Moves in Congress to cut $85 million in funding won’t greatly delay a planned Ground-based Midcourse missile Defense (GMD) program that would be installed in Europe, Lt. Gen. Trey Obering, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) director, said last week.
In a Pentagon news briefing, Obering said the cut would “absolutely not” be a show-stopper for the planned European missile shield defending against missiles launched from Middle Eastern nations such as Iran.
For example, he said, Congress still is providing enough funds that if Poland (interceptors) and the Czech Republic (radar) agree, work could proceed on surveys and geotechnical work.
The funds cut would delay the program by only six months to a year at worst, he said, depending on when the host nations agree to the plan.
On other points, Obering and Gen. Gene Renuart, commander of U.S. Northern Command, made these points:
The U.S. ballistic missile shield can respond to enemy missile threats if they arise.
Success of a GMD missile test last week helps to persuade the Europeans that GMD works and they should agree to host the missile shield installation.
Talks continue with Russia on potentially including Russian radar installations (Gabala, Azerbaijan) in the European GMD system.
It is wrong to say that the GMD interceptors could take down Russian ICBMs, as Russia has alleged.
A further GMD system test will be mounted next year against a target missile using countermeasures, sometime in the March – May time frame.
Two to three tests a year are expected for ballistic missile defense systems.
The North Korean threat in developing long-range missiles by 2015 means there is no time to lose for developing U.S. missile defenses