Foreign Media: Ballistic Missiles are Reshaping the Global Battlefield

Reference News Network reported on August 3 An article titled "The New Era of Missiles Reshapes the Global Battlefield" was published on Bloomberg News' website on July 29, authored by Gray Doyle. The article is summarized as follows:

The world is on the brink of a "third missile age." With conventional ballistic weapons being widely deployed and changing the battlefield dynamics in Iran and Ukraine, these types of weapons are spreading at an unprecedented rate.

In these two wars, thousands of air-launched and ground-based ballistic missiles have been put to use. Since the outbreak of the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict at the end of February, Iran alone has launched approximately 2,000 missiles.

Iran's domestically produced ballistic missiles have changed the course of this conflict. Five months into the war, Iran's missiles continue to strike targets around the Gulf region, including an attack on July 17 that resulted in the deaths of U.S. personnel, followed by a wave of strikes against U.S. forces in the region throughout the night.

Meanwhile, Russia's use of missiles in its military operations against Ukraine has damaged critical infrastructure and led to shortages of Lockheed Martin's "Patriot" PAC-3 interceptors—the only equipment Ukraine has that can effectively counter Russian missile attacks.

In these two wars, external attention has largely focused on drones and lower-cost, slower-striking weapons. However, these conflicts also demonstrate that the power of ballistic missiles (especially those with ranges of 1,000 kilometers or more) means that even countries with limitations in other military aspects can pose risks to more powerful adversaries.

Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, stated: "More countries can now impose significant military and economic costs at long distances, which gives more countries new leverage for deterrence while forcing the U.S. to rethink various issues from troop deployment to logistics."

Missiles first emerged in the 1940s. Subsequently, during the Cold War, missile arsenals expanded rapidly, with nearly all ballistic missiles capable of being equipped with nuclear warheads.

Jeffrey Lewis, a senior research scholar at Stanford University, stated: "Missiles are a conventional component of any modern arsenal. Their costs have decreased, and their accuracy has improved to the point where I believe efforts to curb missile proliferation are now largely meaningless."

Today, from Europe to Asia, countries that were once uninterested in such weapons are racing to catch up to avoid falling behind.

In Asia, South Korea is set to showcase its "Hyunmoo-5" ballistic missile by the end of 2024, with a size that suggests a range of thousands of kilometers. Japan is developing the "Type 25" series of ballistic missiles, which can carry hypersonic glide vehicles designed to direct warheads toward targets in ways that are difficult for enemies to intercept.

Six European countries launched a long-range strike program at the end of last year—the European Long-Range Strike Initiative (ELSA). The UK, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Italy, and France have committed to developing a ballistic missile with a range of at least 2,000 kilometers by 2030. NATO has pledged $50 billion for the research and development of long-range strike weapons.

In July of this year, Janis Shchtylman, co-founder and chief engineer of the Ukrainian defense company "Rant," stated that Ukraine's domestically produced ballistic missiles would soon begin mass production.

The UK has signed contracts with several defense companies to develop the country's first ballistic missile in over half a century to enhance its arsenal, aiming to deliver the weapon to Ukraine by 2027.

William Alberque, a researcher at the U.S. Pacific Forum and a former participant in nuclear weapons negotiations, stated that as many militaries become overly reliant on drone warfare, combining drones with ballistic missiles could create a dangerous blind spot.

He said: "All these countries are also learning lessons from missile defense, namely that adversaries will launch thousands of cheap drones and missiles at you, trying to overwhelm your missile defense systems, while also using higher-quality, faster, and more stealthy missiles, combined with ballistic missiles to destroy remaining targets. This offensive and defensive situation is far more complex than ever before."

Lockheed Martin's Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) has a range of only a few hundred kilometers but has been used in the Iran conflict. The U.S. "Dark Eagle" hypersonic strike weapon, also a Lockheed Martin product, has a range of thousands of kilometers.

The U.S. possesses a much larger stockpile of long-range cruise missiles, including Raytheon's "Tomahawk" missiles and Lockheed Martin's extended-range Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile.

Becca Wasser, head of the defense sector at Bloomberg's economics department, stated: "This new era does not really create new problems. It simply makes existing problems more complicated, such as the cost of defense." (Translated by Hu Lin)