Thwarting Growing Missile Threats Draining Pentagon Budget, Inventories, Officials Testify

The United States has assembled an arsenal of acronyms to counter advances in diverse missile technologies that make these often-mobile, ever-evolving, and ubiquitous weapons systems relatively inexpensive to attack with, but increasingly costly to defend against. Since October, U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers in the Red and Aden seas have knocked down numerous drones and at least four Quds-2 cruise ballistic missiles targeting Israel and commercial ships launched by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, including twice since Dec. 3. Pentagon officials told the House Armed Services Committee’s Strategic Forces Subcommittee during a Dec. 7 hearing that the Navy’s anti-missile missile systems work well in tracking and simultaneously zapping from the skies an array of varied threats....