Wednesday, November 29, 2023
The Missile Defense Agency wants to continue using research and development dollars through fiscal year 2010 to develop and field select systems, including the Navy's Standard Missile-3 interceptors and the Army's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missiles, a request that runs counter to legislation Congress passed last year.
The Pentagon's top acquisition official late last month rejected a move by the Joint Staff to have the Missile Defense Agency take a lead role in cruise missile defense.
The Missile Defense Agency plans in 2009 to test the booster rocket for the missile interceptors it will put in the ground in Poland as part of a European missile defense, an agency spokesman said.
The Defense Department is warning Congress that the Senate's proposed $50 million cut to a missile defense program aimed at defeating countermeasure technologies could jeopardize a plan to field the system by the middle of the next decade.
A senior German defense official has asked Pentagon officials not to make any changes to the Medium Extended Air Defense System, warning that costs could rise and that the development of a second interceptor missile could be jeopardized if funding cuts are implemented.
At the prompting of the Defense Department's inspector general, the Army will determine whether a warfighting need exists for the second version of a new mortar-launched weapon, according to a newly released IG report. Developing this version will cost the Army up to $26 million.
The incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said today that Pentagon acquisition reform will be near the top of the panel's agenda when Democrats take control of the chamber next year, and many of the reforms pursued by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will likely continue.
Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO), expected to become the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee when Democrats take over the House of Representatives next January, said today he will resurrect the oversight and investigations subcommittee that was eliminated after Republicans took leadership of the House in 1994.
In a few weeks, the State Department could send a team of diplomats and aid officials to Lebanon to help with reconstruction and civil support following that country's recent war with Israel as part of a new joint program with the Defense Department, a senior State Department official said today.
The Bush administration has sent Congress a $439.3 billion defense budget for fiscal year 2007 that makes large investments in defense language programs, special operations forces and unmanned air vehicles, which the White House believes are key to waging war against terrorists around the world.
Congress needs to take "ownership" of the Pentagon's missile defense mission by considering it a core competency for national security similar to naval, air and land power, the head of an influential Pentagon review board said today.
If the Senate fails to pass a defense authorization bill this year, the stature of the Senate Armed Services Committee would be dealt a severe blow and its standing in the chamber could begin to shrink, the panel's ranking Democrat said today.
Senior Navy budget officials will build a six-year spending plan covering fiscal years 2008 through 2013 around two central tenets: a balanced force that "delivers the right people with the right skills at the right time to the right place," and a shipbuilding plan that reflects a recently completed review of the service's force structure, according to an internal Navy memo.
The Bush administration has laid out plans for placing kinetic-energy interceptors in space to defend the United States from attack by ballistic missiles, a controversial move that is expected to be closely scrutinized by Congress.
A three-man independent review team that examined the Missile Defense Agency's national missile defense system following two recent unsuccessful tests delivered its findings to MDA Director Lt. Gen. Henry Obering March 31, an agency spokesman told InsideDefense.com April 1.
The head of the Pentagon's missile defense programs is forming an outside review board to look at why two recent tests of the Bush administration's multibillion-dollar national missile defense program had to be scrubbed because of minor problems involving ground support equipment.
An interceptor missile designed to destroy ballistic missiles in flight failed to launch during a planned test of the Bush administration's multibillion-dollar missile defense system, the Missile Defense Agency announced today.
The Army plans to hire an independent accounting firm to conduct a clean audit of how it has spent the money given to the service to fight the global war on terrorism.
The Missile Defense Agency plans to severely cut back its effort to build a land-based Kinetic Energy Interceptor that can destroy ballistic missiles during their early, boost phase of flight, slicing $800 million from the program's budget in fiscal year 2006 and shelving international participation for at least two years, a senior Defense Department official said Feb. 4.
The Missile Defense Agency will tell Congress next week it plans to delay choosing an overseas launch site for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program being developed to protect the United States from ballistic missile attacks, according to several industry sources familiar with MDA's fiscal year 2006 budget plan.