Hackett on the Senate’s Review of Missile Defense
October 11, 2005 :: Washington Times :: Analysis
Roughly one year after the first interceptors of the ground-based missile defense system were placed into their silos, the Senate Appropriations Committee has completed an important review of missile defense expenditures and goals, and the appropriations bill has now moved onto the House. James Hackett writes in the Washington Times summarizing the progress made in missile defense over the past several years, and what remains to be done.
Hackett notes in particular, and with just praise, the Senate Committee’s support and additional funding for completing the GMD midcourse interceptor program begun in Alaska and California, their additional funding of the Airborne Laser, and also of the relative cutbacks for the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI), a ground-based boost defense system whose worthy aim to destroy a missile in its boost phase requires that the interceptor be placed quite near the enemy missile’s launch site. The pursuit of faster interceptors is a laudable technological pursuit, as is boost-phase intercept—but land-basing raises too high the standard of being in the right place at the right time for the interceptor to be practical or widely useful. Writes Hackett, “Many think this an infeasible chimera that would waste resources needed to complete and improve more practical defenses.”
Hackett concludes that “the House should accept the Senate’s missile defense changes.” (Article, Link)
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BMD Budget Request Declines
February 4, 2005 :: Bloomberg :: News
Although the President’s requested defense spending will increase by 4% to $419 billion for fiscal year 2006, the budget request for missile defense is being cut, from 9.2 to 7.8 billion. Of that number, 3.3 billion is allocated for deploying the ground-based system in Alaska and Hawaii. The budget will be formally released on February 7.
Missile defense is however reportedly one of the two programs highlighted in the budget summary as “essential” to military transformation. (Article, Link)
» DOD FY 2006 budget request details
» DOD FY 2005 budget briefing
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Gaffney on the Administration’s Kerry-like Defense Cuts
January 11, 2005 :: Washington Times :: News
President of the Center for Security Policy Frank Gaffney writes in today’s Washington Times on the 55 billion dollars in proposed cuts which are said to be planned for the upcoming defense budget. Gaffney aptly notes, with much justification, that lesser cuts would have been expected from a Kerry presidency, but are quite a surprise coming from the Bush administration:
Actually, a President-elect Kerry probably would not have dared suggest the far-reaching cuts Mr. Bush plans. And he surely would faced difficulty getting them enacted, given pervasive concerns about his judgment on national security. Yet, here we have the spectacle of $55 billion in extensive defense reductions being made by the man who beat Mr. Kerry—largely on the basis of precisely those concerns.
Gaffney goes on to observe that John Kerry had particularly promised to slash missile defense funding, and that the proposed cuts to the missile defense budget are probably not all that dissimilar from what a Kerry administration might have implemented.
Nowhere is it likelier that John Kerry would have cut back Pentagon spending than in the portfolio of the Missile Defense Agency. Yet, here too, President Bush is said to be considering $5 billion in reductions over the next five years. These could essentially eliminate the most promising means of performing boost-phase missile intercepts (namely, using an airborne laser and/or from space); preclude building out the initial, very modest deployment of ground-based interceptors; and sharply curtail sea-based anti-missile defenses. So much for the robust, layered missile defense Mr. Bush promised to put in place.
One may, incidentally, find a sampling of Kerry’s promises to cut missile defense on his website, JohnKerry.com. (Article, Link)
» June 3, 2004: Hackett on proposed defense cuts
» Kerry criticizes Rice plan to deliver speech on missile defense on 9-11
» Kerry pledges to reduce missile defense expenditures
» Kerry pledges to delay deployment of missile defenses
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Budget Cuts Document
January 10, 2005 :: News
The Navy Times acquired the text of the recently released Program Budget Decision 753, which recommends cutting the missile defense budget by one billion dollars in the coming fiscal year, and 800 million each subsequent year. Such cuts would have to be approved by Congress, but if implemented they could pose a significant blow to deploying a serious missile defense anytime in the near future. (Article, Link)
» Program Budget Decision 753, concerning BMD budget cuts (.pdf)
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Hackett on Proposed BMD Budget Cuts
January 3, 2005 :: Washington Times :: Analysis
James T. Hackett writes in today’s Washington Times noting that budget cuts should be applied to the area of missile defense only if necessary, and then only very carefully. Hackett’s piece comes a few days after reports that a proposed budget would include 1 billion cut from missile defense in the coming year, and 800 billion in subsequent years. Hackett notes that cuts may be necessary, but warns that “the trick is to cut fat while avoiding high-priority programs.” Specifically, this means cutting the “ill conceived” Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI), which is impractical for its strict need to be in the right place at the right time, namely “very close to hostile missiles on foreign soil.” Cutting this program will free funds for the more pressing deployment already begun, that of the ground based interceptors to be placed in Alaska and Hawaii.
