Army Air and Missile Defense. Future Challenges
Abstract
The Army must take steps today if it is to provide effective air and missile defenses against the threats that will emerge 20 years hence. Most analysts predict that the globalization of the economy means that existing and new technologies will become increasingly available worldwide and that many sophisticated weapons will be easier and cheaper to produce or acquire. But trends in the international political sphere are harder to identify. The international arena has seen such flux in the past two decades that it is difficult to predict what changes will occur in the next 20 to 25 years, but they could be substantial. RAND examined how a wide range of possible trends might shape the future world situation. Doing so, we believe, provides insight into how these trends and accompanying technological changes might influence the Army's plans to develop its air and missile defenses (AMD). We drew on previous RAND work that characterized six possible futures for 2025 to establish a context for Army AMD in the period. Representative scenarios for each of these futures provided a means for illustrating how differing geopolitical or strategic situations might influence air and missile defense requirements for the future. We used the six scenarios to identify potential AMD shortfalls or redundancies in various settings and, consequently, those areas where the Army might best focus its research and development (R&D) efforts.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA404440
Entities
People
- Brian Nichiporuk
- David C. Mcgarvey
- Frances M. Lussier
- Lowell Schwartz
- Michael D. Miller
Organizations
- RAND Corporation