ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

With the largest employment of offensive weapons since World War II underway in the Russian assault on Ukraine, and with North Korea ramping up its missile program, the Army’s senior space and missile defense officer told Congress that there is no doubt about the importance of his command.

“In my 36 years as an air defender, I have never seen adversary threat activity—whether that be test or operational use—as great as I see it today,” said Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler, Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s commanding general.

Though the Army is “rightfully proud of its status as a premier land force,” the service will need to make several improvements to prepare for the future battlefield, argues the author of a new paper published by the Association of the U.S. Army.

U.S. air and missile defense capabilities are currently “inadequate to defeat growing threats,” according to a new paper published by the Association of the U.S. Army.

“In the years following 9/11, the U.S. military has predominantly fought low-tech adversaries,” author and national security analyst Jeremiah Rozman wrote. “In these conflicts, aerial threats to U.S. assets and forces have been rudimentary.”

The “deep dive” cuts made to dozens of programs in the Army’s march toward modernization have resulted in funding for priority air and missile defense capabilities to be fielded over the next five years.

Lt. Gen. James F. Pasquarette, deputy chief of staff, G-8, who heads Army resources and planning, said the Army’s reprioritization of funds is in line with the National Defense Strategy, and is aimed at re-establishing “overmatch against China and Russia in areas where we lost it or will soon lose it if we don’t get after it now.”

The Army is taking big steps toward having critical new air and missile defense capabilities, with an eye on a collection of interconnected systems that provide scalable, mobile and revolutionary protection against current and future threats.

No single system will be able to accomplish what the Army and the nation need, the commander of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command said March 12 during a one-day event hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army’s Institute of Land Warfare. 

A one-day forum on Army space, cyber, electronic warfare and network programs will be hosted June 22 in Huntington Beach, Calif., by the Association of the U.S. Army’s Greater Los Angeles Chapter.

To be held at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Hotel, the symposium will feature speakers from the Army, DoD, academia and industry in a discussion focused on one of the priority areas for modernization.

U.S. forces since Operation Desert Storm in 1991 “have become accustomed to relying heavily on an expeditionary approach to power projection."