Sec. 1655. Sense of the Senate and report on ground-based midcourse defense testing
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It is the sense of the Senate that— at a minimum, the Missile Defense Agency should continue to flight test the ground-based midcourse defense element at least once each fiscal year; the Department of Defense should allocate increased funding to homeland missile defense testing to ensure that our defenses continue to evolve faster than the threats against which they are postured to defend; in order to rapidly innovate, develop, and field new technologies, the Director of the Missile Defense Agency should continue to focus testing campaigns on delivering increased capabilities to the Armed Forces as quickly as possible; and the Director of the Missile Defense Agency should seek to establish a more prudent balance between risk mitigation and the more rapid testing pace needed to quickly develop and deliver new capabilities to the Armed Forces.
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the Missile Defense Agency shall submit to the congressional defense committees a revised missile defense testing campaign plan that accelerates the development and deployment of new missile defense technologies. The report required by paragraph
(1)shall include the following: A detailed analysis of the acceleration of each of following programs: Redesigned kill vehicle. Multi-object kill vehicle. Configuration-3 Booster. Lasers mounted on small unmanned aerial vehicles. Space-based missile defense sensor architecture. Such additional technologies as the Director considers appropriate. A new deployment timeline for each of the programs in listed in subparagraph
(A)or a detailed description of why the current timeline for deployment technologies under those programs is most suitable. An identification of any funding or policy restrictions that would slow down the deployment of the technologies under the programs listed in subparagraph (A). A risk assessment of the potential cost-overruns and deployment delays that may be encountered in the expedited development process of the capabilities under paragraph (1). The Director shall include with the budget justification materials submitted to Congress in support of the budget of the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2019 (as submitted with the budget of the President under section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code) a report on the funding profile necessary for the new testing campaign plan required by subsection (b)(1).