ST. LOUIS, MO – October 7, 2026 (STL.News) A former commander responsible for defending North America is warning that the United States can no longer assume a major war will remain safely overseas — a changing security reality with direct implications for St. Louis and Missouri.
Retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, former commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, delivered that message Tuesday during the inaugural “Defending the Homeland” Crossroads Confluence at Washington University in St. Louis.
VanHerck’s warning does not mean an attack on St. Louis is imminent, nor is there publicly disclosed intelligence indicating Missouri is about to be attacked.
His argument is broader and potentially more consequential: The oceans and friendly neighboring countries that historically provided the continental United States with extraordinary geographic protection are no longer sufficient by themselves to insulate Americans from a major conflict.
Cyberattacks, attacks on critical infrastructure, long-range missiles, operations against space systems, and increasingly capable drones give potential adversaries ways to disrupt the United States without launching a traditional invasion.
For St. Louis, that is more than an abstract national-security discussion.
Missouri contains some of the military, intelligence, and industrial capabilities the United States would depend upon during a major conflict, including the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber force at Whiteman Air Force Base, Boeing defense manufacturing in the St. Louis region, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s new north St. Louis campus, Fort Leonard Wood and Missouri National Guard forces.
The state also contains civilian transportation, communications and energy infrastructure upon which military operations depend.
That combination helps explain why a discussion about defending the American homeland came to St. Louis.
VanHerck brings homeland warning to St. Louis
VanHerck served as commander of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command from August 2020 until February 2024.
The commands have related but distinct responsibilities.
NORAD is the binational United States-Canadian command responsible for aerospace warning, aerospace control and maritime warning for North America. U.S. Northern Command is responsible for defending the United States homeland within its assigned area and providing defense support to civil authorities when directed.
For nearly four years, VanHerck sat at the center of the military structure designed to detect and respond to threats approaching North America.
The Oct. 6 Washington University event was intended to move that national discussion closer to Missouri.
Organizers said VanHerck would help frame what is approaching the homeland, how those threats can be detected and understood, and whether the United States is adequately prepared to respond.
The program also included retired Gen. Frank J. Grass, former chief of the National Guard Bureau, and Maj. Gen. Charles D. Hausman, adjutant general of Missouri.
Organizers specifically pointed to Missouri’s military installations, National Guard forces, defense manufacturers, infrastructure, universities and intelligence capabilities as reasons the state has an important role in homeland defense.
The systems are interconnected.
So are their vulnerabilities.
The homeland may no longer be a sanctuary
VanHerck’s warnings in St. Louis are consistent with concerns he repeatedly raised while commanding NORAD and NORTHCOM.
The basic strategic problem is straightforward.
The United States traditionally has been able to project enormous military power overseas while maintaining a comparatively secure homeland.
Potential adversaries increasingly have capabilities designed to challenge that advantage.
VanHerck told Congress that Russia and China were developing or fielding capabilities capable of threatening the United States from greater distances and across multiple domains.
Those threats are not limited to nuclear weapons.
They include conventional cruise missiles, hypersonic weapons, cyber operations, and capabilities directed against space systems.
VanHerck also emphasized that homeland defense is directly connected to America’s ability to project military power overseas.
An adversary does not necessarily have to defeat American forces after they arrive on a foreign battlefield if it can interfere with the systems required to move, supply and support those forces before they leave North America.
Transportation networks, communications systems, electric power and the defense industrial base therefore become part of the national-defense equation.
During congressional testimony, VanHerck identified continuity of government, nuclear capabilities, command and control, the ability to project power forward, and the defense industrial base as assets to consider when determining what the United States needs to protect against long-range conventional attack.
A gas pump can illustrate the problem
One of VanHerck’s most effective ways of explaining the changing threat has been to connect national security with ordinary activities Americans rarely associate with warfare.
Space capabilities, for example, are woven deeply into civilian life.
Satellite systems support communications and positioning, navigation, and timing services used throughout the economy.
Those capabilities can affect activities as routine as using a gas pump, accessing an ATM, or checking weather information.
They are also essential to military operations.
That overlap demonstrates why modern homeland defense extends well beyond protecting military bases.
A disruption affecting communications, satellites, electrical systems, or other critical infrastructure could affect civilians and military operations at the same time.
Modern warfare increasingly involves systems that Americans use every day.
Civilian infrastructure is a defense issue
VanHerck made that point explicitly while commanding NORTHCOM.
