A key U.S. lawmaker yesterday urged the Obama administration to reduce the emphasis in the next federal budget on ambitious systems intended to destroy long-range enemy missiles, The Hill reported (see GSN, Nov. 3, 2008).
"The threat from short- and medium-range missiles represents the overwhelming ballistic missile threat to the United States' interests, its deployed forces and friends and allies around the world," Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "Given the need to fund other high priority defense programs, reductions to the missile defense programs may be required."
"I fully agree with President [Barack] Obama's position that we should only deploy missile defenses that have been sufficiently tested and proven to work," wrote Tauscher, who chairs the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee. Some experimental long-range missile defense systems have encountered problems during development and testing.
"Theater missile defense systems," including the Patriot Advanced Capability 3, Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense and Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense systems, "meet the president's criteria," she said.
Doubling the military's supply of THAAD and Standard Missile 3 interceptors should be the administration's "highest priority within the missile defense budget," she wrote, noting that the Defense Department's Joint Staff has called for additional interceptors to meet existing combat needs.
The Strategic Forces Subcommittee has pursued funding boosts over the past few years for such work, according to The Hill. The panel is set to consider future missile defense test issues during a hearing tomorrow (Roxana Tiron, The Hill, Feb. 23).