By Prajwal Shrestha
The history of the creation of missile defense systems (ABM) dialectically fits into the framework of the concept of “attack-defense”. The emergence of a new variety of offensive weapons inevitably leads to the development of defensive systems. It is believed that the missile defense problem arose with the appearance of a missile threat.
The US national missile defense system has been the subject of intense debate for most of the last century. This, given the political situation of the XX century, was quite natural. In 1999, the US Congress decided that there was no more time to talk: it passed a bill introducing a system to protect the country from an increasing number of foreign long-range missiles.
The general concept of the US missile defense system provides for the creation of a deeply layered system designed for the use of non-nuclear means of intercepting ballistic missiles of any type on all sections of the flight path – initial, medium and final. The US Department of Defense has published the “Missile Defense Policy Review” (2019 Missile Defense Review), a large-scale document that describes the actions of the United States in this area in future years.
The document talks about the need to develop the latest technologies that will ensure the defense of the United States for the next few decades. Among them are combat lasers, a space-based missile warning system, ballistic missile interceptor fighters, and much more.
“Our task is simple: we must be sure that we can track and destroy any missile launched in the United States — anywhere, anytime, from anywhere,” said US ex-President Donald Trump, presenting the review at the US Department of Defense.
The report notes that threats of a missile strike on the territory of the United States come from or are increasing from North Korea, Iran, Russia and China.
However, as with all classified objects, there are not only a lot of rumours around the American missile defense system but also a large amount of reliable information. So, the most real fact is that the most important myth about the American missile defense system says that it has only a defensive character. But this is far from the case, or rather, radically wrong. First of all, any missile system is offensive, the defensive function is only secondary.
From this, it follows that hiding behind the good goals of self-defense, the ultimate goal is to build up forces capable of attacking neighbouring states. Thus, the expansion and modernization of the American missile defense system only lead to the destabilization of the situation in the world. It provokes an arms race and leads the world to unipolarity when one state puts itself above others and dictates its conditions and imposes its will on other countries from a position of strength.
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