U.S. Missile Defense Funding Cut by $185 Million

Congressional budget negotiators agreed this week to provide $8.7 billion for U.S. missile defense programs in fiscal 2008, slashing $185 million from the Defense Department’s budget request, Inside Missile Defense reported (see GSN, Nov. 7).

A House-Senate conference committee cut $85 million from funds to support development of missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic as those countries have not yet agreed to host the installations, according to House Appropriations defense subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.).

Lawmakers also cut money from “new, technically challenging satellite programs that are scheduled to replace satellite systems that have not yet launched,” Murtha said.  These include the Alternative Infrared Satellite System (see GSN, Sept. 13), the Transformational Satellite Communications program and the Global Positioning System 3 program.

The panel met the Pentagon’s funding request for the Space-Based Infrared System and the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system (see GSN, Oct. 29), according to Inside Missile Defense.

It also increased funding for a number of programs.  Ground-based missile defense upgrades and test and training range improvements and support received an extra $80 million, according to a budget summary released by Murtha.  Lawmakers also supplied an extra $75 million for Ballistic Signal Processor work under the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense program (see GSN, Nov. 7), Standard Missile 3 interceptors, ship improvements and an “asymmetric defense initiative,” the summary states.

An additional $75 million went toward “Arrow co-production, the Upper-tier program, and Short Range Ballistic Missile Defense,” according to the summary.

Lawmakers added $120 million for the Kinetic Energy Interceptor program (see GSN, Sept 12) but eliminated funding for the Space Test Bed (John Liang, Inside Missile Defense, Nov. 7).

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