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U.S. Plans: MDA Proposed Budget Reduced, Overall Budget Increases Although the proposed fiscal 2003 budget for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency is slightly reduced from current funding, overall missile defense spending would increase by $487 million to $9.18 billion in the proposal, according to a Center for Defense Information report released yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 11). The fiscal 2003 missile defense budget proposal includes: * $1.1 billion for the ballistic missile defense system, up from $808 million; * $797 million for boost segment systems, up from $600 million; * $3.2 billion for midcourse segment systems, down from $3.8 billion; * $170 million for terminal segment systems, down from $200 million; * $373 million for sensor development, up from $335 million; * $122 million for technology development, down from $139 million; * $73 million for the Joint Theater Air Missile Defense Organization, up from $27 million; * $35 million for other programs, up from $30 million; * $23 million for construction programs, up from $8 million; * $118 million for the Medium Extended Air Defense System; * $935 million for the Theater High Altitude Air Defense System, up from $867 million; * $858 million for the Patriot PAC-3 system, down from $899 million (see GSN, Nov. 5, 2001); * $598 million for an airborne laser system, up from $476 million; * $815 million for the Space Based Infrared System-High satellite system, up from $439 million (see GSN, Jan. 8). Funding for the SBIRS-High and airborne laser systems is administered by the MDA, which would receive $7.76 billion under the Bush plan (Center for Defense Information release, Feb. 4). The proposed funding for the ballistic missile defense system would support efforts to integrate the boost, midcourse and terminal phases of the system (see GSN, Jan. 11). It also includes plans to build a new test facility in Alaska, which would have five missile interceptors and a command center by 2007, according to Agence France-Presse. U.S. President George W. Bush recently announced the U.S. intent to withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in order to conduct unrestricted missile defense testing (See GSN Dec. 13, 2001). The MDA’s proposed budget is slightly less than the current funding level, however, because the planned testing does not require large amounts of new funding, said a senior defense official. “There are many nominal cost ways to capture the data you would want at the system level if there were no treaty — radar assets, ship assets, combined tests for which no real money change is required,” the official said (Agence France-Presse, Feb. 4). The biggest reduction in the missile defense budget proposal is a major two-year reduction in funding for the Space-Based Infrared System-Low of satellites, according to Defense Daily (see GSN, Dec. 19, 2001). The system was to be made up of about 30 satellites that would be linked together to track and provide information on enemy ballistic missile in midcourse (Kerry Gildea, Defense Daily, Feb. 4).
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