MDA Budget Request Favors Established Programs, Trims Funds for KEI Development

摘要

The 2006 budget request for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) largely holds the line on established programs while reining in work on a new breed of high-speed interceptors designed to knock down missiles in their boost phase. The White House is seeking $7.8 billion for the MDA next year, $1 billion less than the 2005 total due primarily to the sharp curtailment of the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) effort and the winding down of infrastructure work on the Ground Based Mid-course Defense System, the main U.S. territorial missile shield. MDA budget charts released last February with the 2005 request indicate that the agency anticipated an overall spending decline in 2006, although funding for the KEI program was expected to more than double.