Subcommittee Chair Ellen Tauscher Strategic Forces Subcommittee Hearing on the Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request for Missile Defense Programs
April 17, 2008
"The committee will come to order. The Strategic Forces Subcommittee meets this afternoon to receive testimony on the Fiscal Year 2009 budget request for missile defense programs.
"Our witnesses today include: the Honorable John Young, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics; the Honorable James McQueary, the Pentagon Director of Operational Test and Evaluation; Lt. General Henry Obering, the Director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA); and Lt. General Kevin Campbell, the Commanding General, Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense. Gentlemen, thank you for your service to the nation.
"General Obering, I understand that you will be departing as Director of the Missile Defense Agency this fall. Thank you for your service and the committee wishes you the best of luck in your future pursuits.
"Today's hearing gives us a chance to touch on a number of key issues and questions.
"One of my greatest concerns is how to integrate the Missile Defense Agency into the normal defense planning processes.
"Our Armed Services voiced this concern last summer when former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff released a memo that proposed moving MDA back under the oversight of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, or JROC - the senior DOD body responsible for validating military requirements.
"This was a clear signal that real concerns exist among senior military leadership about current departmental practices with regard to missile defense. To date, however, there has been no action on the Vice Chief's recommendations.
"Secretary Young, I understand the Department established a new body last year, the Missile Defense Executive Board or MDEB, to ensure that MDA's plans are better integrated with DOD efforts.
"As the chair of the MDEB, I'm interested in hearing from you about the activities of the board and specifically how MDEB is addressing the concerns raised by JROC last year.
"I continue to believe we should focus greater attention on countering short-and medium-range missile threats.
"I was disturbed earlier this year when MDA revealed in the FY 2009 budget request that it planned to delay deployment of THAAD Fire Units three and four for supposed budgetary reasons.
"I and other members of this committee, including Mr. Reyes, thought this was a bad decision, and raised our concerns with senior DOD officials. The Department has since reversed course and put THAAD Fire Units three and four back on their original schedule. I welcome this decision.
"I continue to worry that resources within MDA are not properly focused on countering short-and medium-range threats.
"The 2007 Joint Capabilities Mix Study II, sponsored by U.S. Strategic Command, concluded that combatant commanders require at a minimum twice as many Standard Missile-3 and THAAD interceptors as are currently planned.
"Over the next five years, DOD plans to spend over forty-six billion dollars on missile defense. Given this large investment, I believe the Department has ample resources to ensure that our combatant commanders have a sufficient interceptor inventory to meet their minimum war fighting requirements.
"In the area of missile defense testing, MDA had some significant results last year, including a successful intercept with the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, and several successful THAAD and Aegis BMD intercept tests.
"As an advocate of rigorous testing, I congratulate the teams who engineered these successes.
"I also understand the lack of affordable and reliable targets is slowing down MDA's overall testing program.
"Secretary Young and General Obering, I believe the Department and MDA must place a higher priority on fixing MDA's targets program, and today I would like to hear your plans for doing that.
"We also need to improve testing of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense, or GMD system. For the second year in a row the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation has said that, 'GMD flight testing to date is not sufficient to provide a high level of statistical confidence in its limited capabilities.'
"Dr. McQueary, it is critical that this subcommittee hear your thoughts on what needs to be done from a testing perspective to improve our confidence in the GMD system.
"Finally, allow me to say a few brief words regarding the proposed missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic.
"I welcome NATO's acknowledgment of the contribution that the long-range interceptor site could make to Alliance security. Last year I urged the Administration to work to this end.
"I was initially told by administration officials it was 'too hard' to get NATO on board.
"So I'm encouraged to see that the administration changed course and made cooperation with NATO a cornerstone of its missile defense proposal.
"I believe NATO and the United States must do more to address existing short-and medium range threats to Europe's southern flank. I would like to hear the Department's plans in this area.
"With that, I would like to thank the witnesses once more for being here today, and I look forward to your testimony.
"Now let me turn to my friend and Ranking Member Mr. Everett, for any comments he may have."
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