Vista Intercept 22

Ballistic missile defense is a critical mission for defending North America. Vista Intercept 22 provided a forum for participants to evaluate NORAD’s threat warning and assessment capabilities and U.S. Northern Command’s ballistic missile defense, integrated deterrence and additional capabilities required to defeat complex threats.

Changes in Tech, Strategy Drive Missile Defense

The lead ground-based interceptor is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., March 25, 2019, in the first salvo engagement test of a threat-representative intercontinental ballistic missile target. The two ground-based interceptors successfully intercepted a target launched from the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

130516-D-ZZ999-005

A Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block 1B interceptor missile is launched from the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70) during a Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy test in the mid-Pacific, May 16, 2013. The SM-3 Block 1B successfully intercepted a target missile that had been launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands in Kauai, Hawaii. Lake Erie detected and tracked the target with its onboard AN/SPY-1 radar. The event was the third consecutive successful intercept test of the SM-3 Block IB missile. (U.S. Navy photo/Released)

Leaders discuss ballistic missile defense at Vista Intercept 22

Published Oct. 18, 2021
By U.S. Northern Command Public Affairs

PETERSON SPACE FORCE BASE, Colo. --

Leaders and experts from North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), U.S. Northern Command, other combatant commands, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and Department of Defense policy makers met during Vista Intercept 22 to discuss ballistic missile defense and integration of other capabilities at Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado, Oct. 14-15.

"The threat to North America continues to grow as technology advances and our competitors and potential adversaries become more bold,” said Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, commander of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command. “Our successful defense against the ballistic missile threat requires continuous adaptation and innovation to remain capable of deterring and defeating potential missile threats.”

NORAD and U.S. Northern Command require the development and fielding of advanced sensors capable of tracking potential missile threats and providing improved discrimination capability to warfighters and assessors.

“Homeland defense is a complex and technically challenging endeavor, and NORAD and U.S. Northern Command are dedicated to detecting, deterring, denying and if required, defeating threats to the Homeland,” VanHerck said.