Theater Ballistic Missile Defense from the Sea

A sense of urgency informs "Theater Ballistic Missile Defense from the Sea: Issues for the Maritime Component Commander." Theater ballistic missiles armed with chemical, biological, or nuclear Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) will be acquired and deployed by hostile forces in the developing world, posing an imminent threat to the U.S. and coalition forces that must operate in that world. The gravity of this evolving threat is recognized in our national military strategy. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine theater ballistic missile defense (TBMD) systems are also evolving, but with the exception of the Patriot PAC-2 missile system, none are yet fielded. Recognizing this constraint, this study looks ten years ahead, to 2008, toward the challenge of joint and multinational power projection operations against a TBM-WMD armed adversary. In such a regional contingency, the first TBMD-capable forces on the scene are likely to be naval. It will thus be the duty of the Joint Force Maritime Component Commander to plan, fight, and win the initial TBMD battle in order to enable the introduction of follow-on TBMD forces from the other Service components, as the campaign moves inland from the littoral. This study's particular value lies in the attention it invites towards issues that concern the Joint Force Maritime Component Commander in his responsibility to perform the essential enabling task of delivering TBMD from the sea. This study is designed to raise more questions than it answers. With that purpose in mind, expeditious accessibility and wide dissemination are essential to facilitate further research-thus the specific intent to remain unclassified. The properly cleared reader, however, is encouraged to pursue potential areas of further inquiry at any appropriate level of classification, using the more than seventy military and non-military sources in the bibliography as points of departure.