In August 2023, U.S. Northern Command and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency brought federal, state, and industry officials together to discuss resilience against cyber or physical attacks on America’s critical energy infrastructure.
VanHerck said resilience was an important component of deterrence and homeland defense.
He also emphasized that most American critical infrastructure does not belong to the Defense Department or other federal agencies.
State and local governments and private businesses control much of it.
That creates an unavoidable dependency.
A military installation can be heavily guarded while still depending on electricity generated outside its gates.
Military equipment can be ready for deployment while still relying on civilian roads, railroads, ports, and other transportation systems.
Communications can depend upon commercial networks.
The ability to fight overseas consequently depends, in part, on the resilience of civilian America at home.
That principle has obvious relevance to Missouri.
Drones expose a different vulnerability
Small unmanned aircraft demonstrate the problem on an entirely different scale.
In December 2023, unidentified drones repeatedly appeared around Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, one of the country’s most sensitive military installations and home to F-22 Raptor fighters.
VanHerck has since discussed the difficulty NORAD and other authorities faced in detecting, identifying, and responding to those aircraft.
Traditional homeland-defense radar systems were built primarily around much larger threats.
Small drones flying low and slowly create a different detection problem.
Responding to them also becomes complicated inside the United States.
Military commanders cannot necessarily treat an unidentified drone flying near an American installation the same way forces would treat a hostile aircraft over a foreign battlefield.
Authorities must consider jurisdiction, domestic law, civilian aviation, and the possibility that destroying an aircraft could create danger on the ground.
VanHerck has used those challenges to attack the broader assumption of “fortress America” — the idea that the United States is inherently protected because it has friendly neighbors and oceans on either side.
Modern technology has weakened that assumption.
Whiteman puts Missouri on the strategic map
Missouri’s connection to national defense is clearest at Whiteman Air Force Base.
Whiteman is home to the 509th Bomb Wing and the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber mission.
According to current Air Force information, the 509th Operations Group, the flying component of the 509th Bomb Wing, operates all 20 B-2 Spirit stealth bombers in the U.S. Air Force inventory.
The aircraft support conventional and nuclear missions.
The Missouri Air National Guard’s 131st Bomb Wing also operates in association with the B-2 mission at Whiteman.
The B-2’s presence connects Missouri directly to America’s long-range strike and strategic deterrence capabilities.
That does not mean Whiteman or Missouri is presently under attack.
It does mean Missouri contains military capabilities that would matter enormously during a major-power conflict.
Boeing connects St. Louis to combat aviation
St. Louis also has a major role in the American defense industrial base.
Boeing maintains significant defense operations in the region, including production associated with tactical military aircraft.
On Sept. 29, Boeing announced a $2.38 billion contract for 22 additional F-15EX Eagle II fighters for the U.S. Air Force.
The award brought the total number of F-15EX aircraft under contract to the Air Force to 120.
Boeing said it was working to increase F-15EX production to two aircraft per month.
The company’s announcement featured one of the aircraft on its St. Louis flight ramp.
That manufacturing capability matters for more than the St. Louis economy.
In a prolonged conflict, America’s ability to produce, maintain and replace weapons becomes part of its ability to continue fighting.
The defense industrial base is therefore itself an element of national security.
NGA expands St. Louis’ intelligence role
Another major national-security institution now has an expanded presence in north St. Louis.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency formally opened its new St. Louis campus at Jefferson and Cass avenues on Sept. 26, 2025.
NGA Director Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth described the facility as an investment in national security, with a workforce that will continue delivering geospatial intelligence supporting the nation and U.S. warfighters.
The campus anchors a growing geospatial technology and intelligence ecosystem in north St. Louis.
Geospatial intelligence combines imagery and geographic information to understand activities, locations, and events worldwide.
It supports military operations, intelligence analysis, and national-security decision-making.
NGA’s presence means St. Louis is not merely a city containing defense contractors.
It is also an important American intelligence center.
Russia and China changed the threat
VanHerck’s warnings have repeatedly focused on Russia and China’s growing capabilities.
Russia possesses nuclear forces and long-range conventional weapons capable of threatening North America.
China has rapidly expanded its military capabilities, including nuclear forces, cyber capabilities, space systems and increasingly sophisticated long-range weapons.
VanHerck told lawmakers that competitors were pursuing capabilities that could threaten the homeland from multiple directions and across several domains.
