Missile defense systems have always been a highly controversial topic

because they fundamentally tip the balance of power in the world. A single
nuclear strike decimates almost everything in its path, leaving the country in
ruins. These ballistic missiles can be launched from continents away, and
because several politically unstable countries are producing their own
intercontinental ballistic missiles, it is very important to come up with a
defensive system that prevents devastating consequences. Missile defense
system provides a safeguard from the offensive nuclear missiles tipped with
nuclear and chemical weapons. Moreover, it also helps to develop
groundbreaking technologies like internet and camera. Even though a missile
defense system might be very costly and hard to maintain, the benefits we
get from them can effortlessly outweigh the risks it imposes.

The purpose of a national missile defense system is to destroy a ballistic

missile launched on the home county before it can ever reach it and
understanding how it works is really important. According to a recognized
expert on U.S. and worldwide military research and a national security policy
and defense spending Philip E. Coyle For, when an incoming missile in
detected on the radar of the defense system, a sequence of events involving
additional detection radars triggers the interceptor missiles to destroy the
enemy ballistic missile before it reaches the airspace of the country. It then
destroys that potential nuke in a great elevation in the atmosphere saving
millions of lives. (Coyle). These interceptor missiles are significantly different
than the offensive nuclear missiles. Unlike nuclear missiles, these defensive
missiles have no nuclear chemicals and only rely on the physical force of
impact to deter the offensive warheads. As a consequence, environmental
damage will be prevented and millions of lives will be saved. These defensive
systems are divided into four generic types of ballistic missiles: Short Range
Ballistic Missiles, Medium Range Ballistic Missiles, Intermediate Range
Ballistic Missiles, and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (Coyle). If an
operational national missile defense system were implemented, the
defending nation would be able to impede any ballistic missile attack. Missile
defense system is very important to a countrys protection which is why it
has been implemented in many countries, as Coyle, states,
There is now a worldwide arms race in missile defense. Russia, China,
India, Pakistan, South Korea, Japan, and Israel all claim to have
effective missile defenses, and these claims push military planning by
their adversaries in unwanted directions as they build more and more
offensive systems and/or new decoys and countermeasures to defeat
those defenses.
It has been widely debated that missile defensive system has little chance of
success against a massive scale attack as they have been known to lack
workable architecture. (Coyle, 2014). Coyle also argues that missile
defensive systems performance keeps on worsening when it ought to be
getting better. These facts are solely based on the missile defensive
systems that are present in the United States which have not been updated
with time. As the author himself states, for nearly 70 years since Germany
launched hundreds of V-1 Cruise Missiles and V-2 Ballistic Missiles during
World War II, the United States have been working on missile defense system
and have still been using the same obsolete programs with diminutive
improvements on the original installments. In fact, floppy disks are still used
to launch some of the defensive warheads. However, countries like China
and Russia have already come up with an advanced defense system that will
protect millions of lives in the time of need (Coyle, 2014). Nonetheless,
missile defense system is not ineffective to the relative offensive missiles, if
done properly, as Stephen J. Cimbala, a distinguished professor of political
science and consultant for various U.S. defense contractor explains, ballistic
missiles are an old technology, but if the advanced scientific expertise is
implemented while constructing these systems. It is only a matter of time
and engineering before defenses catch up with offenses (Cimbala, 2007).
Another argument against the missile defensive is that they are useless as
they are rarely used (Coyle, 2014). The cold war between the United States
and Soviet Russia, so this argument goes, was prevented escalating into a
hot war by the possession of these military advancements. For instance, the
destructive potential of nuclear bombs and engaging in a nuclear war would
have caused massive casualties in all participating countries. As a matter of
fact, countries would not launch its weapons of mass destruction in another
country with similar weapons as they knew that the other country will
respond in turn, thus leading to mutually assured destruction (Peter,
B). Moreover, missile defense system is a protection mechanism which is
there to fortify a countrys defense and deterrence theorists need to realize
that the less these defense system are launched, the more effective they
essentially are. For example, In August 1999, North Korea fired a ballistic
missile over Japan. Reports suggested that the administration in Pyongyang
was also preparing to test-fire a second ballistic missile that could carry
heavier payloads like biological and nuclear warheads. The threat of North
Korea's nascent ballistic missile program pushed Japan to seek cover with
the US Ballistic Missile. Consequently, no attacks were made by North Korea.
(Melese, F., and Palmore, J.) The alarming rate of nations like North Korea and
Iran progress toward an arsenal of a nuclear bomb, not to mention, most of
them capable of mass destruction, poses a serious threat to the whole world.
Given all the unpredictability of politics and terrorism in these rogue nation,
the importance of missile defense system cannot be stressed enough.
Without it, plausible threats can be made by these nation against the home
nation and its allies.
It is claimed that spending large amounts of money on projects like missile
defense system is useless and leads to an unwinnable arms race. This
argument assumes that missile defensive system and offensive ballistic
missiles to be same when they are completely different. Offensive nuclear
missiles have been causing the arms race between nations whereas, missile
defense system have been known to decrease arms race between countries
as suggested by Cimbala, that analysis over these systems should support
policy making by separating myth from reality when it comes to the
implications of missile defenses for deterrence which goes together with
arms race stability (Cimbala, 2007). Furthermore, the funds spent in the
missile defense system are directly poured into the economy. For example,
massive projects like these require the services of a large number of
personnel and most government spending goes to workers and contractors,
who can then in turn spend the money on other things in the economy
Without the preparation and deployment of a BMD, the states of Russia and
China will continue to support the ballistic missile development of rogue
states like Libya, North Korea, and Iran(peter brookes)Therefore, the issues
surrounding the deployment of a missile defense system should not be
overlooked.
With global terrorism is on the rise, the fear of nuclear strike cannot be
denied. Nuclear bombs are being mass produced by rogue nations such as
North Korea and Iran (Shifrinson and Priebe, 2011). Moreover, if terrorist
organizations manage to get their hands on it, there is no doubt that they
will fire them. When a missile defense system is installed it saves lives
because their intentions are to stop missiles from even causing any damage.
Furthermore, the psychological impact on enemies is more powerful than the
defense system itself. For an example, North Korea has nuclear weapons in
its arsenal but it never uses them. They know the U.S. already has the power
to demolish their country in a matter of minutes. The U.S. also has a missile
defense shield that can effectively take out the North Korean nuclear
deterrent ( David Sobek , Samuel B. Robison and Dennis M. Foster, 2012).
Missile defense system can be truly feasible and reliable is the technology if
modern technology is used and obsolete programs are updated in their
production. Correspondingly, the operational defense system protects the
country against a ballistic missile attack and implicates a stabilizing factor
for international security. The technology for missile defense is feasible when
its technical components are looked at individually, and it is only a matter of
years before a national missile defense system could be fully operational
(Cimbala, 2007). Finally, missile defense system would stabilize international
security and prevent arms race, and for this reason, missile defensive system
must be deployed in a country

