There May Be No Way to Counter North Korea’s Missiles

By Dave Majumdar

The U.S. Navy intercepted a medium range ballistic missile target on Aug. 30 using a Raytheon Standard SM-6 missile. The weapon, which was launched from USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53), intercepted the target in its final seconds of flight.

“Earlier this year, our customer requested an enhanced capability to deal with a sophisticated medium-range ballistic missile threat,” Mike Campisi, Raytheon’s SM-6 senior program director, said [3]. “We did all this – the analysis, coding and testing – in seven months; a process that normally takes one to two years.”

Unlike dedicated ballistic missile interceptor versions of the Standard missile, the SM-6 is a multirole weapon that can perform anti-air warfare, anti-surface warfare and the ballistic missile defense (BMD) at sea. According to Raytheon, this marked the third time that the SM-6 missile successfully engaged a ballistic missile target in its terminal phase. The weapon was first tested in the ballistic missile defense role in August 2015[4], and then again in late 2016 [5].

This story was originally published by The National Interest

Raytheon has delivered more than 330 SM-6 missiles with production continuing indefinitely. However, while the SM-6 will become the mainstay of the fleet, the dedicated ballistic missile defense role falls to the SM-3 variants of the Standard missile. The Standard missile family—and indeed most U.S. theatre missile defenses—has a good track record, but they only offer a limited defense. In the event of a war, thousands of North Korean ballistic missiles would likely overwhelm the system.

Indeed, a 2016 report from the Pentagon’s Director, Operational Test and Evaluation bears that out. “The Regional/Theater BMDS demonstrates a limited capability to defend the U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM), U.S. European Command (USEUCOM), and U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) areas of responsibility for small numbers of medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missile threats (1,000 to 4,000 km), and a fair capability for short-range ballistic missile threats (less than 1,000 km range),” reads [6] the report.

Kingston Reif, director for disarmament and threat reduction policy at the Arms Control Association told The National Interest that he agrees with the report. “Even though these systems have good test records, the capability of our and Japan’s regional defenses (Patriot PAC-3, Aegis capable ships armed with SM3-IA and IB interceptors and THAAD) against small numbers of missiles that travel within the defended area of these systems is limited,” Reif said.