HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — Rapid technological change is opening major new advantages but also creating long-term planning hurdles for the most sophisticated U.S. military units that are trying to stay ahead of fast-evolving missile and asymmetric threats from such adversaries as Iran, Russia, China and North Korea.
That was a key message that U.S. Army Lt. Gen. John L. Rafferty, the head of Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC), offered Wednesday in an exclusive interview with Threat Status at The Washington Times during the annual Space and Missile Defense Symposium playing out here this week.
“It’s a really challenging period,” said Lt. Gen. Rafferty, who in April assumed control of the SMDC, based on the vast Redstone Arsenal complex in Huntsville. “You can’t keep your eyes on the horizon because the pace of innovation is so fast. So you really have to look for the horizon on tomorrow and the next day.”
His comments come at a moment when the U.S. Army is developing — in close coordination with private defense industry partners — a new artificial intelligence-infused digital communications system, all while the Trump administration pushes for a futuristic transformation of missile defense technology through its space-based “Golden Dome for America” project.
Lt. Gen. Rafferty said current conflicts around the world have become key learning points for why U.S. forces must embrace technological innovation. He pointed to Russia’s assault on Ukraine, calling the close relationship between the military industry in Ukraine and front-line troops there “inspiring.”
“The Ukrainians have really proven that to us in their ongoing struggle with the Russians, and we’re seeing it play out in real time for our own forces during the conflict in the Middle East with Iran,” Lt. Gen. Rafferty said.
“You can’t overstate the fact that innovation is now part of warfighting,” he said. “It’s not something we do off on the side. It’s not something we do solely with an eye five years or ten years from now. It’s got to be with an eye on what’s next week, what’s next month, what’s next year.”
The Ukraine and Iran wars have been a recurrent reference point for U.S. military leaders gathered in Huntsville this week, with several highlighting Russian and Iranian missile capabilities — as well as the staying power of their munitions stockpile — as central reasons for why the U.S. should be pushing for its own futuristic missile defense transformation and revitalization.
Lt. Gen. Rafferty’s comments on Wednesday dovetailed with remarks made a day earlier in a speech here by U.S. Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein, the director of the Golden Dome project.
“What’s the threat? We’re seeing it every single day on our televisions with what’s going on in the conflict with Iran and in Ukraine,” said Gen. Guetlein. “Our adversaries have been building conventional weapons and production lines capable of producing mass amounts of conventional weapons that are proving effective.”
He added that the “oceans that we once relied on to protect us are no longer our sanctuary.”
The comment struck a sobering note at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium, where behind-the-scenes discussion has been prevalent among weapons industry insiders over the impact being had by the Iran and Ukraine wars on America’s own missile defense munitions.
A Center for Strategic & International Studies analysis last month stated that U.S. Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile interceptor stockpiles have dropped by two-thirds and by half, respectively, since the start of the Iran conflict in February.
Recent weeks have seen the Pentagon announce billions in contracts to major U.S. defense companies to replenish and expand the stockpiles.
There is concern that the cost of such replenishment could detract from funding for fast-evolving newer missile defense technologies, a development that could be seized upon by China and Russia, both of which are seen to be leveraging their own triads of government, academia and industry to invest in space-based weapons, cheaper missiles and innovative drones.
“We’ve got to be able to innovate in real time,” Lt. Gen. Rafferty told The Times. “That takes a real shift in how we interact with our science and technology community and our industry partners. We really have to look at them as teammates. We have got to be on the same team. We can’t be partners that are strictly transactional.”
He also warned of the risk of complacency.
“Our adversaries started some time ago going to school against us, and what would be their asymmetric advantage?” Lt. Gen. Rafferty said. “By investing heavily in long-range rockets and missiles and sophisticated air defenses, they challenge our access to the area and deny us the ability to maneuver.”
“Overcoming that is incredibly important,” he said.
Existing missile defense systems under Lt. Gen. Rafferty’s command are at the center of a budget debate in Washington. Several large missile-related production orders the Pentagon plans to place for critical munitions are currently sitting in the as-yet-unpassed portion of the 2027 Congressional budget.
Some 86% of the Trump administration’s requests for funds are still awaiting reconciliation, according to an exclusive data analysis created for Threat Status by Obviant, a Virginia-based artificial intelligence data analytics firm.
A significant portion of the funding is slated to be spent on projects here in Huntsville, long nicknamed “Rocket City” for its role in space exploration and missile development. In addition to being home to Redstone Arsenal, a sprawling 38,000-acre federal complex, the city is home to operations of a slew of Pentagon contractors in the missile defense development sector.
“There’s something magic here about the location of Redstone Arsenal here in the Huntsville, Madison, North Alabama region,” Lt. Gen. Rafferty said. “We have this incredible mix of military, government and civilian defense industry that has attracted, I think, the best minds in the business, whether it’s science and technology or prototyping or concepts development of how we’re going to fight in the future.”
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