One might add to this that other, still more effective, interceptors should also be pursued, but the KEI should certainly stands to be the first to go. (Article, Link)
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Kyl Says Democrats’ Amendments Would Stifle Missile Defense
April 28, 2004 :: Inside Defense :: News
At a breakfast sponsored by the National Defense University Foundation yesterday, Republican Senator Jon Kyl, of Arizona, warned that Democrats plan to put the brakes on the development of missile defense in upcoming budget battles on the FY-2005 national defense authorization bill and the defense appropriations bill, according to a report in Inside Missile Defense.
Kyl said the Democrats’ opposition to missile defense, grounded in the belief that appropriations should go to either missile defense or counterterrorism - but not both, presents a “false dichotomy.”
“I suspect the Democrats are trying to get to the right of the president for the war on terror, but they will try to take money from missile defense not adequately defended by Republicans or the president,” Kyl remarked. “But you can have both.”
He also noted the importance of a “layered” defense, allowing missiles to be shot down during boost, midcourse, and terminal phases, and a “greater focus” on the role of a space component of missile defense.
Michigan Senate Democrat Carl Levin, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is reported to be leading the opposition to missile defense spending in hopes to derail $500 million for missile interceptors. Citing a General Accouting Office report, Levin said the program suffers from “testing shortfalls,” and alleged violations of acquisition laws. (Link)
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Major MDA Contract for Boost-Phase Interceptor
December 3, 2003 :: San Diego Union Tribune :: News
After an eight month competition with Lockheed Martin, the Missile Defense Agency has awarded an eight-year, 4.5 billion dollar contract to Northrop Grumman to produce an interceptor to destroy ballistic missiles during their boost-phase. This is the MDA’s first “capability-based” contract, and involves a design that would have been banned under the old ABM Treaty.
The contract is to produce a ground-based Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI). Its use of kinetic energy simply means that the interceptor would physically impact the missile: “hit-to-kill” technology. Unlike the Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) being constructed in Alaska which would intercept long-range missiles during their midcourse phase in space, the KEI, while ground-based is designed to intercept missiles in their boost phase, that is, during their ascent. As the boost phase for even a long-range missile is no more than roughly five minutes, the KEI would have to be located near enough the launch site of the enemy missile in order to still reach it during that phase. It also has to accelerate very fast, perhaps as much as 5,000 miles per hour. This particular interceptor design would be compatible of being launched from either land or sea. It would be capable of being loaded onto aircraft and deployed anywhere in the world. Northrop Grumman will likely initially produce five mobile launchers for the KEI.
A layered-defense is ultimately necessary, but interception during the boost-phase has a number of advantages. It is during this phase that a missile is at its most vulnerable: during ascent a missile is moving at a slower speed; the body of the missile is under considerable pressure; its exhaust plumes make it more visible and thus trackable; its fuel tanks, which are still attached, constitute a larger target; no countermeasures or decoys can be deployed, and of course should the interception fail, time remains for a second attempt in the midcourse or terminal phases. (Article, Link)
» DoD Release: Northrop Grumman Boost Phase contract
» More stories on: Budget, Land-Based Systems, Technology, Testing - American
» Missile system details for: Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI)
Congress Approves 9.1 Billion MD Budget
October 2, 2003 :: Arms Control Today :: News
Congress today approved the $9.1 billion missile defense budget request by President Bush. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Budget, Policy
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