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Theater Missile Threats and Defensive Options in the 1990s

However qualified, the success of the Patriot antimissile system in the 1991 Persian Gulf war placed the need for improved theater missile defenses high on the procurement agendas of the United States and its major allies. The requirement for more effective follow-ons to existing Patriot systems, moreover, will be rendered all the more compelling by expected advances in the quality and quantity of theater missile forces fielded by regional powers—such as Syria, Iran, India, and North Korea—in the 1990s and beyond. Unlike the Iraqi Scuds fired in Desert Storm, next-generation theater missiles—armed with improved guidance and more lethal warheads—will present a credible threat to vital military assets as well as population centers. Hence new technologies for active missile defense—including more advanced interceptors capable of direct hits at higher altitudes—will become increasingly important to the effective protection of U.S. allies and forward-deployed forces.