The first research on the creation of systems capable of countering ballistic missile strikes in the United States began shortly after the end of World War II. The first projects of the ballistic missile defense system (BR) were initiated by the Air Force Thumper ("Thumper") and Wizard ("Wizard"). As part of the Thumper project, studies were conducted on the possibility of effective interception of V-2-type BRS, a high-speed guided missile was developed within the Wizard, capable of intercepting BRS that surpass the German V-2 in speed and range. In 1958, after the separation of responsibilities between the Air Force, Navy and army command took place in the United States, work on the creation of the Wizard interceptor missile has stopped. The existing reserve on the radars of the unrealized anti-missile system (ABM) was later used in the creation of the AN/FPS-49 missile warning radar station (radar), which in the early 1960s was put on combat duty in Alaska, Great Britain and Greenland.
In 1956, the Defender program was launched in the United States of America to find ways to create missile defense systems and means, the principles of their construction, the study of the detection and tracking of ballistic missile warheads.
Taking into account the results of the conducted research, the development of the NikeZeus anti-missile system ("Nike-Zeus") began in 1957. It was based on the so-called dueling scheme for destroying the warheads of the BR before they enter the dense layers of the atmosphere (the anti-missile should launch towards the target to intercept it "head-on"). The NikeZeus missile defense system was intended to protect only individual objects on the territory of the country.
The experimental anti-missile complex created at the Kwajelein test site (Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean) included, in particular, four radars for detecting targets and targeting NikeZeus-type anti-missiles. The solid-fuel two-stage anti-missile was equipped with a thermonuclear warhead, the maximum power of which was 400 kilotons. Its maximum interception range was estimated at 400 kilometers, its altitude reach was 280 kilometers. The NikeZeus program was closed in 1962 due to low combat capabilities. The main reason for the insufficient effectiveness of the anti-missile complex was its low throughput, limited primarily by the use of radar with parabolic mirror antennas.
Based on the possible growth of the nuclear missile threat, in 1963 a program was opened in the United States to create a two-tier anti-missile system Nike-X ("Nike-X"), authorized by US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. The system was assigned the task of protecting not only an individual object, but also an entire area, that is, to carry out zonal defense. As part of this program, a new improved version of the NikeZeus-Spartan anti-missile ("Nike–Zeus" - "Spartan") was developed with an increased interception range (up to 640 kilometers), and an interception height of 160 kilometers, a nuclear warhead of one megaton and increased maneuverability. The anti-missile was supposed to intercept targets on the descending branch of the middle section of the flight path. The system was tested in 1966-1969.
For the Nike-X system, the Sprint short–range missile ("Sprint"; maximum interception range – 40 kilometers, altitude - 30 kilometers) was created and tested at the same time, which was the main means of protecting individual objects in the defended zone. A nuclear charge of relatively small power was installed on it.
In February 1967, several deployment options for the Nike-X missile defense system were announced in the United States.
According to option "A", the defense of 25 large cities was planned, option "B" provided for the protection of 50 cities. Ensuring the protection of the entire territory of the United States was not considered. After numerous debates in the United States, they came to the conclusion that the Nike-X system is not capable of protecting the country from a massive missile strike using the latest means of overcoming missile defense. Therefore, the next stage in the development of missile defense systems has unfolded in the United States.
It was decided to proceed with the creation of the Sentinel missile defense system (Sentinel), which provides zonal missile defense of large administrative and industrial centers of the country and areas based on intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The system was planned to include long-range anti-missiles Spartan-2 ("Spartan-2") with an increased range (by equipping the interceptor missile with an additional stage), as well as improved Sprint short-range anti-missiles.
