The missile defense budget has been on the chopping block ever since the Obama Administration took office. In 2009, President Obama proposed $1.6 billion in cuts compared to the prior year’s budget estimate. In 2010, the Administration proposed a modest increase in the missile defense budget for FY 2011 but only in comparison to the reduced level for FY 2010. This year’s missile defense budget request is still almost 2 percent in real dollars below what the Bush Administration requested for FY 2009. In short, the U.S. missile defense program …
The Obama Administration’s commitment to maintain the U.S. strategic triad appears to be fading, writes Mark Schneider, former special assistant in the Office of the Secretary of Defense during the New Strategic Arms Control Treaty (New START) negotiations. Indeed, experts at The Heritage Foundation have been pointing out problems with the Administration’s commitment since it announced its plans to sustain the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. Unfortunately, it seems that the White House’s commitment will not survive the first year after the treaty entered into force. During the New START debate, …
As Turkish representatives announced last week their decision to participate in the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA), the Obama Administration’s plan for missile defense, there seems to be a misconception about EPAA’s capabilities. This week, The Washington Post wrote, “Development of a European missile shield accelerated under the George W. Bush administration. In September 2009, President Obama announced plans to construct a more extensive system in Europe that will be built in phases through 2020.” In fact, the EPAA is less extensive than where the Bush Administration was headed in …
Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee decided to accept the Pentagon’s request for Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) funding, which will allow the system to enter its “Proof of Concept” phase. The committee’s decision came because costs associated with the termination of the program are at least as high as permitting the continuation of the “Proof of Concept” phase. This is a step in the right direction, because it will allow the Army to harvest technologies for the modernization of its Patriot system or to procure MEADS if the …
Last week, the Obama Administration made a step toward implementation of the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA), its four-phase ballistic missile defense plan for the protection of allies and friends in the European region. The Turkish foreign ministry announced its decision to host an X-band radar AN/TPY-2 in its territory. This is a welcome step in the development of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) ballistic missile defense capability, which became a core competency of the alliance in November. Data from the radar in Turkey will be integrated with U.S. …
At the 2011 Space and Missile Defense Conference in Huntsville, Alabama, one could sense increasing concerns from engineers and scientists who support and contribute to the U.S. defense industrial base. The U.S. defense industrial base put a man on the moon, allowed the country to win the Cold War, and developed numerous technologies Americans use in everyday life. The type of education and advanced skill sets these men and women possess are invaluable to national security and the U.S. economy. These resources, once lost, would be difficult, expensive, and time-consuming …
Participants in the annual Space and Missile Defense Conference in Huntsville, AL, have a shared goal: protect the U.S. homeland, forward-deployed troops, and allies from a ballistic missile threat. The current fiscal environment and missile defense policies of the Obama Administration make this task ever more difficult. The most recent debt ceiling bill, unless repealed, will severely compromise U.S. national security. The law establishes a goal of reducing federal deficits by $1.5 trillion, while requiring automatic spending reductions of $1.2 trillion if the goal is not met. In the latter …
While Russia gives the illusion of looking for missile defense cooperation, it has waged a full-scale campaign against U.S. missile defenses. Dmitry Rogozin, special representative of the president of the Russian Federation for interaction with NATO in missile defense, recently stated that Moscow has been working to bring the issue of the European missile shield to a “broad open discussion.” Rogozin’s comments followed a meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store. Consider another statement by Rogozin: “It is obvious that the missile shield planned to be established on the …
The Obama Administration’s “reset” policy with the Russian Federation is failing in yet another important aspect of this relationship: its predictability regarding the development of each country’s respective nuclear forces. This is despite the Obama Administration touting the New Strategic Arms Control Treaty (New START) as one of the greatest accomplishments of the reset policy. The list of U.S. “reset” concessions is extensive: unilateral cuts of U.S. strategic nuclear forces, abandonment of missile defense deployments in Poland and the Czech Republic, neglect of Russian aggressiveness in the areas of the …
The recent statements by Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian President’s Special Representative for Missile Defense Cooperation with NATO, raised hackles in Washington. Putin called the U.S. a “parasite” on the body of global economy, while Rogozin claimed that U.S. Senators told him U.S. missile defense is aimed at his country. Putin’s statements are baffling, as the global economy needs consumer consumption for growth—and the United States is by far the biggest consumer country. In fact, the U.S. trade deficit drives a lot of global growth. Putin spoke at …
