Digital Media Center
Bryant-Denny Stadium, Gate 61
920 Paul Bryant Drive
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0370
(800) 654-4262

© 2024 Alabama Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Is Missile Defense Our Best Defense?

People watch a ground-based interceptor missile take off at Vandenberg Air Force base in California on May 30, 2017.
GENE BLEVINS/AFP/Getty Images
People watch a ground-based interceptor missile take off at Vandenberg Air Force base in California on May 30, 2017.

This week, the Pentagon successfully tested and shot down an intercontinental ballistic missile target. The move is widely seen as a test of the Pentagon’s ability to counter a North Korean missile launch.

But how exactly does the US’s missile defense system work? And can we trust it when we need it the most? When lives are on the line?

GUESTS

David Wright, Physicist and co-director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists

Steven Pifer, Director of the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative at the Brookings Institution; former US ambassador to Ukraine

Thomas Karako, Director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies

Maj. Gen. Francis Mahon (ret.), Former Commanding General in the Army Air and Missile Defense Command; former Director of Test in the Missile Defense Agency

For more, visit http://the1a.org.

© 2017 WAMU 88.5 – American University Radio.

Copyright 2017 WAMU 88.5

News from Alabama Public Radio is a public service in association with the University of Alabama. We depend on your help to keep our programming on the air and online. Please consider supporting the news you rely on with a donation today. Every contribution, no matter the size, propels our vital coverage. Thank you.