Regional Power Ballistic Missiles. An Emerging Threat to Deployed US forces?
Abstract
This study addresses the issue of whether proliferation of ballistic missiles among potentially hostile regional powers poses an emerging threat to deployed US forces. Five regional powers are identified as potentially hostile: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and North Korea. This assessment considers four questions: missile availability; target accessibility; targeting accuracy; and warhead effectiveness. Ballistic missile technology has prollferated so extensively that potentially hostile regional powers could develop or acquire missiles with ranges from 900 km to over 3,000 km. Iraq is developing missiles with ranges of 2,000 km and beyond, and North Korea is producing copies of the Soviet SCUD-B. Potentially hostile regional powers could already target several deployment bases with SCUB-Bs and extended range SCUDs. Missiles which will be available to potentially hostile regional powers well before the year 2000 could target US deployment bases throughout the North Africa/Middle East/Southwest Asia and Northeast Asia regions. Some of the warhead options available to those powers would be effective for the range of missile accuracies projected. Chemical warheads already accessible to potentially hostile regional powers would be effective at any accuracy level considered, and other warhead options such as submunitions would be effective at the highest accuracy level.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA241068
Entities
People
- John E. O'pray
Organizations
- Air War College