In what was described as the largest test of US missile defense systems ever, US anti-missile batteries engaged five incoming ballistic and cruise missiles simultaneously. The five incoming missiles were a combination of medium-range and short-range ballistic missiles and low-flying cruise missiles. According to the reports below, four of the five “attacking” missiles were shot down, and it is not entirely clear if the fifth missile was missed or whether it was simply impossible to confirm the “kill.” This was a remarkably complex and largely-successful test of the USA’s anti-missile defense system.
It should be noted that the mix of “attacking” missiles that were fired at the US interceptor forces very much mimicked the types of missiles that China would be shooting at US aircraft carriers if a war between US and Chinese naval forces erupts in the Pacific region. Previous posts have long warned that China would be firing a simultaneous mix of different types of ballistic and cruise missiles at US carriers in the event of such a war, and that the US Navy must have the means to successfully defend against such a varied attack. This missile-defense system test was designed to replicate the kind of attack that China could launch against US carriers and this confirms, thankfully, that the US Navy is taking measures to prepare for the inevitable Chinese missile attacks that will come against US carriers in the future.
One thing that was not clear is whether the low-flying cruise missiles that “attacked” the US missile defense systems were subsonic or supersonic cruise missiles. China (and Russia) have been building supersonic (and maneuverable) cruise missiles to attack US carriers. If this missile defense test was against only older and slower subsonic cruise missiles, then this was not yet a realistic test of the American missile-defense system’s ability to counter the real threat environment they would face against Chinese missiles. Any real attack will surely have Chinese and/or Russian supersonic cruise missiles attacking the US carriers in multiple salvos. Can US missile-defense systems handle that kind of attack yet? If the answer is “no,” then US carriers could have a very short life expectancy in any future war.
The test represents good progress by the US in defending against a missile attack by a variety of incoming missiles, but until the tests specifically can shoot down incoming supersonic cruise missiles, the USA hasn’t demonstrated that its carriers are survivable in a full-scale war vs. China or Russia. Since Ezekiel 38-39 make it clear, as readers of this blog know, that an all-out war between Russia, China, Iran and their allies (the “Gog-Magog” alliance) against the USA, NATO and their global allies is a certainty at the end of this age, these kinds of missile-defense tests are absolutely critical to the survivability of the USA’s aircraft carriers.
