I hadn't heard this mentioned, but is it not also true that F-15 and F-22s are easily capable of the altitude and speeds required to get in the air and intercept ICBMs and destroy them with their own AAMs, Sparrows and AMRAAMS, or even the heavy "Pegasus" anti satellite missiles? I think that should be very possible once the missle is in it's downward arc. That kind of missle does travel sub sonic, and a squadron of super sonic fighters firing super sonic AAMs could defintiely shoot down even a handful of ICMS, especially considering from North Korea, any ICMB would come within range of fighters in Alaska on their way towards the Continental U.S.. This is what I am thinking just based on my knowledge of U.S. military equipment. I may be wrong though, so someone please correct me if i am. But I think that would work and surely if I can think of it, it's part of the strategy to protect the U.S. from ICMB attack.
Again, just my opinion, but this is where the F-14 could come in really handy with it's Phoenix missiles and radar system. The Phoenix has a hundred mile range, is super sonic, and nearly fool proof. A flight of four F-14D's with two Phoenix's missiles each, and the rest of the palettes loaded with external fuel tanks, at mach 2+ could get into position pretty quick at over 60,000 feet, and launch one or more Phoenix at an ICBM/s. They wouldn't all miss and in that case the worst case scenario would be that the warheads would deatonate over water, which would sure be preferable than over an American city. Odds are they wouldn't deatonate because of damage from the AAM hit, and if they didn't fall into water too deep to ever recover, the Navy would get them for certain. Any thoughts? I doubt this will happen but it would certainly be a great use for the F-14D Tomcats that have been retired from Naval service. :)
ICBMs. Messed that up three times. :) Typing too fast and not looking what I'm typing. :) Sorry.
I'm no expert, but from what I've read, cold war era ICBM's from the former Soviet Union had an estimated travel time of 20 minutes to reach the Continental (northern) United States. If a U.S. interceptor did try to shoot down the aircraft, I'm guessing that it would have to be a far shot so as not to get shot down themselves and the window of oppurtunity would be very short (seconds) because the missile would be accelerating up to speeds in excess of Mach 20.
If an F-14 Launched a Phoenix after it aquired the missile and locked (say from 10 miles), I think the ICBM would outrun it!