“We’ve invested billions of dollars. We’ve proven this technology,” says Sessions, who represents the state where much of the GMD development work was conducted. “An extra site [on the East Coast] would clearly provide extra protection. And I think it would validate our investment. It’s such an unacceptable thing to have developed a system that will work and then not deploy it.”
Action on Amendments to Fiscal Year 2013 National Defense Authorization Bill
The House began consideration of the FY 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 4310) yesterday and plans to complete action on amendments and hold a final vote on the bill this afternoon. Below is a summary of the key amendments debated (and not ruled in order by the Rules Committee) on nuclear weapons and missile defense. We’ll have a full wrap up and analysis when the House finishes the bill.
HASC vs. HAC on Nukes and Missile Defense
We’ve made a point of highlighting the different funding decisions made by the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) and GOP-controlled House Appropriations Committee (HAC) regarding the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) weapons activit…
Revive the Airborne Laser?
In its mark-up of the Defense Authorization bill for Fiscal 2013, the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee lauded the prior accomplishments of the Airborne Laser Test Bed program. It then went further by directing the Missile Defense Agency to provide a report by 31 July 2012 on the costs that would be involved in returning the Airborne Laser aircraft to an operational readiness status to continue technology development and testing, and to be ready to deploy in an operational contingency, if needed, to respond to rapidly developing threats from North Korea.
“The Politics of Reduction”
In my May Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists column I explore the history of post-Cold War GOP efforts to constrain Democratic presidents from making reductions to the size of the US nuclear arsenal and how such efforts harm US national security.