The Sentinel system had many opponents, and under these conditions, the then US President Richard Nixon decided to stop work on the project, but at the same time approved the newly put forward program for creating a Safeguard missile defense system ("Safegard"). This program set a more modest task – to provide reliable cover for ICBM bases, strategic aviation airfields, and missile submarine bases. In total, it was planned to cover 12 different military bases. It was planned to increase the number of anti–missiles to one thousand units - 300 Spartan-2 and 700 Sprint. However, the full-scale deployment of the Safeguard system has been suspended. In May 1972, the USSR and the USA signed an Agreement on the Limitation of missile Defense Systems, which for many years became one of the factors determining the policy of the USSR (and then Russia) and the USA in the field of strategic nuclear weapons. The ABM agreement was concluded for an unlimited period. In accordance with it, the USSR and the United States pledged not to deploy missile defense systems on the territory of their countries and not to create a basis for such defense, except for two missile defense areas: around the capital and the area where the intercontinental ballistic missile silo launchers are located. The radius of each of these areas should not exceed 150 kilometers, no more than 100 anti-missile launchers (PU) can be deployed within its limits. The agreement allowed the modernization and replacement of missile defense systems or their components, but obliged the parties not to create, test or deploy missile defense systems or components of sea, air, space or mobile ground-based. In accordance with the 1974 Additional Protocol to the ABM Treaty, the number of areas was limited to one for each of the parties. In the United States, it was decided to deploy the Safeguard anti-missile system based on the Grand Forks ICBM (North Dakota). The complex went on combat duty in 1975. However, after a few months, the complex was mothballed. The main reason for the conservation of the complex was considered to be its low efficiency (due to the appearance in the Soviet Union of missiles with separable warheads and sufficiently developed by that time means of overcoming missile defense), as well as the high cost of operation. With the signing of the ABM Treaty, the severity of the missile defense problem has significantly decreased. The work of the United States in the field of missile defense did not go beyond the limits provided for by this Treaty.
The topic of anti-missile weapons was revisited in the United States in the early 1980s, when a new round of the Cold War began after President Ronald Reagan came to power.
On March 23, 1983, Reagan announced the start of work on the Strategic Defense Initiative ( SOI, SDI – Strategic Defense Initiative ) project. This project of defense of the territory of the United States from Soviet ballistic missiles, also known as "Star Wars" (Star Wars), provided for the use of anti-missile systems deployed on earth and in space. But unlike previous anti-missile programs based on interceptor missiles with nuclear warheads, this time the bet was made on the development of weapons with other damaging factors. It was supposed to create a single global multicomponent system capable of repelling the attack of several thousand warheads of Soviet ICBMs within a short time interval.
The ultimate goal of the Star Wars program was to gain dominance in near outer space and create an effective anti-missile "shield" to reliably cover the entire continental part of the United States by deploying several echelons of shock space weapons capable of fighting ballistic missiles and their warheads at all stages of flight in the path of Soviet ICBMs.
The main elements of the anti-missile system were planned to be placed in space. To destroy a large number of targets, it was envisaged to use active means of destruction based on new physical principles: lasers, electromagnetic kinetic guns, beam weapons, as well as small-sized kinetic interceptor satellites.
Subsequently, many analysts came to the conclusion that the Star Wars program was a global bluff aimed at dragging the Soviet Union into a new ruinous arms race. Research within the framework of the SOI has demonstrated that most of the proposed space weapons for various reasons could not be implemented in the near future or easily neutralized by relatively inexpensive asymmetric methods. In addition, in the second half of the 1980s, the degree of tension in relations between the USSR and the United States significantly decreased, respectively, the likelihood of nuclear war decreased. All this led to the rejection of the creation of an expensive global missile defense. After the curtailment of the SOYBEAN program as a whole, work on a number of the most promising and easily implemented areas continued .
In 1991, President George H. W. Bush put forward a new version of the SOYBEAN program, the so-called Global Protection Against Limited Strikes – GPALS (Global Protection Against Limited Strikes). Such a system was designed to intercept a limited number of missiles. From 1992 to 1996, work in the field of missile defense was carried out within the framework of this program.
A kind of continuation of GPALS was the program for the creation of a National Missile Defense System – NMD (National Missile Defense). The law on its creation was signed by US President Bill Clinton in July 1999. He elevated the deployment of a national missile defense system to the rank of state policy and authorized the Pentagon to deploy elements of this system to protect the entire territory of the country from ballistic missiles of a potential enemy when it would be "technically possible".
After President George W. Bush came to power in 2000, plans for the construction of missile defense were revised (the Clinton administration focused on the creation of non-strategic missile defense or theater of operations (Theater of Operations) missile defense systems). For the first time since the Reagan era, the project of creating a layered system came out on top again. The key requirement for the missile defense system was the ability to intercept missiles in all parts of their trajectory – initial (active), medium and final. The creation of such a system contradicted the provisions of the Treaty on the Limitation of Missile Defense Systems, and as a result, in June 2002, the United States unilaterally withdrew from this Treaty.
In the same year, the creation of national and regional missile defense systems of the United States began. To implement the relevant developments, the Missile Defense Agency was created.
