Abandoning 360-degree coverage would make air defenses more vulnerable and undermine their mission.
Press reports and statements from U.S. Army leadership suggest that omnidirectional capability for the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, or LTAMDS, may be slipping away as the threshold requirement it deserves to be.
Air defenders and joint forces under their protection should hope this doesn’t happen.
While unveiling the Army’s six modernization priorities last year, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley declared: “None of this is going to matter if you’re dead. And that’s why you need air defense.”
Without omnidirectional sensing, U.S. air defenses and their defended assets may also end up dead, suppressed by enemy threats they cannot see; that’s why air defenders need 360-degree sensor coverage.