill, deputy assistant secretary of defense for space and missile defense policy, told a House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee on Dec. 7 that events in Ukraine and the Hamas-Israel conflict present a window into a form of conflict where missiles play a leading role.

"The ongoing conflicts in Europe and the Middle East underscore the centrality of missiles in modern warfare and global strategy," Hill said in prepared remarks. "As the 2022 Missile Defense Review emphasized, the rapid expansion in quantity, diversity and sophistication of adversary missile systems -- including offensive ballistic, cruise and hypersonic weapons and lower tier threats such as unmanned aircraft systems and rockets -- increasingly threaten U.S. interests and those of our allies and partners."

Missiles in these conflicts are targeting critical infrastructure, military forces -- including U.S. forces in the Middle East -- and civilians, he said, "with objectives ranging from gaining military advantage, to intimidating and terrorizing populations to inflicting deliberate and unprovoked destruction."

Russia, he said, has conducted "thousands" of strikes that include close-range and short-range ballistic missiles, air-launched ballistic missiles and more advanced cruise missile threats.

In the Middle East, what the Pentagon assesses to be three different Iranian proxy forces have launched a broad range of missile threats against Israel. Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah have launched "thousands" of unguided rockets and mortars. Meantime, Houthis in Yemen, armed with more sophisticated weapons, have launched cruise missiles, one-way attack drones and medium-range ballistic missiles toward Israel.

The United States has provided Israel $9.9 billion through fiscal year 2023 to develop and acquire robust air and missile defense systems, including Iron Dome, effective against lower-tier short-range rockets and projectiles; David's Sling against middle-tier short-range ballistic missile and theater ballistics missile attacks and the Arrow Weapon System -- co-developed with the Pentagon -- to defend against endo- and exoatmospheric medium-range ballistic missile threats.

"Israel has utilized all three of these systems to protect its sovereign territory in response to missile attacks originating from Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen," according to Hill.

The Defense Department is seeking nearly $30 billion in fiscal year 2024 for missile defense and defeat development and procurement, including $10.9 billion for the Missile Defense Agency.

"For U.S. forces and U.S. allies and partners around the world, in this era of missile-centric warfare, active missile defenses have become an essential element of a credible military force posture," Hill said. "In the most basic sense, [integrated air and missile defense] encompasses diverse sensors and shooters and the command-and-control systems that network them together to give battlefield commanders the optimal selection of interceptors to defend against a given threat."

Hill said that missile defenses must be integrated with other elements of military posture -- such as strike capabilities that can hold at risk systems that are important to an adversary." [1]

1. NEW 'ERA OF MISSILE-CENTRIC WARFARE' HAS ARRIVED, ELEVATING IMPORT OF BMD. Sherman, Jason.  Inside the Pentagon's Inside the Army; Arlington Vol. 35, Iss. 50,  (Dec 18, 2023).