ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, United StatesSEE ALSOForensic ScienceBallistic Missile DefenseOrganization, United States❚ CARYN E. NEUMANNThe Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), thesuccessor to the Strategic Defense Initiative Organizationin the United States Department of Defense, developssystems to detect, track, and destroy ballistic missiles.Working in collaboration with all of the U.S. military departments,all federal agencies, the private sector, andmajor research institutions, BMDOs use the most currentadvanced technologies to develop layered defenses thatemploy complementary sensors and weapons to eliminatethreatening missiles in the boost, midcourse, andterminal phases of flight.BMDO began on May 13, 1993 in the wake of acongressional ban on the deployment of space-basedweapons. The collapse of the former Soviet Union hadmade a global attack upon the U.S. appear much less likelyand Congress sought to push the Department of Defenseto update missile defense programs to address the dangersof the post-Cold War world. In this changed politicalclimate, Secretary of Defense Les Aspin announced thatformer President Ronald Reagan’s ten-year old StrategicDefense Initiative (popularly known as “Star Wars”) wouldbe terminated with missile defense responsibilities transferredto the newly formed BMDO. At this time Aspin alsochanged the missile defense priorities of the United States,ordering the BMDO to focus on theater missile defense,the protection of U.S. forces deployed overseas, as well asthe guarding of allies and friends. National missile defense,the protection of the U.S. from deliberate, accidental,or unauthorized limited ballistic missile attacks, wouldofficially become a secondary priority. At the end of thedecade, priorities again shifted in response to the growingthreat posed by the spread of ballistic missile technologyto perceived non-deterrable countries like Iraq and NorthKorea. Theater missile defense and national missile defensewould subsequently receive equal attention as partof an integrated system of research, development, andtesting programs.To provide defense, BMDO developed a two-tier architecturesystem designed to intercept missiles as faraway as possible from protected areas. The system isbased on a hit-to-kill technology that sends a U.S. missileto destroy an enemy missile by crashing directly into it.The upper tier, named Theater High Altitude Area Defense(THAAD), provides a wide area defense including coverageof dispersed assets and population centers. Afterreceiving target identification and guidance informationfrom radar, THAAD intercepts missiles either outside theatmosphere or high in the atmosphere. If the radar andoperations center determines that the target has not beendestroyed, then the Theater Missile Defense-Ground BasedRadar (TMD-GBR) cues a lower tier system, named PatriotPAC-3, to engage the missiles that have evaded THAAD.Patriot PAC-3, an Army-run lower-tier system establishedin 1999 as an upgrade of the PATRIOT system, includesradar, a communications capability, and a command andcontrol system. Navy Area Defends (NAD), a sea-based,lower-tier system upgrade of the Aegis air defense systemthat is the Navy’s equivalent of PAC-3, will intercept missilesaimed at naval targets.Research and testing consume the bulk of the BMDO’soperating budget. It has focused on the development ofkinetic and directed energy weapons such as high-energylasers and particle-beam systems for potential sea-,ground-, air-, and space-based operations. It also bearsresponsibility for the creation of sensors to detect a launch,track the thruster booster of a missile through space andthe atmosphere, distinguish actual warheads from decoys,and deliver this information to the battle management. Itis this latter research that has been shared with the commercialscientific and technological communities. As mandatedby law, the BMDO attempts to transfer its technicalknowledge to U.S. companies to benefit the national economy.The BMDO Technology Applications program distributesantimissile defense technologies, such as sensors,lasers, and materials, to commercial markets in thenon-defense public and private sectors.The technology transfer program has been amongthe BMDO’s greatest successes. The intercept of missileswith THAAD has proved enormously difficult as well ascostly, but blame for the high failure rate has been placedby the Department of Defense military contractors insteadof the BMDO system designers. The growing threat fromforeign missiles means that the organization will likelycontinue to receive strong governmental support becausethe development of a defense system to engage all classesand ranges of ballistic missile remains an urgent need.❚ FURTHER READING:BOOKS:Handberg, Roger. Ballistic Missile Defense and the Futureof American Security: Agendas, Perceptions, Technologyand Policy. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002 .Naveh, Ben-Zin and Azrid Lorber, eds. Theater BallisticMissile Defense. Reston, VA: American Institute of Aeronauticsand Astronautics, 2001.United States General Accounting Office National Securityand International Affairs Division. Ballistic MissileDefense: Evolution and Current Issues. Washington,D.C.: United States General Accounting Office, 1993.Werrell, Kenneth P. Hitting a Bullet with a Bullet: A Historyof Ballistic Missile Defense. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air UniversityPress, 2000.86 Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security