A nuclear strike is devastating as the lethal shock waves wipe out everything
completely within its blast radius. Furthermore, nuclear fallouts released
from the blast rises in the atmosphere and gets propelled by the
conventional air current, spreading it across a region a hundred times larger
than the blast radius itself. According to an article by G.A Thomas, the
nuclear bombs killed 246,000 lives at Hiroshima and Nagasaki altogether
after the atomic explosion in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the survivors who
were exposed to radiation had developed cancer, cardiovascular disease,
and aged faster. Consequently, children developing in the womb had
developed a weak central nervous system. (Thomas G.A, 2016). Not only
does the missile defensive systems protects the nation and its people from
nuclear bombs, but it also terminates missile delivery of chemical or
biological weapons. Unlike the offensive nuclear warheads, missile defensive
system is safe to store, not harmful to the environment as said in the article
The Need For Missile Defense the author, Peter Brookes says,
the missile defense interceptor warhead does not even contain an
explosive charge, it destroys the missile warhead by the sheer force of
the collision. Missile defense is like an umbrella; it is needed only if it
rains. It threatens no one. It only undermines the capability of one
country to threaten or attack another country with its ballistic missiles.
(Peter, 2012). Thus, spending money on missile defense system is valuable
as it protects the environment from nuclear residues in addition to saving
lives.

Scientific advancement can be achieved from the research done for the
development of defense mechanism. Technologies are crucial for the modern
world to function were all discovered while funding programs like missile
defense system. For example, duct tapes were made solely for sealing the
ammunition box and jet engines were not built for transportation but to drop
bombs more efficiently. Similarly, the internet which is a primary resource in
any sector at the moment was prepared to communicate with all the
computers in the military, and digital photography was invented to track the
enemy aircraft. Inventions like satellite navigation, night vision and radar
that has changed transportation were all made for fighting enemies.
(Adamsky, D, 2008) All these examples prove that projects such as missile
defense systems eventually generate a new technology from the research
involved in it.
In a nutshell, there are many aspects that make up a Missile Defensive
System. There are many issues regarding the deployment of missile defense
system like expensive cost, the drawbacks of technical capability, and the
dangers of arms race escalation. However, the benefits of having a missile
defense system surely outweigh the dangers of not having one. We live in a
new era of terrorism where deterrence is no longer an effective strategy.
There is no doubt that ISIS will launch a nuclear weapon if they get their
hands on it. Similarly, communist nations like North Korea already has a
couple of nukes. Pakistan, where Talibans have a stronghold, is actively
developing nuclear weapons. Who knows what other groups or countries are
out there developing these weapons? With such as massive stockpile
missiles out there, it is always possible that one of those missiles will fall into
the wrong hands, which is why missile defense system is so important.