Speaking of geography, Alaskan territory is also along the trajectory of ballistic missiles launched eastward out of Stalinist North Korea.

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In contrast to space-based weapons like Brilliant Pebbles which, thanks to their ability to attack ballistic missiles early in flight trajectory and, thereby, to destroy multiple warheads with a single interceptor, have the potential to be more cost-effective than offensive forces stand-alone, ground-based defenses can only attack incoming warheads after they have been dispersed from the launching missile and in their final stage of flight.

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Such scenarios would be greatly enabled by the use of depressed- trajectory submarine-launched ballistic missiles like Putin's new Belavia against our deterrent forces, which are located at relatively few bases compared to the Cold War.

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However, its baseline version of the interceptor is already quite capable, which is why the Navy will conduct a test this spring to see how it fares against a Trident ballistic missile flying a longer, faster trajectory than the service currently is postured to counter.

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And our recent success in returning to testing of the upgraded version of the so-called GBI, or the CE2 missile, will keep us on a good trajectory to improve our defense capability against limited ballistic missile threats such as those from North Korea.

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So, even if Iran's ballistic missile program has not progressed as rapidly as previously predicted, it is still on an upward trajectory (pun intended) and our track record of predicting the outcome of such things has been dirt poor.

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