[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2596 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2596

 To provide for a testing program for the Navy Theater-Wide system and 
             the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense system.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 22, 1999

 Mr. Vitter (for himself, Mr. Hunter, and Mr. Weldon of Pennsylvania) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide for a testing program for the Navy Theater-Wide system and 
             the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense system.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Realistic Tests for Realistic 
Threats National Security Act of 1999''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The Government of North Korea, on August 31, 1998, 
        launched a three-stage rocket called the Taepo Dong I.
            (2) The Taepo Dong rocket, when configured and deployed as 
        a ballistic missile, will pose a threat to United States 
        military forces deployed in Asia, to Asian allies of the United 
        States, and possibly to the United States itself.
            (3) The United States is committed to protecting both its 
        forward deployed forces, its allies in Asia, and United States 
        citizens against the threat of ballistic missile attack through 
        the development and deployment of ballistic missile defense 
        systems, including the Navy Theater-Wide system and the Theater 
        High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.
            (4) The Taepo Dong I rocket, when configured as a ballistic 
        missile, is estimated to have a maximum velocity greater than 
        the velocity of the targets in currently planned tests against 
        target of either the Navy Theater-Wide system or the Theater 
        High Altitude Area Defense system. If these systems are not 
        tested against target missiles with velocities comparable to 
        the maximum velocity of the Taepo Dong I missile, the United 
        States will not be capable of meeting the threat posed by the 
        near-term deployment of that missile by North Korea.
            (5) Both the Navy Theater-Wide system and the Theater High 
        Altitude Area Defense system should be tested in a way to 
        demonstrate their respective capabilities to intercept missiles 
        with the flight characteristics, and particularly with the 
        maximum velocity, of the Taepo Dong I missile.

SEC. 3. TESTING OF THE NAVY THEATER-WIDE SYSTEM AND THE THEATER HIGH-
              ALTITUDE AREA DEFENSE SYSTEM.

    (a) Tests.--The Director of the Ballistic Missile Defense 
Organization of the Department of Defense shall, no later than 
September 30, 2001, conduct at least one intercept test of the Navy 
Theater-Wide defense system and at least one intercept test of the 
Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system against target 
missiles with velocities not less than the maximum velocity of the 
Taepo Dong I missile of North Korea.
    (b) Program Management.--The Director of the Ballistic Missile 
Defense Organization shall take immediate steps to modify plans for 
managing the development of the Navy Theater-Wide system and the 
Theater High Altitude Area Defense system to meet the deadline for the 
conduct of the intercept tests required by subsection (a).
    (c) System Configuration.--The Director of the Ballistic Missile 
Defense Organization, in order to improve the likelihood that the 
intercept tests required by subsection (a) are successful, should 
review changes in the configuration of the Navy Theater-Wide system and 
the Theater High Altitude Area Defense system--
            (1) to increase the speed of their interceptor missiles to 
        well in excess of three kilometers-per-second; and
            (2) to allow the interceptor missiles of those systems to 
        receive and use targeting data provided by a variety of 
        external sensors, including shipboard radar, airborne sensors, 
        ground-based radar, and satellite sensors.
    (d) Funding.--The preparations for, and the conduct of, the tests 
required by subsection (a) shall be paid out of funds available to the 
Navy Theater-Wide program and the Theater High Altitude Area Defense 
program.
                                 <all>