Heads, Not Tails: How Best to Engage Theater Ballistic Missiles?

Defending against theater and intercontinental ballistic missiles, potentially carrying nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, requires 100% effectiveness--anything less continues to afford our enemies weapons of mass effect. If the U.S. is to be successful in answering this threat, a re-evaluation of boost phase intercept (BPI) options is in order. This paper highlights the ballistic missile threat and joint defense systems; provides an assessment of those systems; re-evaluates BPI merits; and proposes a kinetic boost phase solution (with concept of operations) to bridge the potential fielding of space-base weapons. Early engagement provides better, faster, cheaper and less destabilizing missile defense capability. "Heads, not tails" sounds a call to the Missile Defense Agency, Strategic Command and all Services to commit to producing BPI capability (first kinetic, then directed energy), ahead of other systems and upgrades.