U.S. Army has Stalled Plans for Testing and Deploying JLENS
Chet Nagle, Member of the Committee on the Present Danger, Former Defense Department official and Author of Iran Covenant
As Congress and the White House struggled to cut a deal to avoid sequestration, North Korea continued to threaten America and our allies in South Korea. While the Iranian threat to American troops, assets and allies in the Persian Gulf region steadily escalates, the U.S. Navy has announced it can’t afford to send a second aircraft carrier battle group to the region.
Chet Nagle, member of the Committee on the Present Danger and graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, has identified a way for the United States to achieve strategic defense goals through JLENS, an airborne surveillance system that detects tracks and destroys cruise missiles, enemy aircrafts, tanks, and patrol boats like those Iran threatens to unleash against American naval forces in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. JLENS is a working, proven system ready to be added to the U.S. military arsenal.
The problem is the U.S. Army has stalled plans for testing and deploying the system. The question still stands: will JLENS be a casualty in Washington’s ongoing effort to prioritize defense spending cuts, or will the Army deliver our military a capability it needs?