Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 08/2014

Universal Data Fusion: Enabling Cost-effective US/Russia/NATO Cooperative Missile Defense

Patrick O'Reilly

September 2013

Atlantic Council

Abstract

As the proliferation of more capable missiles that threaten regional populations, governments, and commerce continues over the twenty-first century, so does the need to counter and disincentivize this proliferation with effective and affordable regional missile defenses. Missile defense systems are among the most expensive military capabilities, but author Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, USA (Ret.), a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, argues that their costs can be dramatically reduced, their performance improved, and geopolitical pressure increased if the United States, Russia, and NATO deployed systems cooperatively.