Committee Boosts, Reorders Missile Defense Funding

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday approved a fiscal 2007 defense spending bill that meets the Bush administration’s $10.4 billion request for its increasingly costly missile defense effort while shifting funding within the program (see GSN, June 26).

The $453 billion bill includes $9.4 billion for Missile Defense Agency research, development and procurement activities. Another $1 billion would be directed toward purchasing Patriot Advanced Capability 3 systems and other missile defense-related efforts operated by the armed services rather than the agency.

A House version of the appropriations bill contains $10 billion for missile defense. Both versions would represent increases over the $8.7 billion Congress approved for the current fiscal year, 2006.

The committee apparently resisted calls by some in Congress to further increase missile defense funding in response to North Korea’s July 4 multi-missile test, which reportedly included a longer-range missile that failed within a minute of launch.

In a report accompanying the bill, the committee noted it shifted funding away from some less-developed systems and toward the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program, the perceived cornerstone of the administration’s ICBM interception plans. 

“The committee recognizes MDA’s concern over expanding and evolving threats. However, the committee is concerned that MDA is investing too much funding in future systems and technology in advance of adequate testing and fielding of currently available technology,” it wrote.

The committee provided an additional $225 million for the midcourse program’s test infrastructure and operations support, and for additional interceptors. Adding funding to those areas would help the agency develop the system and boost its ability to use it operationally in an emergency, the committee said.

Additionally, the committee approved $108 million beyond the $1 billion the Defense Department requested for the medium-range Aegis ballistic missile defense program.

The committee cut $200 million from the agency’s longer-term Kinetic Energy Interceptor program, as did a defense authorization bill passed by the Senate in June.

The bill also funded in full the administration’s $1.3 billion request for chemical agent and munitions destruction.

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