Sec. 1657. Sense of the Senate on acceleration of missile defense capabilities
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/bill/115/hr/5515/pap/section-1657·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
It is the sense of the Senate that the Missile Defense Agency should— accelerate the fielding, if technically feasible, of the planned additional 20 ground-based interceptors with Redesigned Kill Vehicles
(RKV)at Missile Field 4 at Fort Greely, Alaska, and to mate the Redesigned Kill Vehicles with the newest booster technology; weigh the rapid growth in missile and nuclear threats against the cost and risk of accelerating the Redesigned Kill Vehicle and the Multi-Object Kill Vehicle development and deployment; ensure, prior to its operational deployment, that the Redesigned Kill Vehicle has demonstrated the ability to accomplish its intended mission through a successful, operationally realistic flight test; rapidly develop and deploy a persistent, space-based sensor architecture to ensure our missile defenses are more effective against ballistic missile threats and more responsive to new and emergent threats from hypersonic and cruise missiles; pursue innovative concepts for existing technologies, such as a missile defense role for the F–35 aircraft; and invest in advanced technologies, such as boost-phase warning, tracking, and intercept. Not later than 180 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 report on ways the Missile Defense Agency can accelerate the construction of Missile Field 4 at Fort Greely, Alaska, as well as the deployment of 20 ground-based interceptors with Redesigned Kill Vehicles
(RKV)at such missile field, by at least one year. The report required by paragraph
(1)shall include the following: A threat-based description of the benefits and risks of accelerating the construction and deployment referred to in paragraph (1). A description of the technical and acquisition risks and potential effects on the reliability of the Redesigned Kill Vehicle if deployment is accelerated as described in paragraph (1). A description of the cost implications of accelerating the construction and deployment referred to in paragraph (1). A description of the effect such acceleration would have on the Redesigned Kill Vehicle flight test schedule and the overall Integrated Master Test Plan. A description of the effect that the acceleration described in paragraph
(1)would have on re-tipping currently deployed exoatmospheric kill vehicles with the Redesigned Kill Vehicle. A description of how such acceleration would align with the deployment of the long range discrimination radar and the homeland defense radar-Hawaii. A cost-benefit analysis and a feasibility assessment for construction of a fifth missile field at Fort Greely, Alaska. The report required by paragraph
(1)shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.