U.S. Missile Defense Budget Reconfigured

Congress has reallocated $150 million in the Missile Defense Agency’s budget to allow for installation of additional ground-based interceptors at Fort Greely in Alaska, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 3).

The agency last year focused on providing interceptors for testing rather than installation at Fort Greely, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, head of the Missile Defense Agency.

“I diverted interceptors from our silo emplacement into our test program,” Obering told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. “What the $150 million does is helps us get back some of those interceptors we diverted into our test program and catch us back up on the emplacement schedule we were originally on.”

There are now eight interceptors at Fort Greely. Up to 40 interceptors are expected to be deployed at the base and at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California by the end of 2009, Obering said.

A detailed fiscal 2007 budget proposal from President George W. Bush is scheduled for release today, according to AP (Associated Press, Feb. 5).

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