ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses missile defence trends in the context of the USA, India and the Middle East. It also discusses the impact of missile defence on space security. There are a number of approaches in dealing with missile proliferation and existing missiles, such as developing missile defences, imposing missile technology control regimes, and space launch technology sharing. In a series of interviews to a leading magazine in 2008, Defence Research and Development Organization scientist V. K. Saraswat characterized India's anti-ballistic missile programme as having two layers with interceptors in the exo-atmospheric and endo-atmospheric regions respectively. Worldwide developments in the realm of missile defence clearly indicate that hit-to-kill technology is spreading. Regardless of whether the perceived missile threat is nuclear or not, missile defences seem to be the technology of choice in many countries. Russia contested that the interceptors could thwart Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles on their way to the USA, consequently altering the nuclear balance.
