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Rep. Duncan Hunter

Ballistic Missile Defense
7 March 1996 - House National Security Committee
Military Procurement Subcommittee and the Military Research and Development Subcommittee

Thank you, Chairman Weldon. I, too, welcome our witnesses today.

I am struck by the fact that the Department's plans for ballistic missile defense are in many ways similar to their plans for modernization overall. And I can summarize those plans in one simple word: Underfunded.

The Department chose to slash funding for ballistic missile defense including their highest priority theater missile defense programs -- in order to pay for other modernization programs. This point was conceded by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Shalikashvili when, in a cable leaked to the Washington Times, he told General Luck, the commander of U.S. force sin Korea the following: (quote) "The primary objective [of the Missile Defense Review] is to free up dollars for critically underfunded areas of recapitalization." (end quote) If that's not proof that the emperor has no clothes, I don't know what is.

What is even more astounding to me is that senior official in the Department knowingly rejected the advice of a U.S. warfighting CINC in arriving at its conclusion to slash funding for THAAD. General Gary Luck, the commander in chief of U.S. forces in Korea, knows the Noah Korean missile threat first-hand. He sees it every day. The Washington bureaucrats that sit on the JROC aren't "under the gun" like General Luck is. And what did General Luck want? He wrote to General Shalikashvili to strongly urge that funding for THAAD be sustained and the schedule for deploying THAAD not be slipped, as recommended by the JROC. General Shalikashvili and Under Secretary of Defense Paul Kaminski rejected General Luck's plea.

I find this episode highly troubling. It tells me that DoD is not taking advice from places it should, and that its programs are purely dollar driven,based on a woefully under-funded Defense top-line. That's not a receipe for sound decision-making on critical defense programs such as ballistic missile defense.

I thank the Chairman for yielding, and look forward to the testimony.