By JOHN T. BENNETT
WASHINGTON — Republican Senate Armed Services Committee member Sen. Kelly Ayotte says the Obama administration intends to “cancel,” not restructure, the SM-3 Block II missile program, and that the White House and Pentagon are bowing to Moscow’s demands.
During a Tuesday speech at the Heritage Foundation, the New Hampshire senator labeled a recent SM-3 program announcement “a further concession to Vladimir Putin,” Russia’s once-and-again president.
While new Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced last Friday the administration intends to restructure the SM-3 Block II program, Ayotte said the White House’s true aim is to terminate it.
“We had planned to deploy the SM-3 IIB as part of the European Phased Adaptive Approach. The purpose was to add to the protection of the U.S. homeland already provided by our current GBIs [ground-based interceptors] against missile threats from the Middle East,” Hagel said during a Pentagon briefing last Friday. “The timeline for deploying this program had been delayed to at least 2022 due to cuts in congressional funding. Meanwhile, the threat matures.”
The White House and Pentagon intend to shift SM-3 Block II monies toward the fielding of additional ground-based missile interceptor systems and other platforms.
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