DOD Buzz:
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said last week that additional spending on missile defense against the North Korean threat awaits a strategy review.
“It’s a prioritization,” Mattis said. “Right now, I think we can first do the study to make sure what is the requirement, what are we lacking.”
The goal is to “define the problem well enough that we are targeted like a laser beam on exactly what we need,” he said in testimony June 12 to the House Armed Services Committee.
Mattis was responding to questions from Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., who said, “I know President Trump wants to have a state-of-the-art missile defense. I’m just concerned we’re cutting the budget for missile defense research and development. Why are we not putting our money where our mouth is?”
The SecDef replied, “I want to get this right before we come to you and spend a lot of money. “You’re going to count on us that we did our homework, and we’ve not yet done it.”
He stressed that he was not disagreeing that the U.S. must spend more on missile defense.
The Trump administration has proposed an overall $7.9 billion budget for the Missile Defense Agency in fiscal 2018, a relatively modest increase that essentially flat-lines the hit-to-kill anti-missile program…
