United States:  House Appropriations Cuts Some Missile Defense Funding

A House Appropriations subcommittee last week cut millions of dollars from the Bush administration’s request for a variety of missile defense programs but raised funding to procure the Patriot Advanced Capability 3 missile, Aerospace Daily reported yesterday.  The full committee is scheduled to consider the bill today (see GSN, May 8)

In considering the fiscal 2004 defense appropropriations bill, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense boosted PAC-3 procurement funds by $90 million and added almost $23 million to sea-based X-band radar development, a key component of a national missile defense system (see GSN, May 16).

The subcommittee cut the overall White House missile defense request by $193 million.  In its report to the full committee, the subcommitee said Defense Department proposals to develop advanced missile defense technologies expressed concern that “considerable work remains to fully develop, test and deploy current systems.”  The committee cut $150 million from a $301 million request for an advanced missile interceptor.

According to the report, lawmakers cut $76 million from the Bush administration’s Ballistic Missile Defense Systems request.

“It is not clear what activities, levels of effort, or deliverables warrant,” that level of funding, the report says.

Committee members also decreased the $274 million request for the Space Based Radar by $100 million (see GSN, July 18, 2002).

Although the radar’s technology “is worthwhile for a variety of satellite applications, the committee is concerned that the large constellation and associated tasking, exploitation, processing and dissemination (TPED) required to satisfy the SBR goal is ultimately unaffordable,” the report says.

The program could require 20 satellites and $25 billion in funding, Aerospace Daily reported.

The subcommittee supported a House Armed Services Committee proposal to investigate the possibility of a new, advanced bomber aircraft (see GSN, May 8).  According to the report, the subcommittee provided $100 million for the study (Marc Selinger, Aerospace Daily, June 25).

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United States:  Franks to Testify Before Congress on Patriot Friendly Fire Incidents

U.S. Army General Tommy Franks, head of the U.S. Central Command, is expected to testify before Congress on two friendly-fire incidents during the Iraq war that involved the Patriot missile interceptor, Aerospace Daily reported today (see GSN, May 23).

Franks’ testimony may be classified, but an open session on the incidents for reporters is being scheduled in the next several weeks in Washington, said Lt. Gen. Joseph Cosumano, head of the Army Space and Missile Defense Command and the Army Space Command.  The investigations into the two Patriot incidents — the destruction of a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet and a British Tornado, both by Patriots — have examined a number of possibilities, he said.

An investigation was also conducted into an incident wherein a U.S. F-16 fired at a Patriot battery, destroying the system but leaving the crew unharmed, according to Aerospace Daily.  Congress is also expected to be briefed on this incident (Rich Tuttle, Aerospace Daily, June 25).

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