Defense and Technology Supplement: Why We Need A Missile Shield

THE GULF WAR was a wake-up call for ballistic-missile defense. With Iraq’s air force knocked out on the first day, ballistic missiles were the only way it could attack the territory of the nations arrayed against it, especially Saudi Arabia. A single Iraqi ballistic missile accounted for 20 per cent of all U.S. combat fatalities in that war.

Iraq also sent missiles raining down on Israeli cities, in hopes of provoking Israel’s entry into the war and the subsequent defection of Arab states unwilling to be part of a coalition including Israel. This strategy undoubtedly would have succeeded had the United States not deployed Patriot missiles to defend Israel. Despite hundreds of sorties, U.S. aircraft simply could not find the mobile launchers from which Iraq launched its missiles. Not a single one was destroyed from the air. Although not designed to defend urban areas, the Patriots were our only available countermeasure, and they knocked down a sufficient number of ballistic missiles to defeat the Iraqi strategy by permitting Israel to stay out of the war.

SH

About the Author

Stephen J. Hadley

Featured Tags

THE GULF WAR was a wake-up call for ballistic-missile defense. With Iraq’s air force knocked out on the first day, ballistic missiles were the only way it could attack the territory of the nations arrayed against it, especially Saudi Arabia. A single Iraqi ballistic missile accounted for 20 per cent of all U.S. combat fatalities in that war.

Iraq also sent missiles raining down on Israeli cities, in hopes of provoking Israel’s entry into the war and the subsequent defection of Arab states unwilling to be part of a coalition including Israel. This strategy undoubtedly would have succeeded had the United States not deployed Patriot missiles to defend Israel. Despite hundreds of sorties, U.S. aircraft simply could not find the mobile launchers from which Iraq launched its missiles. Not a single one was destroyed from the air. Although not designed to defend urban areas, the Patriots were our only available countermeasure, and they knocked down a sufficient number of ballistic missiles to defeat the Iraqi strategy by permitting Israel to stay out of the war.