Pentagon officials look to 'phase in' missile defense: "military officials want to harness technology for a more flexible and adaptive defense architecture, the principal deputy Defense undersecretary for policy said.
James N. Miller spoke to an audience of more than 200 missile defense experts here March 22 at the 8th Annual U.S. Missile Defense Conference at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.
Mr. Miller said the United States needs to integrate its missile-defense technology with foreign partners based on various threats. Such an approach would be more cost effective and also help to reduce potential threats.
'This approach is adaptive in the sense that it relies heavily on other, more flexible capabilities that can be surged into troubled regions in times of crisis,' Mr. Miller said. 'We know that based on the current threat, our supply of missile defense interceptors is going to have to be moved around from region to region as we build more capacity over the coming five to 10 years.
'To date, there are thousands of ballistic missiles across the world, potential threat missiles, hundreds of launchers,' he added. 'Roughly 90 percent of those missiles today have less than a 1,000-kilometer range. We only have a few-hundred defense interceptors deployed in multiple regions.'"
