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Pentagon Seeks 20-Percent Budget Increase for Missile Defense
The U.S. Defense Department’s fiscal 2005 budget request includes an increase of almost 20 percent for missile defense funding, Bloomberg.com reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 28). In its budget request, the Pentagon has asked for $9.2 billion for missile defense programs, an increase of $1.5 billion over what Congress approved for this year, according to Bloomberg.com. According to budget documents, about $677 million of the additional $1.5 billion would be new funding, with the rest being taken from money planned for later in the decade. The additional funding is set to go toward purchasing components for 20 additional ground-based missile interceptors set to be deployed between 2006 and 2007, Bloomberg.com reported (see GSN, Jan. 22). The extra money will also be used to purchase 40 additional Standard Missile-3 interceptors between 2006-2007 (see GSN, Dec. 12, 2003) and a second precision tracking X-band radar (see GSN, Aug. 18, 2003), as well as for establishing an early warning radar at an overseas base still to be determined. Over the next five years, missile defense spending is set to total $53 billion, up from the $49 billion estimated last February, according to Pentagon budget documents (Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg.com, Jan. 29).
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