U.S. Homeland Missile Defense: Room for Expanded Roles

Abstract: Potential adversary missile-based threats, including ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic, are growing in size and sophistication. The coercive military strategies of North Korea, Russia, and China rely heavily on missiles that can range the U.S. homeland, posing a danger to U.S. vital interests and grand strategy. While nuclear deterrence and conventional forces will continue to play a leading role in addressing these threats, policymakers should reexamine the complementary roles that expanded and improved homeland missile defenses could play in supporting deterrence and US defense strategy more broadly. [U.S. homeland missile defense policy currently focuses on emerging threats to the homeland from rogue powers, such as North Korea. Expanding Chinese and Russian coercive missile strike options against the U.S. homeland may suggest there is a role for missile defenses in countering these threats as well. Contemplating a role for homeland defense against major powers may be unavoidable as the U.S. continues to expand its defenses to stay ahead of rogue nation threats.

Bio: Robert M. Soofer is a senior fellow in the Forward Defense practice of the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, where he leads its Nuclear Strategy Project. He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies, teaching courses in nuclear strategy, missile defense, and arms control. He serves as a consultant for the Sandia, Los Alamos, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories as well as the Institute for Defense Analyses. Mr. Soofer was deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy from April 2017 to January 2021. In this capacity, he was codirector of the Nuclear Posture Review and Missile Defense Review and led their implementation; testified before Congress on nuclear and missile defense policy; led biannual nuclear staff talks with key allies; served as US representative to the NATO High Level Group for nuclear planning; and was the secretary of defense representative to the US-Russia nuclear arms control talks.