The worsening international military and political situation compels experts, time and time again, to focus on missile defenses. Heightened missile threats stimulate the development of defensive capabilities. Traditionally, missile defense is seen as a destabilization factor as well. The purpose of this paper is to identify fundamental trends and key problem areas and present proposals for potential solutions to minimize the negative implications of missile defense development for international security.
Russia (a little earlier) and the United States (somewhat later) decided that they needed to develop integrated aerospace defense systems that included a variety of surveillance elements (sensors, satellite surveillance equipment and radars) and a set of fi re weapons that could intercept not only the typical ballistic and aerodynamic targets, such as ballistic missiles, manned aircraft and subsonic cruise missiles, but other targets as well, such as hypersonic cruise missiles, hypersonic glide vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and spacecraft, as well. The main driver is the growth in the scale and variety of missile threats coming not only from the great powers, but from third world countries and non-state actors as well.
