Timely completion of this program remains essential to our near-term strategy. Also important, this plan lays the foundation for the advanced computing architecture needed for the Navy Theater Wide, upper-tier ballistic missile defense system. Ballistic Missile Defense Deploying ballistic missile defenses at sea provides a dramatic deterrent and war-winning capability. Because we can position our ships near anticipated launch points, the same radar capability and theater ballistic missile interceptor performance that provide tens of thousands of square kilometers of terminal defense from shore-based TBMD forces now will provide hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of defended area from ships at sea. Forward-deployed Navy TBMD forces, therefore, offer substantial political and military leverage.
Surface combatants can arrive on the scene early and immediately begin to influence events.
They are combat ready upon arrival and can sustain themselves for weeks or months, independent of host-nation support. In support of forcible entry and sustained ground combat operations, Navy TBMD forces provide the earliest capability, at a time when missile attack intensity is most likely to be the heaviest, and when other systems still are en route or are present in-theater only in small number. The proven ability to surge additional surface combatants rapidly to augment forward deployed forces already on scene will allow the same swift buildup of Navy TBMD force protection. With the maturation of the network-centric concept, TBMD ships will be capable of accepting and using cueing data from a variety of sources. The number of Navy Area-capable assets deployed initially will determine the amount of coverage provided.