The House and Senate aim to advance the development and modernization of ground- and space-based missile defense platforms designed to counter ballistic missile threats through defense spending bills for fiscal 2018, Defense News reported Monday.The efforts by both chambers of Congress come as the Defense Department works on the Ballistic Missile Defense Review.
A provision in the Senate Armed Services Committee’s proposed fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act would require a report on options to raise the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System’s capacity by up to 100 ground-based interceptors.
The Senate panel’s NDAA would also direct the DoD secretary to consider efforts to accelerate the development of several capabilities cited in the review such as the Multi-Object Kill Vehicle, Redesigned Kill Vehicle, Configuration-3 booster and additional GBIs.
The House’s NDAA version would require DoD to develop a space-based missile defense strategy that details plans on how the U.S. Air Force, Missile Defense Agency and other agencies will build a space-based sensor layer for ballistic missile defense.
The House measure also proposed the creation of a test bed for space-based ballistic missile intercept, the report added.
