DoD cuts missile defense funding

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced a radical overhaul of the DoD budget, which was increased by 4% but saw a $1.4 billion cut to the Missile Defense Agency . In his speech last Monday, he proposed restructuring “the program to focus on the rogue state and theater missile threat” and to stabilize the number of interceptors in Alaska at their current level. The MDA program should concentrate more on R&D and less on deployment of unrealistic weapons, he said.

Gates proposed canceling the second airborne laser (ABL) prototype aircraft . The ABL consists of a Boeing 747 modified to hold a giant chemical laser that is designed to shoot down missiles from a distance of 600 nautical miles. “We will keep the existing aircraft and shift the program to an R&D effort,” said Gates. “The ABL program has significant affordability and technology problems and the program’s proposed operational role is highly questionable.”

The proposed missile defense cuts arrived the day before President Obama gave a speech in Prague that touched on the long-term strategic implications on the current missile defense system, which includes basing radar and missile systems in Europe amid protests from the Russians and most of the local populations.

“The Czech Republic and Poland have been courageous in agreeing to host a defense against these missiles. As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven,” said Obama. “If the Iranian threat is eliminated, we will have a stronger basis for security, and the driving force for missile defense construction in Europe will be removed.”

The speech highlights pressure on Russia to engage with the US in dealing with Iran’s nuclear and missile program. The subtext is that if the Iranian security issues can be addressed, then the rationale for the European-based missile defense system disappears.

Although medium- and long-range missile defense programs got cut, short-range and naval-based missile defense systems got a funding boost. Gates added "$200 million to fund conversion of six additional Aegis ships to provide ballistic missile defense capabilities ,” and "$700 million to field more of our most capable theater missile defense systems, specifically the terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) System and Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) programs.”

Bad news for contractors

Other weapon overhauls include the F-22 fighter , the Future Combat Systems vehicles by Boeing, Lockheed’s multiple-kill vehicle , Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics’ DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer , the Lockheed VH-71 presidential helicopter , and Boeing’s C-17 cargo plane , for all of which production was canceled. According to the Government Accountability Office most of the Pentagon’s largest weapons programs are over budget to the tune of $300 billion .

Gates’s goal is to try to move the US military, and in turn the military-industrial complex, away from futuristic weapons systems to equipment that troops can use in conflicts they are currently engaged in: warfare in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. That is why unmanned drones such as the Predator and Reaper get a big budget increase. The difficulty for Gates is that many of these programs are split up into different congressional districts to maximize support for these programs in Congress.

“In the coming weeks, we will hear a great deal about threats and risks and danger to our country and to our men and women in uniform, associated with different budget choices,” Gates said. But, he added: “It is one thing to speak generally about the need for budget discipline and acquisition and contract reform. It is quite another to make tough choices about specific systems and defense priorities based solely on the national interest and then stick to those decisions over time.”

One area of Gates’ speech that was overlooked included hints that the strategic nuclear weapons programs could be overhauled in light of the " Quadrennial Defense Review , the Nuclear Posture Review , and in light of Post-START arms control negotiations.” James Steinberg, the deputy secretary of state, suggested at a conference at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that the State Department’s arms control bureaucracy might increase, while the multibillion-dollar budgets of Los Alamos National Laboratory and other nuclear labs could shrink.

Other policy news from FYI this week

NSF gets support from representatives

Seventy-three representatives have signed a letter to House Appropriations Subcommittee chairman Alan Mollohan (D-WV) and ranking member Frank Wolf (R-VA) in support of President Obama’s $7 billion budget for the National Science Foundation in FY 2010.

APS executive officer testifies before appropriators

Judy Franz, the executive officer of the American Physical Society, testified before the House Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee on April 2. The subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over National Science Foundation funding, convened to receive public testimony. Franz was raising concerns over the boom- bust cycle in science funding and supporting a temporary $150 to $200 million start-up fund for new, young, nontenured science faculty members.

House hearings provide insight on appropriators’ thinking

FYI: The AIP Bulletin of Science Policy News takes a look at the members of the House appropriations subcommittees that deal with science funding.

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