US Missile Intercept

The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) reported the successful test of a missile interception system in November, 2020. According to various reports, ‘a Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) Block IIA interceptor successfully destroyed an intercontinental-range ballastic missile (ICBM) target in a test. With this milestone, the SM-3 Block IIA becomes only the second US interceptor type to exhibit this capability.’ (Carnegie Endowment website).

Bloomberg reported the events in the following terms: ‘an intercontinental ballistic missile was fired in the general direction of the Hawaiian islands. During its descent a few minutes later, still outside the earth’s atmosphere, it was struck by another missile that destroyed it.’

It may seem perfectly legitimate for any country, including the US, to test and perfect such systems. After all, it is the right of every American not to be murdered by nuclear weapons. However, the announcement of this test has deep and worrying implications for us all.

If such systems were fully developed, what forces or arrangements would prevent the US from actually using its nuclear weapons? If they could be used without fear of nuclear counter-strike, would an American President be more or less likely to use nuclear weapons? Isn’t such a test deeply worrying given the massively increased nuclear tensions, deliberate undermining of the infrastructure of nuclear arms control and general degradation of the ‘global norms’ that have helped prevent nuclear war in the past?

If the perverse concept of ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ has been undermined by technological developments, then where does this leave nuclear ‘strategy’?

Now that the US has introduced further asymmetry into nuclear questions, what next?