[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 162 (Friday, December 16, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S13776]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY'S RECENT TESTING SUCCESSES

  Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I rise to comment on an event that may 
have understandably escaped the attention of my colleagues because our 
plate is full and the schedule is tight. I want to underscore the 
importance of what occurred on Tuesday night, December 13, shortly 
after 10 p.m. Washington time. It signaled a month of great achievement 
in our Nation's Missile Defense Program.
  While many of us were turning on the late news that night, an 
operationally configured, ground-based interceptor missile, of the kind 
now emplaced in both Alaska and California, was launched out of its 
silo in the Marshall Islands and successfully completed all its major 
test objectives. It demonstrated smooth execution of the launch 
sequence, separation of the booster-kill vehicle, cryogenic cooling of 
the sensor, and positioning of the kill vehicle, among many other 
complex actions. For this test, there was a simulated target using data 
from previous launches. The interceptor successfully flew through its 
impact point, and had the target been real, it would have been 
destroyed.
  This test was the latest in an extraordinary month. National 
attention had been focused on setbacks to our defense against long-
range hostile ballistic missiles. However, this has been a month of 
successes for current and future elements of the Ballistic Missile 
Defense System that can provide a defense against both long-range and 
short-range threats. Perhaps these successes have flown under our radar 
screens, but now they deserve recognition.
  In addition to this most recent test, there are at least three others 
that occurred in the past month worthy of note.
  On November 17, an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense SM-3 interceptor, 
launched by an operational crew from the USS Lake Erie off the coast of 
Hawaii, made a direct hit on an inert warhead that separated from a 
target missile 100 miles in space--a far more challenging scenario than 
previous tests. This was the sixth successful intercept by a SM-3 in 
the last seven such tests since testing began in 2002. The successful 
intercept of a separating warhead advances our defense beyond simpler, 
unitary, Scud-like missiles.

  Just as important was the return to flight of the terminal high 
altitude area defense, or THAAD, interceptor. After its last two 
successful flights in 1999, the program and the missile were completely 
overhauled to make it more reliable and easier to manufacture. On 
November 22, the revamped missile was launched from the White Sands 
Missile Range without a flaw. The test validated the interceptor's 
launch from canister, rocket booster operation, shroud and kill vehicle 
separation, and control system that guides it to the target for a kill.
  And not least, just last week, on December 6, the Airborne Laser 
Program successfully completed a full duration lase at operational 
power. This involved linking the energy output of six large laser 
modules into a single beam, powerful enough to destroy a missile in its 
boost phase at the distances we need to shoot to kill. Now that the 
laser has successfully completed ground testing in a surrogate 
aircraft, it is being disassembled to load it onto its flight test 
Boeing 747 for further testing. The significance of achieving this 
milestone cannot be overemphasized--this is a revolutionary weapon with 
the potential to change fundamentally the ways in which we can protect 
our Nation, our troops, and our allies and friends from the growing 
ballistic missile threat.
  These are the more visible Elements of the integrated Ballistic 
Missile Defense System. What ties all these parts together is the 
Global Command, Control, Battle Management and Communications System, 
the brain and the nerves. It is less visible than radars and rockets, 
but our missile defenses couldn't work without it. The integration of 
far-flung parts, new and upgraded, often made at different times by 
different contractors, has been a great challenge, but it is one we are 
steadily and remarkably overcoming.
  There have been many naysayers and doubters on missile defense. But I 
am proud to have supported the Missile Defense Agency over the past 
year as it has grappled in an intensive effort to track down and 
eliminate or minimize risks that have contributed to setbacks in the 
past. There is an emphasis on quality that is paying off, as witnessed 
by these last four successful tests. We learn from our mistakes, and we 
now bear the fruit of the combined efforts of a wide range of dedicated 
military, civilian, and contractor personnel. Testing will continue, we 
will encounter difficulties, but the program will move forward. We are 
succeeding in building an integrated and layered Ballistic Missile 
Defense System, our defenses will continue to improve, and our citizens 
will be increasingly protected and grateful.

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