SM-3 Launch from USS Lake Erie (Image via Wikipedia)
Unheralded by all but the most observant of military buffs, the U. S. Navy has taken on the leading role in ballistic missile defense. My old skipper from the USS Moinester, Capt. Keith Evans USN (ret.), invited my attention to a Forbes article on the Navy’s role in missile defense which gives an excellent overview of the history, development and future plans of the Aegis combat system and the Standard Missile 3 (SM-3).
The Gulf War, the Iraq War, and the Af-Pak/War on Terror campaigns all focused public attention on ground forces, primarily Army. The Navy, with the exception of aviation sorties, has been largely out of the public view. And yet, the United States continues to enjoy the unique ability to project power almost anywhere in the world thanks to the Navy’s ability to dominate three quarters of the earth’s surface–the seas. Without the Navy, none of these ground campaigns would have been possible.
Quietly, incrementally over time, the Navy’s leadership developed and refined an incredibly robust anti-missile capability. While pundits point to marginal test results from ground-based anti-missile systems and declare it a useless waste of taxpayer money, the Navy actually has a working system, deployed and ready to use. Read the article–it’s eye opening.
