Last year, North Korea launched a suspected ICBM that could hit the U. S. mainland and tested a purported hydrogen bomb
A bill signed by President Donald Trump on Monday asks the Pentagon to pursue more options for defeating U. S.-bound North Korean missiles by using radar and more missiles to spot and shoot down inbound threats.
The National Defense Authorization Act gives the Pentagon $716 billion, with almost $10 billion going to the Missile Defense Agency to fund the expansion of missile defenses, emphasizing the need to stop any North Korean or Iranian attacks.
The military is already exploring whether the United States can add another layer to defenses to those already in place for intercepting incoming missiles in flight, Keith Englander, the U. S. Missile Defense Agency’s director for engineering, said at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, last week.
The Missile Defense Agency’s head, Lieutenant General Samuel Greaves, has said he wants to integrate the Aegis Combat System into the current ICBM defenses of the U. S. homeland. The Aegis system, mainly found on ships, could be fitted with the Standard Missile 3 Block IIA (SM-3 IIA) interceptors that are being developed in a joint venture between Raytheon Co and Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.
The Lockheed Martin-made Aegis system is currently deployed aboard 36 U.
