Some would argue that this article is a statement of the obvious. Unfortunately, almost none of the people who would say that are in the US Senate, where the buffoons instead clamor for More War!
An interesting observation, though, is:
“The U.S. production rate of SM-3 interceptor missiles, for example, is twelve per year. That is not a misprint. It’s barely enough to guard one aircraft carrier, let alone a country, a continent or an alliance system.”
Which brings us back to the realities of mass production. If an entity produces only 12 of anything in a year, be it missiles or hammers or toilet seats, those 12 are going to be very expensive almost hand-crafted items. The practical choices are to produce very large numbers of missiles to bring down the per unit cost … or to build good friendly relations with other countries.