With the drawdown in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States should re-evaluate its strategy for operating in the Persian Gulf, asserts a new Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments report. The proliferation of Iran’s anti-access and area-denial capabilities threatens long-held assumptions that the United States will continue to “enjoy unfettered access to close-in bases, US battle networks would remain intact and secure, and neither the Soviet Union nor a regional power would pose a serious threat to air or sea lines of communications,” reads Outside-In: Operating from Range to Defeat Iran’s Anti-Access and Area-Denial Threat, which CSBA released on Tuesday. CSBA senior fellow Mark Gunzinger argues in the report that the United States should develop a new Persian Gulf operational concept. It should assume “that close-in basing may not be available, all operating domains will be contested, and Iran may threaten terror and [weapons of mass destruction] attacks, including the use of nuclear weapons, to deter or prevent a successful US military intervention in the Persian Gulf,” he wrote.
Advancements in commercial space technology could make President Donald Trump’s proposed “Golden Dome” missile defense network far more likely to succeed than the failed “Star Wars” strategic umbrella initiative of the 1980s, U.S. Space Command’s top general said May 22....