Posted on 05/12/2010 7:11:47 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The House Armed Services Committee today added $362 million to the Obama administration’s 2011 defense authorization bill for missile defense, including $50 million for further tests of Boeing’s Airborne Laser, a program the Obama administration had sought to wind down.
“I am particularly pleased that the Mark increases funding for directed energy research. It was clear that the budget request was not sufficient to support further flight testing using the Airborne Laser Test Bed as well as mature innovative directed energy technologies,” Rep. Michael R. Turner R-Ohio, top Republican on the Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, said in a prepared statement. Of course, we’ll have to see whether the appropriators add money as well. The Senate may be more reluctant to fund ABL given Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ robust arguments for termination of the program of record, leaving it as a test bed.
The HASC mark also restored funding for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program and the completion of Missile Field Two in Alaska. Turner said the Obama administration’s phased approach to homeland missile defense would leave the U.S. vulnerable to Iranian ICBMs that could be in service as early as 2015. “Despite the Administration’s conclusion last year that the long-range threat was not materializing as rapidly as once thought, we are seeing new details emerge on North Korea and Iran’s long-range missile programs,” he said.
The mark also added $50 million for the Navy’s Aegis SM-3 missile production and for the Army’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). “There was bipartisan concern that — despite the Administration’s plans for Aegis and THAAD inventory growth—the budget request created near-term production gaps and inefficiencies for industry because the bulk of the funding was pushed to the outyears,” Turner said.
(Excerpt) Read more at dodbuzz.com ...
How about criss-crossed laser beams on the Mexican border. Walk into the beam and ZAP!
bttt
OUTSTANDING - that Laser is an AMAZING weapon and we need to stick with it. It can stop both Iran and NK from even getting a nuke to leave their own airspace, much less make it to ours.
THANK GOD. Tell Obama to stuff his missile defense cuts where the sun don’t shine.
I agree with you on both counts
Walk into the beam and ZAPPA!
The stupidity in Washing never, ever ceases to amaze me. It'll take another 10 years to make directed energy weapons really ready for large-scale deployment. We can't afford to wait another month, much less another year or decade. Not with the pace of long-range missile development in NORK and Iran. Kill the F22, shrink the number of ships, retire a third of our military aircraft, kill the ABL, disclose our nuclear arsenal secrets -- why doesn't Obamao just give the US to our enemies?
I agree with you except with the nuclear arsenal secrets. In reality, it was not a secret. Anyone who studies the subject had all the information available. We know how many nuclear weapons the Russians have.
http://www.missilethreat.com/missiledefensesystems/id.24/system_detail.asp
I like it. It cpold be used against AF1 !
OZAPMA
Huh? Walk into the beam and you hear incredible guitar riffs?
Agreed. That one was at the margin and I wasn’t certain about adding it to the list. So let’s delete it and add women on submarines and end of DADT. Those are much more important to military morale and ability to kill the enemy.
‘Zactly!
or Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s idea for the Korean DMZ...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.