hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Pentagon wants to spend an extra $4.5 billion on missile defense
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Pentagon wants to spend an extra $4.5 billion on missile defense
Washington - The U.S. Defense Department intends to ask Congress for $4.5 billion in extra funding for missile defense systems over the next five years as part of its 2015 budget requests.
Almost a billion will be spent for a new homeland defense radar to be located in Alaska. Another $560 million will be used to work on a new interceptor according to Riki Ellison the founder of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, as well as two congressional sources. The Pentagon claims to have growing concerns about missile development efforts by both Iran and North Korea. One would think that there would be more concern about China that has developed a hypersonic missile delivery system that is capable of penetrating the U.S. defense system:
The new hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), dubbed the WU-14 was allegedly spotted flying at record-breaking speeds during a flight test over China on January 9, an anonymous Pentagon official told the Washington Free Beacon.Hypersonic speeds are between Mach 5 and Mach 1, 3,840 to 7,680 miles per hour. The government plans to send the 2015 budget request to the Congress on March 4. The request is expected to gain support from both parties but there may be questions about the billions spent over two decades on a "kill vehicle" built by Raytheon. The vehicle is supposed to kill incoming enemy missiles destroying them on impact. Michael Gilmore, who is the Defense Department's chief weapons tester was critical of the Raytheon kill vehicle after it failed a series of tests and suggested that a redesign should be considered. The two types of Raytheon kill vehicles are already widely deployed:
All 30 of the United States’ ground-based interceptors carry either one or the other of Raytheon’s two kill vehicles – 20 house the CE-1, while the other 10 carry the CE-2. Both interceptors have suffered test failures. While fixes are in the works, Raytheon, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin continue to push forward with a brand new interceptor that’s more effective and cheaper to operate.The United States is also boosting its anti--missile system in Europe with the deployment of a ballistic missile defense destroyer in Spain. Another three are expected to arrive in Europe over the next two years. According to U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel the systems are meant to protect against possible Iranian missile strikes. The U.S. Navy estimates that it will move 1,239 personnel as part of the plan. The move is estimated to cost $92 million with an estimated further cost of $100 million per year for annual maintenance. The U.S. move was immediately condemned by Russia which has threatened to withdraw from the START nuclear treaty. Mikhail Ulyanjov of the Russian Foreign Ministry said:
"We are concerned that the US is continuing to build up missile defense capability without considering the interests and concerns of Russia, Such a policy can undermine strategic stability and lead to a situation where Russia will be forced to exercise [its] right of withdrawal from the [START] treaty.”There is no indication that the U.S. will pay the slightest heed to the Russian complaints. The official U.S. line is that this all has nothing to do with Russia (or China) but is all about defending against Iranian or possibly North Korean missiles.
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Pentagon wants to spend an extra $4.5 billion on missile defense