Boost phase missile defense attacks before decoys can be deployed

USNI Proceedings:

Taking out incoming missiles during the boost phase – the period just after launch – is something the military’s missile defense leadership is confident will occur in the not too distant future.

Speaking Wednesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Rear Adm. Jon Hill, deputy director of the Missile Defense Agency, said the continental U.S. is safe for the moment, but his team is focusing on how to defend against an ever-evolving threat. Hill’s talk, part of the Maritime Security Dialogue series, was co-hosted by CSIS and the U.S. Naval Institute.

“The defense system we have in place today will defend against the threat as we understand it today,” Hill said. “What we’re concerned about is tomorrow’s threat as it continues to increase.”

With countries such as North Korea and Iran continuing to enhance their missile technology, Hill said the Missile Defense Agency’s goal is building and maintaining a robust layered defense system as ship-based and land-based radar and interceptors coordinate with satellites. Hill said gathering enemy missile launch data early is vital for the defense system to be effective. With the Aegis radar system aboard guided missile destroyers, Hill said his agency has the ability to receive very early looks at when an enemy launch is occurring.

“If that ship is based is properly placed up forward, it gets an early detection, and can cue the ground-based missile defense,” Hill said.

“It allows them to detect a lot earlier and shoot a lot earlier.”

While parking ships off the coast of threatening nations provides missile defense operators a decisive advantage in calculating a missile’s track, Hill conceded doing so comes with a cost to the fleet’s operational tempo.
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Geography makes states like North Korea and Iran vulnerable to boost phase missile defense.  During that phase, the missiles are most vulnerable and they are destroyed before they can deploy any decoys that might fool missile defense down range.  Russian missiles within their larger land mass would be more problematic for boost phase missile defense, although recent developments suggest that planes like the F-35 could be deployed in that role.