WASHINGTON – Citing North Korea’s threat to test-fire a long-range missile capable of reaching U.S. soil, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) today called for a $45 million increase in missile defense funding for next year.
Sessions, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, introduced an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2007 defense authorization bill that would boost funding by $45 million to increase testing and operations of the ground-based midcourse defense system.
“The prospect of a long-range ballistic missile launch from North Korea coupled with Iran’s continuing efforts to develop longer-range ballistic missiles demonstrates that the near-term threat to the U.S. homeland from ballistic missiles is real,” Sessions said.
The U.S. missile defense system is limited and still undergoing full testing. But it is being deployed and could be utilized now to intercept a long-range missile from North Korea in an emergency, according to Defense Department officials.
The current ground-based midcourse defense system, designed to protect the U.S. against long-range missiles, can operate in either a test or operational mode. However, when operating in the test mode, it requires a certain amount of time to switch to alert mode.
The $45 million included in Sessions’s amendment would permit the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to accelerate the ability to conduct concurrent test and operations, thereby permitting the system to stay on alert through testing events. Although MDA had planned to fund this ability in Fiscal Year 2007, which begins Oct. 1, internal budget reductions to the missile defense program pushed those efforts into FY 2008.
“Congressional support for this amendment would send a strong message to countries that would develop longer-range ballistic missiles that we will not be deterred or intimidated by their threats,” Sessions said. “
