Sen. Dan Sullivan (R., Alaska) will introduce legislation as early as next week to authorize the deployment of dozens of additional ballistic missile interceptors in the U.S. Pacific as part of an effort to confront an increasingly aggressive North Korea.
Sullivan, a member of the Armed Services Committee, told the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday the bill would fortify U.S. missile defense by accelerating the testing and development of new missile interceptors and approving the procurement of 28 new ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska and California, nearly doubling the current number.
"It's become very clear that it's not a matter of 'if' anymore, but 'when' North Korea is going to have the capability to reach not just Alaska and Hawaii, but the lower 48 states with a nuclear capable ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile]," Sullivan said in an interview.
The legislation also includes a measure that authorizes the Missile Defense Agency to begin building an integrated layer of space-based missile sensors.
Senior Pentagon officials called on Congress earlier this year to allocate funding for space-based missile tracking capabilities given developments in ICBMs that have created fissures in terrestrial missile defense. Sullivan said the new technology would integrate all components of U.S. missile defense to create an "unblinking eye" that could defend against a large-scale attack.
The bill arrives just weeks after U.S. Strategic Command initiated its missile defense posture review ordered by President Donald Trump in January. The review is the first of its kind since 2010.
The Union of Concerned Scientists, a science advocacy group, warned last year that the nation's missile defense system has no "real-world capability" to protect the U.S. against attack. The group reported that the ground-based missile defense system had only been tested nine times over a 12-year period and failed to destroy its target two-thirds of the time, according to Reuters.
The Pentagon deployed six additional interceptors to Alaska and California this year, bringing the total number to 36, and is expected to expand the program to include 44 interceptors by the end of 2017.
Sullivan said more is needed as North Korea continues to launch ballistic missile tests.
Defense officials have warned that North Korea is on the brink of producing an ICBM that could target the homeland. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced in January during his New Year's address that Pyongyang had "entered the final stage of preparations to test-launch" an ICBM that could reach parts of United States.
"If we know that train is approaching, we need to start working on this right now so that when the day comes and the headlines are screaming 'This unstable dictator has the ability to take out Chicago!' we can say we saw this coming and we have the capability to shoot these missiles down and retaliate on a massive scale," Sullivan said.
Sullivan said he expects the bill will receive bipartisan support and is currently pursuing Democratic co-sponsors.