The strategic concern is not limited to whether an adversary could physically destroy an American target.
An adversary could also attempt to interfere with decision-making, disrupt infrastructure, or delay America’s ability to move forces overseas.
That distinction is important.
There is no publicly disclosed evidence reviewed by STL.News showing that Russia, China, or another foreign government is preparing an attack against St. Louis.
Military capability is not the same thing as intent.
But those capabilities have forced defense planners to reconsider what protecting the homeland means during a major conflict.
Missouri’s civilian infrastructure also matters
Military installations and defense companies represent only part of Missouri’s strategic importance.
The state sits near the geographical center of the United States and contains major interstate highways, rail corridors, and river transportation systems.
Those networks serve ordinary commerce every day.
They can also support military logistics.
Energy infrastructure serves homes and businesses but also supports installations and defense manufacturing.
Communications networks serve civilians while simultaneously supporting government and military activity.
That interconnectedness creates efficiency during peacetime.
During a crisis, it can create vulnerabilities.
A future enemy would not necessarily need to destroy a bomber or fighter aircraft to interfere with military operations.
Disrupting the infrastructure supporting those aircraft could also produce military consequences.
That is the larger point behind VanHerck’s homeland-defense warnings.
Why this conversation came to St. Louis
The organizers of Tuesday’s Washington University event explicitly connected those national-security questions to Missouri.
They highlighted NGA, Boeing combat-aircraft production, Whiteman Air Force Base, Fort Leonard Wood, the Missouri National Guard, universities, manufacturers and infrastructure operators.
Missouri possesses capabilities that contribute to America’s national defense.
Those capabilities also create responsibilities to protect the systems that connect them.
That makes St. Louis an appropriate place to discuss a concept that would have sounded unusual to many Americans only a generation ago: A major overseas war could have direct consequences in the middle of the United States.
Those consequences would not necessarily look like the wars Americans have watched overseas.
They could involve cyber disruptions.
They could involve attacks against space or communications systems.
They could involve attempts to disrupt infrastructure.
At the most serious end of the spectrum, potential adversaries possess long-range weapons capable of reaching North America.
And at the opposite end, relatively inexpensive drones have already demonstrated that they can create significant security problems around sensitive U.S. military facilities.
War reaching St. Louis does not necessarily mean bombs
That distinction is essential.
Saying a future war could “reach St. Louis” does not mean enemy missiles are expected to strike downtown.
It means the boundary separating a foreign battlefield from the American homeland has become increasingly blurred.
An American living in St. Louis could potentially experience consequences from a future major-power conflict without ever seeing an enemy soldier.
A cyberattack could disrupt a system.
A communications failure could affect businesses and government.
A disruption involving satellites could affect services Americans use every day.
An attack elsewhere against energy or transportation infrastructure could create cascading effects hundreds of miles away.
And military and intelligence facilities in Missouri could be operating at an intensified wartime tempo even if no physical attack occurred within the state.
Those possibilities are precisely why homeland resilience has become a larger part of American defense planning.
Geography alone can no longer protect St. Louis
St. Louis remains far from America’s international borders and coastlines.
That geography still provides advantages.
But it no longer provides the degree of isolation Americans once associated with living in the middle of the country.
Cyber operations can cross continents almost instantaneously.
Satellites connect military and civilian systems worldwide.
Long-range weapons increasingly challenge traditional approaches to homeland defense.
Small drones can present difficult security problems around installations worth billions of dollars.
And America’s ability to project military power overseas depends upon an enormous network of civilian infrastructure at home.
For Missouri, those issues are particularly relevant.
The state hosts all 20 Air Force B-2 stealth bombers at Whiteman, significant defense manufacturing in St. Louis, the NGA’s new St. Louis campus, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri National Guard forces, and transportation and infrastructure systems connecting those missions to the rest of the country.
VanHerck’s warning is therefore not that an attack on St. Louis is imminent.
It is that Americans can no longer safely assume that the homeland will remain untouched simply because a war begins thousands of miles away.
For St. Louis, sitting near the center of the United States is no longer the same thing as sitting beyond the reach of modern warfare.
Editor’s note: No publicly disclosed information reviewed by STL.News indicates an imminent attack against St. Louis or Missouri. This report concerns Gen. Glen D. VanHerck’s warnings about evolving homeland threats, documented capabilities of potential U.S. adversaries, and Missouri’s established role in U.S. defense, intelligence, and military infrastructure.
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