The Best Weapon and the Authority to Fire

The Best Weapon and the Authority to Fire examines a critical challenge created by increasingly integrated air and missile defense systems: the weapon best suited technically to defeat a threat may not be the weapon authorized to engage it. Using publicly available information about the U.S. Army’s Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS), integrated air and missile defense, coalition interoperability, and Golden Dome for America, the paper explores how dynamic sensor-to-shooter combinations can complicate operational authority. It argues that future defense architectures must preserve the ability to rapidly optimize sensors and effectors while ensuring that technical availability never becomes a substitute for valid authorization.