This CSIS analysis details how escalation and deterrence dynamics change with the increasing use of UAS in conflict areas and examines several cases of how these dynamics might realistically occur.
Topic: Air Dominance and Long-Range Strike
Air Dominance and Long-Range Strike looks at the future of air and missile forces in a more contested operating environment. It analyzes the role of stealth, unmanned systems, and autonomous systems and how these capabilities can be integrated with legacy aircraft to enable new operational concepts. It also explores options for standoff attack, the missile salvo competition, and the air and ground-based legs of the nuclear triad.
What Can 24 Satellites Do for U.S. Missile Defense?
Despite some missile defense advocates’ claims that 24 satellites could form the basis of a boost-phase space-based missile interceptor (SBI) system, many physicists do not agree. A better question is how could a satellite constellation of this size best contribute to U.S. missile defense?
Why a Space-Based Missile Interceptor System Is Not Viable
The deployment of a space-based missile intercept layer would require launching hundreds or thousands of weapons into space – an expensive, inefficient, and provocative proposition.
Improving Disaster Response through Aerospace Technology
In these circumstances, the aerospace field offers tremendous capabilities for effective disaster response. By analyzing the capabilities offered by these aerospace technologies, it becomes clear that increased funding and development would prove a boon to effective disaster response and recovery.
What to look for in the Air Force’s FY 2019 Budget Request
What are the U.S. Air Force’s true programmatic priorities in 2018 and 2019? The Aerospace Security Project took a look at the budget to find out what the Air Force is really investing in.
Deterrence in the Last Sanctuary
There’s never been a war in the space domain, but some believe it won’t be that way forever. For 60 years, space has been the exception: the one domain that has remained free from the scars of war. By better understanding the dynamics of the second space age, we may be able to keep it that way.
Bad Idea: Space-Based Missile Interceptors
The idea of space-based missile interceptors is not new nor prohibited, but it is a bad idea. This piece looks beyond the policy arguments and explores the inefficiencies and vulnerabilities of space-based missiles.
Bad Idea: Armed Drones in West Africa
While the use of drones in West Africa is an operational tool, Alice Hunt Friend contends that they will make the U.S. counterterrorism efforts harder to acquire.
How to Counter a North Korean Missile
In this episode of The CSIS Podcast, Todd Harrison and Tom Karako discuss the future of U.S. missile defense after North Korea tested its longest-range missile yet, the Hwasong-15.
Bad Idea: UAVs Aren’t Usable in Contested Environments
The conventional wisdom is that existing unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are not capable of operating in contested environments. However, new thinking can enable the use of existing UAS to support operations in such environments.