Gen. Stephen Whiting revealed that the command has just submitted to the Joint Force its FY27 "integrated priorities list" — an annual compendium of requirements put together by each combatant command to "inform the services and defense agencies of our warfighting needs as they prepare their budget and acquisition plans."
"The best missile strategy is to destroy the missiles prior to launch. A focus on missile defeat could enable distributed non-kinetic systems with larger magazines and the ability to engage missiles before they can deploy complex decoys, countermeasures, maneuvers or multiple reentry vehicles," said Rear Adm. Sean Regan, NORTHCOM's director of operations.
Onshoring and investment in military-specific semiconductors anchor a cornerstone of the defense industrial base.
"We need to recognize that we can no longer operate in the somewhat static 'spy vs spy' conditions of the Cold War and that we are dealing with a technologically advanced and ever-adapting adversary who has both the know-how and funding to continually push us on every front," former Pentagon official Doug Loverro said.
"The future will be a mix of kinetic and non-kinetic. It will be a mix of hard kill and soft kill, because of where the threat is going to. The threat will drive us to do something different," says Vice Adm. Jon Hill, who heads the Missile Defense Agency.