Yonhap News:
WASHINGTON, May 25 (Yonhap) — Leaders of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee have added US$20 million to next year’s defense budget for the development of a new missile defense program aimed at defending against threats from North Korea and Iran.
The committee’s recently completed markup of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 calls for the increase in the budget set aside for the development of the multiple-object kill vehicle (MOKV) program, bringing the total budget for the program to $66 million.
The markup also requires the director of the Missile Defense Agency to develop and flight test a MOKV for the ground-based midcourse defense system by 2020, and deploy the program when technically practicable,.
The MOKV is designed to enable each ground-based interceptor to take out multiple incoming targets. Navy Adm. James Syring, director of the Missile Defense Agency, told Congress in March that the MOVK “will revolutionize our missile defense architecture.”
The kill vehicles are designed to be released in space by booster rockets. The rockets use onboard sensors to detect an incoming target and then fire built-in thrusters to move the vehicles into a collision course with the target.
Sens. John McCain (R-AR) and Jack Reed (D-RI), the committee’s chairman and ranking member, respectively, announced the markup earlier this month. The budget increase for the MOKV program is part of a total of $66.8 million set aside for research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) for common kill vehicle technology.
The markup also calls for authorizing $23 million in RDT&E for interceptor technology, including an increase of $10 million for the development of divert attitude control technology in support of the MOKV program.
The markup should be voted on by the full Senate Armed Services Committee. Once passed by the committee and subsequently passed by the full Senate, it will move to a conference committee to be reconciled with the House version of the bill.
The United States has steadily strengthened its missile defense system against North Korean missiles, deploying 30 ground-based missile interceptors (GBIs) in Alaska and California. It plans to deploy an additional 14 GBIs by 2017.
During his confirmation hearing in February, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter pledged to significantly beef up missile defense capabilities, saying North Korean missiles could pose a “direct threat” to the country.
Last week, the Defense Department unveiled a plan to deploy a long-range discrimination radar (LRDR) in Alaska by 2020 to better detect missile threats from countries like North Korea.
