
The final version of the 2021 defense policy bill puts the brakes on funding a wider layered missile defense system without additional reports and cuts Aegis funds requested for the effort. The administration requested $815 million in research and development funds to look at using Aegis ballistic missile defense systems to help bolster homeland missile defenses. The Defense Department planned to explore using Aegis Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA interceptors and/or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries to provide…