The administration of George W. Bush managed to achieve some success in improving the multi-layered missile defense system in the Asia-Pacific region (APR), where the United States relies on the development of the naval component of the tactical missile defense system, which operates in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
After Barack Obama came to power, the United States did not abandon ambitious plans to create a missile defense system, but decided to make it more flexible and mobile. The initiative became known as a non- strategic adapted missile defense. It includes a missile defense system in the United States and deployable elements of American missile defense in Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
Currently, the US missile defense system includes a whole range of different installations: radar stations, tracking satellites, launchers and anti-missiles themselves.
The initial link of systems designed to combat ballistic targets are missile attack warning devices, whose task is to detect the launch of missiles and accompany them in flight after launch. In relation to the Asia-Pacific region, the solution of this problem is mainly assigned to the grouping of SBIRS (Space-Based Infrared System) early detection satellites placed in geosynchronous and highly elliptical near-Earth orbits and equipped with infrared sensors.
In addition to monitoring launches and determining the flight path, SBIRS is designed to identify combat units and false targets, issue target designation for interception, as well as conduct reconnaissance over the territory of military operations in the infrared range.
It is estimated that six SBIRS-GEO spacecraft and up to four SBIRS-HEO modules are currently operating in orbit.
In addition to the space early warning echelon, the United States uses radar facilities in the Asia-Pacific region that are part of the national missile defense system, in particular the PAVE PAWS22 long-range detection and early warning radars located at air bases in Massachusetts, California and Alaska, as well as the SBX1 marine mobile radar system (Sea-Based X-band Radar), designed to for detecting and tracking space objects, including high-speed and small-sized ones, and issuing target designation data to missile defense firing systems. Located on an oil platform, the SBX-1 radar is capable of moving independently at a speed of up to 13 kilometers per hour and can be relocated to any point on the ocean surface. Along with missile detection, radar is used to evaluate the results of missile defense interceptor tests. This is the most powerful sea-based radar in the world. The AN/TPY-2 ground-based radar in Japan also works in the interests of the missile defense system.
The core of the US national missile defense system, designed to protect the US mainland, is a ground-based ICBM interception complex in the middle section of the trajectory, known as Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GBMD). In addition to early warning and tracking radars, it includes mine-based Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) anti-missiles that intercept and defeat targets with a ram on a collision course.
To date, 44 mine-based interceptor missiles have been installed in the United States. The complex is deployed at Fort Greeley in Alaska (40 interceptor missiles) and at Vandenberg Air Force Base (4 interceptor missiles) in California.
Currently, the Pentagon is building a new interceptor missile field at Fort Greeley, where it is planned to place 20 new interceptors, bringing the total number of interceptors to 64 units.
The naval component of the American missile defense system consists of destroyers with the Aegis naval combat information and control system (BIUS) and interceptor missiles.
Consisting of information means, fire control means (AN/SPY-1 radar) and means of destruction (Standard Missile SM-2 and SM-3 anti-missiles), the Aegis BIUS allows receiving and processing information from sensors of other ships and aircraft and issuing target designations to launchers.
Ships with Aegis BIUS can also be used to detect and track intercontinental ballistic missiles, sending data to ground-based interceptors of continental missile defense.
To date, ships equipped with Aegis BIUS are also used by the navies of Spain, Norway, South Korea, Australia and Japan. In total, more than 100 ships are equipped with Aegis BIUS.
In the 1990s, the THAAD (Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense) mobile missile defense system was developed, tested and entered the troops, designed to intercept short- and medium-range ballistic missiles inside or outside the atmosphere at the final stage of flight, whose tasks include advanced cover of strategic military bases, airfields and similar facilities the rear.
The latest modification of the Patriot army anti-aircraft missile system is used as a means of tactical missile defense against short-range ballistic missiles.
The naval component of the American missile defense system has been formed in Europe. It consists of several destroyers with Aegis and SM-3 interceptor missiles. They are stationed at the Rota Naval Base in Spain .
The ground-based missile defense component in Europe consists of the AN/TPY-2 mobile radar station in Turkey and the Aegis Ashore complexes (the "land" version of the Aegis BIUS) in Romania and Poland. The complex in Romania was placed in 2016, in Poland it will be put into operation in 2023.
In addition, elements of the American missile defense system in the form of Patriot mobile complexes are located in Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE and Bahrain. Japan, Turkey, Israel and the Marshall Islands have provided their territories for the deployment of radars.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources