Pentagon: Missile advances threaten to leave West defenseless

The West is under threat from “dramatic” advances in missile technology by hostile powers, allowing them to overcome defence systems even without the use of nuclear warheads, the Pentagon has cautioned.

The warning came as the Republican chairman of the House armed services committee proposed the largest defence budget in history, including hundreds of millions of dollars to reverse cuts to missile defence.

The report by the defence intelligence agencies cited a “dramatic increase” in the capabilities and accuracy of missiles produced in countries ranging from North Korea and Iran to Russia and China, posing a threat even in conventional warfare. States were racing to develop ballistic and cruise missile systems as “cost-effective weapons and symbols of national power,” the report, obtained by Bloomberg before its official release, said…

Mac Thornberry, the armed services committee chairman, said he was “astonished” by a $340 million cut to missile defence programmes in the Trump administration’s proposed defence budget and demanded that the funding be restored.