Avoiding A Second Pearl Harbor: Why America Must Boost Hawaii’s Defenses (From The National Interest)

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s efforts to develop long-range ballistic missiles (ICBM) and nuclear warheads are accelerating. The Director of National Intelligence believes that 2017 will be the year that North Korea tests an ICBM, a weapon with sufficient range to deliver a nuclear weapon to Hawaii, Alaska and the continental United States. The current homeland missile defense architecture is probably sufficient to defend Alaska and the lower 48 states from North Korean ICBMs. Compared to the other 49 states, Hawaii is under-defended. Fortunately, there is a relatively quick and cheap solution to this problem. I have written about the solution for The National Interest here.