Pentagon missile defense chiefs say the proposed $886.3 billion defense budget that hits the Senate floor this week provides urgently needed funding to address pressing shortfalls in missile systems, missiles, and missileers.
The massive appropriations package, or National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), earmarks more than $70 billion for “theater range” anti-missile systems to counter proliferating ballistic, cruise, hypersonic, and kinetic threats “across all realms.”
The draft defense budget calls for significant increases in MIM-104 Patriot, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), and Aegis systems and munitions.
It provides funding for five new 90-man Patriot units, to field 20 batteries within five years; for six THAAD units to nearly double now-active batteries; and to add seven Aegis-equipped U.S. Navy warships to the fleet, bringing the number to 60 in the coming year.
The proposed Fiscal Year 2024 NDAA, approved on Dec. 6 by a House–Senate conference committee two months after the fiscal year began on Oct. 1, will be heard in the Senate, likely beginning on Dec. 13, before moving on to the House.
During a Dec. 7 hearing before a House Armed Services subcommittee on tactical missile defense, officials from the Biden administration, the Department of Defense (DOD), the Army, and the Missile Defense Agency called on Congress to get an adopted defense budget to President Joe Biden’s desk by year-end.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space and Missile Defense John Hill told the Strategic Forces Subcommittee that operating under a continuous resolution has delayed upgrades in munitions, supply chains, technologies, and manpower to alleviate deployment fatigue among thinly stretched U.S. missile defense forces.
“Operating under continuing resolutions hamstrings the department’s people and programs and undermines both our national security and competitiveness,” Mr. Hill said, noting that every day that the NDAA idles is a day that shortfalls and supply dysfunctions exposed by the Ukraine–Russia and Israel–Hamas wars are aggravated rather than resolved.
He said that supplying Ukraine with THAAD and Patriot munitions and Israel with Patriot and Iron Dome munitions is nearing a point “where we’re not going to be able to deliver.”
While the systems “are performing well operationally, this confluence of global aggression has spotlighted our limited capacity to address the growing requirements” from allies as well as U.S. combatant commanders “with a finite number of Aegis-capable ships, THAAD batteries, and Patriot battalions,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) said.
“At some point—a point we may have already reached—any changes in our regional missile defense posture will almost certainly induce risk somewhere else in the world,” he said.
“The limited capacity of regional missile defense capabilities highlights a central issue in the missile defense policy debate.”
DOD Regional Operations and Force Management Deputy Director Army Brig. Gen. Clair Gill said that in addition to supply challenges, the Ukraine–Russia and Israel–Hamas wars “place an ever-increasing strain on [U.S.] joint integrated air and missile defense forces ... one of the most-stressed force elements across the entirety of the joint force.”
Without more missile systems, missiles, and missileers, he warned that U.S. military commanders may be faced with deciding what’s to be defended and what isn’t.
“We often discuss the balance between the tactical now and the strategic future. The conversation always ends up focusing on risk,” Gen. Gill said. “Do we risk deploying units early? Do we jeopardize service modernization plans? Or do we mortgage ‘dwell’ time [between deployments] at home station?”
Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chair Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) said the NDAA’s “key provisions” in missile defense aren’t wants but needs.
“I cannot emphasize enough how critical it is that we get the NDAA signed into law at the soonest possible time,” he said.
Lessons Learned in Ukraine
Mr. Hill and the three missile defense chiefs said the NDAA’s multiyear procurement authorization and $106 billion supplemental funding bill, currently stalled in the Senate, translates into a $50 billion “demand signal” to domestic industry to invest in expanded missile munitions and missile systems production lines.The Biden administration’s proposed $106 billion supplemental package requests $61.4 billion in assistance for Ukraine, $14.3 billion for Israel, $14 billion to bolster U.S.–Mexico border security, $9 billion in humanitarian assistance to Israel and Gaza, and $7.4 billion for Taiwan and other Pacific allies. Among provisions is $755 million to increase Patriot missile production from 550 to 650 annually.
The most heated objection to the supplemental measure, especially among House conservatives, is the additional Ukraine aid. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be in Washington beginning on Dec. 12 to lobby for that supplemental money.
“Ukraine is fighting NATO’s and America’s battle,” Mr. Hill testified. “They are facing a threat from Russia, from war criminal [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. Ukraine has demonstrated you can’t put over-reliance on hopefully hoping somebody has changed their ways—and they’re paying a terrible price for it.”
Mr. Hill and the missile defense chiefs said halting support for Ukraine would imperil U.S. efforts to counter Russian, Chinese, and Iranian aggression through alliances—especially if that means denying munitions for U.S.-made missile defense systems.
“Integrated air and missile defense is why Ukraine remains sovereign,” he said.
“Our commitment to Ukraine demonstrates the credibility of the commitments we make all around the world. Standing up and supporting Ukraine in that fight is standing up and supporting American national interest.”
‘Netting’ Sensors and Shooters
Asked by Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) what lessons the Pentagon has gleaned from “a two-year test of [U.S.] missile defense systems” in Ukraine, officials said the conflict confirms that Patriot, THAAD, and Aegis systems work and that drones—which can be missiles or missile-shooters—are changing the playing field.“We’ve looked extensively at the Ukraine conflict, and I can tell you the use of drones and how we’re seeing drones being utilized ... highlights the need for an integrated approach, for ‘netting’ all your sensors and shooters together,” said Maj. Gen. Sean Gainey, director of the Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office and director of fires for the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7.
Integration, indeed, is key, agreed Gen. Gill, citing the demonstrated “power of a coalition, allies, and partners and what we can do when we all come together” in “netting” radars and responses.
Missile Defense Agency Acting Director Rear Adm. Douglas Williams said integration has benefited Israel in coordinating “weapons system writ large with various subsystems,” such as joint Israel–U.S. developed Arrow, David’s Sling, and Iron Dome systems that “integrate effectively for one complete command-and-control picture so they can select the optimum missile system to engage threats, whether from Gaza with rockets, or from Houthis originating out of Yemen with a ballistic missile.”
Mr. Moulton noted that Israel’s missile defense systems save lives in Gaza by giving the Israel Defense Forces the capacity to shoot down rockets and missiles and target launch profiles rather than simply respond with blanket artillery.
He agreed with the generals that without U.S. missile defense systems and munitions, Ukraine would no longer exist.
“It’s safe to say not only have these systems saved countless civilian lives, but they’re a key reason Ukraine has been able to maintain its sovereignty almost two years after war criminal Vladimir Putin’s invasion.”
