Mattis and his South Korean counterpart discussed a timetable for deploying the missile defense system Theater High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAAD).
The director Philip Kaufman ("The Right Stuff") and others came to Ms. Monga's defense as theater employees quit and small distributors withdrew their offerings in protest.
If this book succeeds in any measure as a defense of theater, it will also have succeeded at something much larger.
Among conservatives, who have long supported expansive national missile defenses, enthusiasm for theater defenses runs high.
In December, "The Unknown Known," an Errol Morris documentary about the man who was the youngest and oldest secretary of defense, hits theaters.
In any case, the administration has no plans to convert theater defenses into national defenses, the official said.
By far the most important element needed to turn those theater defenses into potential national defenses are long-range sensors, said Dr. David Wright, a senior staff scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists and a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"Not just for national missile defense, but also theater missile defense".
The Arrow is what military experts call a theater defense system, meaning it is designed to intercept medium- and short-range missiles, not ocean-spanning intercontinental missiles.
The panel also recommended spending $2.8 billion over six years to expand the Navy's theater defense system, based on Aegis-equipped warships.
Marshal Sergeyev did not say, however, whether the theater defense would be used to blow up third world missiles on their way up or to intercept warheads on their way down.
