The new radar has a range of thousands of kilometers, and can differentiate between ICBMs and decoys faster than existing radar. But precise tracking alone is not enough to protect US soil from a ballistic missile attack, observers say.
"It is…unfortunate that US funding for space- and near-space missile defense assets is at an all-time low. It may be time to reverse that trend and renew efforts for a space sensor layer," said Tom Karako, a missile defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Earlier this month Vice Admiral James Syring, the director of the Missile Defense Agency, said during a presentation at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Alabama that North Korea's recent demonstrative test-launches have changed the game.
"The number of tests has exceeded any previous year and we're only seven months or eight months into it," he said. "The game has been escalated."
An ability to launch ballistic missiles from a submarine would allow North Korea to avoid fixed radar, including the new Alaska facility. Considering the efforts by foreign militaries to develop hypersonic missiles, sending missile detectors into orbit is a necessity, according to Syring.
The Missile Defense Agency is eyeing $400 million "to develop and test" a space-based sensor.
The MDA has begun development on a space-based kill assessment program, a network of small sensors hosted on commercial satellites to collect the energy signature of a ballistic missile and a Ballistic Missile Defense System interceptor.
The agency will test these satellites over the Pacific Ocean.
