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Budget Cuts to Delay Missile Defense Laser, Agency Says By Jon Fox An earlier version of the defense authorization bill slashed $400 million from the president’s proposed $549 million budget for the antimissile program, but as the draft bill moved to the full Armed Services Committee the cuts were trimmed to $250. That was the version the full House approved yesterday despite last minute efforts by Republicans to restore an additional $100 million to the program. A $400 million cut to the research initiative aimed at designing planes that could fly around the clock near a potential launch site and blast missiles out of sky shortly after they are launched would have effectively killed the program, agency Executive Director Patricia Sanders said yesterday at a presentation. As it stands now, the $250 million reduction could seriously affect the program and push the schedule back three years. “The proposed cut to the Airborne Laser program will set that back at a very critical time,” Sanders said. “We are hopeful that that cut would not be sustained throughout the congressional season, but that would be a very devastating impact.” The laser remains the agency’s top hope for a way to destroy missiles during their launch phase. A rival program, the Kinetic Energy Interceptor, is a less attractive prospect given that it is only effective against long-range missiles, Sanders said. Work to field the powerful chemical laser is expected to cost slightly more than $5.1 billion through 2009, when the weapon is slated for a shoot-down test. The system underwent full-power ground testing in 2005 and is undergoing aiming and beam control testing this year In making the cuts, the House Strategic Forces Subcommittee shifted funding to programs that are more likely to provide near-term benefits, said subcommittee Chairwoman Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.). Sanders said the president’s budget request would have put the laser on the “verge of completing the test program that would prove out that this technology works” and said the testing was on track. The Airborne Laser, however, has had a history of delays and development schedule push backs that have not failed to register on Congress’s radar. “I think it’s safe to say the program as constituted has failed to overwhelm anyone with its level of success,” Tauscher told Global Security Newswire yesterday. “It has continued to miss its projected demonstration dates” Sanders stressed the value of the high-energy laser research in applications both within the Missile Defense Agency and without. “It’s very important to the missile defense agency and also the department’s only high-energy laser program at this point in time,” she said. “There are a number of potential other missions riding on the success of this.” She offered no additional detail on what those other missions are. The argument about the value of the laser research is not lost on lawmakers and is the reason Tauscher softened the cuts as the authorization bill moved through the drafting process. “I am really very interested in the ‘L’ piece of ABL,” she said, noting that the final version of the bill was intended to keep the science moving forward. Still, she hopes the cut spurs the Missile Defense Agency toward projects that can be deployed sooner rather than later. “We want to start to have deliverables,” she said. “We’d like MDA to step back, take a deep breath and absorb what were saying.” Across the board the defense authorization bill cuts $764 million from the $8.9 billion Missile Defense Agency budget request. The Senate has yet to complete its version of the funding legislation (see related GSN story, today). “We want to get a lot more results and a lot more credibility to the deterrent factor of missile defense,” Tauscher said.
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