From article, (The Pentagon's successful interceptor missile defense test this week is seen as a step toward reducing the nuclear risk from North Korea, but now China and Russia are seeing the U.S. technology as a threat.
During Tuesday's test, the U.S. military intercepted a mock intercontinental ballistic missile target fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California during a test of its Ground-based Midcourse Defense, or GMD, system.
Besides California, the U.S. also has the GMD system deployed at Fort Greely in Alaska. The interceptor test took place a day after the North Korean regime fired its ninth ballistic missile test this year.
Tuesday was only the 10th successful test out of 17 conducted since 1999. This week's test also was the first live-fire test against a simulated ICBM target.
The test is seen as a sign the U.S. military is making progress to combat the mainland U.S. threat from North Korea. Still, the use of numerous decoy missiles or countermeasures by an enemy could overwhelm or confuse the interceptor system and render it useless.
Russia and China already have developed countermeasures to increase the chance of a missile reaching a target. And the North Koreans also are believed to be developing similar capabilities, which creates additional national security concerns given Pyongyang's rapid advances in its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
There's an expectation that U.S. adversaries will intensify efforts to counter the GMD and other missile defense technology. Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted as much Thursday
"The enhancement of America's missile defense capability will, in theory, undermine the effectiveness [and] efficacy of nuclear strikes launched by its main strategic rivals, thus consolidating its own domination," according to an op-ed Thursday on the Chinese military's official web portal.
China believes the systems "will also stimulate other countries to develop strategic penetration technology at a faster pace or enhance their own strategic defense capability, which will exert a new impact on international security."
"They believe they were put in a situation where they are going to have to counter that, and that's the age-old story of military capability," he said.
The U.S. hopes to have a total of 44 GMD interceptors available by the end of the calendar year, up from 36 today, but even with that amount there may not be enough interceptors to take out more than a dozen incoming ICBMs, according to experts. A group of senators last month introduced a bipartisan bill that seeks to bolster homeland missile defense and sharply increase the number of interceptors.
The U.S. missile agency has received more than $120 billion since 2002 on the GMD missile defense system and it plans to spend an additional $37 billion through 2021 to further develop capabilities, according to a Government Accountability Office report released last month.
Laser weapons also show promise as part of a missile defense system. They have already been tested in manned aircraft and now development is underway in drones.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency's "long-term goal is to deploy lasers on high-altitude, long-endurance UAV platforms to destroy ICBMs in the boost phase at long standoff ranges," according to spokesman Chris Johnson.
That said, Karako indicated that the laser-based UAV weapon would only be useful for the boost phase of a ballistic missile when it's most vulnerable and rising. The laser probably wouldn't be reliable to kill the missile warhead on its re-entry since at that phase it is designed to withstand intense heat.)
Me, "Missile Defense is not a threat to any nation. Why? Let's look at history. The U.S. developed the atomic bomb. Russia and China soon followed with their own atomic bombs. The U.S. developed the fusion bomb, Russia and China soon followed with their own.
So what can be learned?
For every defensive weapons system other countries follow with their own. So, U.S. missile defense is just the next step in that process. The U.S. will figure out a way of coming up with an effective missile defense and then Russia and China will follow. Weapon systems beget Weapon systems. It's just the nature of things.
Missile defense will not give a country the upper hand for long. However, it will keep MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) in affect because no country would be able to win a future war. There would always be uncertainty of being able to win; keeping countries at bay, and continuing business as usual.
Missile defense is really a program that will benefit all countries in the future. Not so much to prevent nuclear weapons from reaching their targets but as a way of learning how to intercept and deflect an incoming harmful to Earth asteroid, if, there is one out there. "
US missile defense triggers alarm in Russia, China as North Korea issues new warnings
