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Missile Agency Head Details Progress to Congress
Thursday, February 28, 2002
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

“... a capabilities-based approach allows us to adjust to those changes in a way the traditional requirements-based approach does not."

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
The Defense Department's aggressive missile defense testing program will continue with a test launch March 15, Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish told Congress Feb. 27.

Kadish testified before a joint hearing of the House military procurement and research and development subcommittees about his agency's budget and plans.

About $7.5 billion in President Bush's Fiscal 2003 Budget Request is slated for missile defense. This is about the same funding level as in fiscal 2002, but the program has been restructured. The United States' withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty will ease some restraints on the program.

Kadish noted that his office -- the former Ballistic Missile Defense Organization -- has morphed into the Missile Defense Agency, but said the basic mission has not changed. He told the representatives that the agency's objective "is to develop a missile defense that's effective to protect our country, our deployed forces, our friends and our allies."
(More: DoD News Source)
2002 © The United States Department of Defense.

Dan