WASHINGTON – Today, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, made the following remarks on the Subcommittee’s markup.  For the text of the mark and to watch the markup click here.

Concerning missile defense, the Mark fences half of the funding for the Army’s Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense radar modernization program.  Let me be clear about this: I will take a back seat to no one in supporting modernization of Patriot.  But I will demand that the Army do better for its soldiers, including its air defenders, than delaying the procurement of a modern radar until 2028 (at the earliest).  The United States must do better than to keep 58 year old radars in the field.

The Mark also would fence $10 million in funding that DOD provides to the White House until the Congress receives both the plan, and sees the beginning of implementation of, the development of military responses to the Russian violation of the INF treaty, consistent with section 1243 of the FY16 NDAA.

And most significantly to me, we have recommended to the Chairman a significant increase of over $400 million for the Missile Defense Agency and full funding of the request of our allies in Israel, $600.7 million, for co-development and co-production of Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow 3.

These are vital increases to keep our missiles defenses, and those of our allies, paced well-ahead of our adversaries increasingly complex ballistic missile capabilities.

Now is not the time to cut these programs and activities as the President’s budget proposed.”

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