Available to all: DOD's new domestic cruise missile defense project

We've moved our exclusive story on the Defense Department's new project to develop an Air and Cruise Missile Defense Homeland capability outside the paywall -- free to all readers here.

The United States -- which since the advent of flight more than a century ago has relied on two vast oceans as a buffer against adversaries attacking U.S. citizens and soil with low-flying aircraft and missiles -- this summer began designing a next-generation domestic air defense system to protect cities and critical infrastructure from Russian and Chinese cruise missiles.

This not previously reported development was launched in July when the Air Force began an Air and Cruise Missile Defense of the Homeland Analysis of Alternatives, slated to produce recommendations next spring for investments -- with implications for Army, Navy and Missile Defense Agency spending plans -- in the fiscal year 2026 budget proposal.