Space sensors and missile defense

The United States must continue to push the major concentration of its missile defense tracking sensor architecture to space to improve the overall performance of the nation’s Missile Defense System against an increasingly diverse missile threat. Without the ability to track the missile payload throughout the flight, especially hypersonic payloads, the ability of a missile defense system to intercept the payload diminishes significantly and the armed forces will be unable to engage and intercept the threat with any meaningful consistency. The country must overcome technological, acquisition, commercial, and policy challenges in order to deploy a space tracking layer and achieve what ultimately may be viewed as the greatest leap in capability that could be achieved in missile defense today. Current development and initial deployments efforts require continued funding and advocacy for satellite and ground system development as well as emphasis on the development of responsive launch capabilities.