What best defines Air and Missile Defense (AMD)?

• A. Direct (active and passive) defensive actions to destroy, nullify, or reduce effectiveness of hostile air and missile threats against friendly forces and assets.
• B. A set of offensive operations conducted by ground forces to defeat enemy airpower.
• C. A passive doctrine focusing only on camouflage and hardening of assets.
• D. A strategy for air superiority involving satellites and space assets.

Answer: (A)

Protecting forces and assets from air and missile threats by using a layered mix of defenses—both active and passive. Active defenses involve direct actions to destroy, nullify, or degrade incoming threats, such as intercepting missiles or shooting down hostile aircraft with surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft weapons, or other engaging systems. Passive defenses cover measures that reduce a threat’s effectiveness before they reach their target, including dispersion of important assets, hardening of facilities, camouflage, decoys, and robust early warning and command-and-control networks. Together, these elements create a defense in depth that protects personnel, equipment, and operations from air and missile attacks. This is distinct from offensive air operations, which aim to defeat enemy airpower, and from purely passive or space-focused strategies, which do not capture the full defensive breadth of AMD.