Only Option for Shielding America from North Korean Missiles

Posted: May 18th, 2017

By Michaela Dodge

Michaela Dodge specializes in missile defense, nuclear weapons modernization and arms control as policy analyst for defense and strategic policy in The Heritage Foundation's Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies. She is a former National Security Fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a former Publius Fellow at the Claremont Institute in addition to being a former Center for Strategic and International Studies PONI Nuclear Scholars Initiative scholar. Dodge holds a master of science degree in defense and strategic studies from Missouri State University, where she was awarded the Ulrike Schumacher Memorial Scholarship for two years. She received a bachelor's degree in international relations and defense and strategic studies from Masaryk University, Czech Republic.

In the late 1990s, the United States returned to the idea of building a system that could defend the homeland from long-range missiles launched by North Korea, Iran, or any other adversary. The Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program has been under development for two decades. In that time, the program has cost $40 billion and has yet to destroy a missile under realistic conditions. Nevertheless, military planners assert that the system is up to the task of defending against long-range missile attacks, and they intend to prove just that in a test scheduled to take place in the next several weeks.

The Cipher Brief’s Will Edwards spoke to Michaela Dodge, senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, to understand how the GMD works, its effect on an adversary like North Korea, and the importance of learning from failure in testing an advanced weapon system.

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