AMAC Exclusive – By Ben Solis
In a shocking development Thursday, North Korea tested a massive new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the East Coast of the United States. The news is the latest sign that amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, other top U.S. adversaries are only growing more emboldened. But even with the missile threat increasing, U.S. defenses are struggling to keep up, due at least in part to a concerning lack of funding from Congress.
The North Korean 82-foot long Hwasong-17 missile tested this week was the largest liquid-fueled missile ever fired by any country from a ground-based vehicle. The projectile, which has the potential to carry multiple nuclear warheads, traveled 680 miles during a 67-minute flight before landing in waters between North Korea and Japan. Following the launch, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un vowed to expand the North’s nuclear war deterrent while preparing for a “long-standing confrontation” with the United States.
At the same time, the threat to U.S. national security from China also continues to grow in the region. Last week, General Kenneth S. Wilsbach, the head of Air Force operations for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, warned of China’s militarization of three disputed islands in the South China Sea. Additionally, a leaked Russian intelligence report claimed that Chinese President Xi Jinping has plans to make a move on Taiwan this fall.
That report was lent some credibility last Friday as China’s newest aircraft carrier, reportedly armed with long-range and medium-range missile launchers, passed near the island of Kinmen close to the port of Xiamen, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.
This news is particularly alarming given China’s aggressive development of hypersonic missiles for which the U.S. and its allies currently have no effective defenses. Should China choose to execute a plan to invade Taiwan, U.S. forces are in danger of being devastated by Chinese missile technology.
At the same time halfway around the world, Iran unveiled a new domestically-produced missile with a range of 1200 miles capable of reaching most U.S. bases in the region. The regime announced the new weapon just hours after the Biden administration resumed talks to re-enter the disastrous 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal.
Shortly after, a photo of the missile was displayed on the Supreme Leader’s website. The center of the site’s homepage showed a sinking White House, a U.S. drone in flames, and the Statue of Liberty collapsing after being invaded by what appears to be a small boat of Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
The name of the missile, “Kheibar-Shekan,” a reference to an ancient battle where Muslim forces sacked a Jewish city, is also intended as an apparent warning to Israel. Some Western missile experts fear that the faster and lighter Iranian missile is capable of penetrating Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, an alarming prospect for both Israeli and U.S. forces in the region.
The devastating potential of a full-scale missile attack is on display currently in Ukraine. As Russian forces struggle to subdue major portions of Ukraine’s largest cities, they have increasingly resorted to withering missile barrages indiscriminately hitting military and civilian targets alike. According to Ukrainian intelligence, more than a thousand missiles have been fired from Russia, Belarus, and the Black Sea into Ukraine since the start of the conflict.
However, even with all these threats clearly on the rise, the budget passed by Congress earlier this month cut in half funding for the U.S. to purchase its first hypersonic missiles to match those possessed by Communist China. Moreover, Congress cut funding for missile defense in Guam last year, leaving U.S. forces in the region dangerously vulnerable to a Chinese attack.
U.S. defense industry leaders have also warned that the U.S. lags significantly behind Russia in hypersonic missile technology. Reports that Russia has used hypersonic missiles in Ukraine are unconfirmed, but the prospect nonetheless has many in the Pentagon concerned. With China and Russia growing closer by the day, the prospect of the two countries collaborating on hypersonic missile technology threatens to further widen the gap in U.S. defense systems.
Just as tanks and mechanized weaponry defined warfare in the second half of the 20th century, missiles have become the most important assets on the battlefield in the 21st century. U.S. leaders would be wise to recognize this fact and invest both in U.S. offensive missile technology and bolstering missile defenses as an effective deterrence against growing aggression from America’s adversaries abroad.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, theologian, and researcher.