WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th February, 2021) The lowest cost option for an integrated US national defense against cruise missiles would cost between $75 billion and $180 billion, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said in a report.
"Modified versions of systems that the military uses today could be purchased for homeland cruise missile defense," the report said on Tuesday. "CBO estimates that the lowest-cost 'architectures' it examined - integrated systems that comprise airborne or space-based radars, surface-to-air missiles, and fighter aircraft - would cost roughly $75 billion to $180 billion to acquire and operate for 20 years.
The report then presents a skeptical analysis of whether such a defense would be needed because US adversaries now have plenty of less expensive and potentially more damaging options than cruise missiles.
Those options include attacks with truck bombs, a technique used by terrorists, or by ballistic missiles from hostile nations that plummet to Earth from outer space in contrast to ground hugging cruise missiles, the report said.
