Aegis

Jack O'Doherty - PhD Student

This photograph is of the USS Donald Cook (DDG-75), a US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, docked in Cobh, County Cork, Ireland.

My PhD thesis concerns the historical and ongoing viability of American nuclear counterforce – that is, the efficacy of a preemptive/preventive disarming first strike against an adversary’s nuclear arsenal. This image is entitled Aegis due to the ship’s ‘Aegis’ ballistic missile defense (BMD) system.

As directed-energy weapons such as chemical lasers and particle beam weapons highlight the future of missile defense, hypersonic glide vehicles and stealthy cruise missiles re-assert the viability of disarming counterforce strikes.