[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 149 (Thursday, September 14, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S5762]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 1073. Mr. SULLIVAN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
to amendment SA 1003 proposed by Mr. McCain (for himself and Mr. Reed)
to the bill H.R. 2810, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2018
for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
Strike section 1653 and insert the following:
SEC. 1653. GROUND-BASED INTERCEPTOR CAPABILITY, CAPACITY, AND
RELIABILITY.
(a) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate
that it is the policy of the United States to maintain and
improve, with the allies of the United States, an effective,
robust layered missile defense system capable of defending
the citizens of the United States residing in territories and
States of the United States, allies of the United States, and
deployed Armed Forces of the United States.
(b) Increase in Capacity and Continued Advancement.--The
Secretary of Defense shall--
(1) subject to the annual authorization of appropriations
and the annual appropriation of funds for National Missile
Defense, increase the number of United States ground-based
interceptors, unless otherwise directed by the Ballistic
Missile Defense Review, by up to 28;
(2) develop a plan to further increase such number to the
currently available missile field capacity of 104 and to plan
for any future capacity at any site that may be identified by
the Ballistic Missile Defense Review; and
(3) continue to rapidly advance missile defense
technologies to improve the capability and reliability of the
ground-based midcourse defense element of the ballistic
missile defense system.
(c) Deployment.--Not later than December 31, 2021, the
Secretary of Defense shall--
(1) execute any requisite construction to ensure that
Missile Field 1 or Missile Field 2 at Fort Greely or
alternative missile fields at Fort Greely which may be
identified pursuant to subsection (b), are capable of
supporting and sustaining additional ground-based
interceptors;
(2) deploy up to 14 additional ground-based interceptors to
Missile Field 1 or up to 20 additional ground-based
interceptors to an alternative missile field at Fort Greely
as soon as technically feasible; and
(3) identify a ground-based interceptor stockpile storage
site for the remaining ground-based interceptors required by
subsection (b).
(d) Report.--
(1) In general.--Unless otherwise directed or recommended
by the Ballistic Missile Defense Review (BMDR), the Director
of the Missile Defense Agency shall submit to the
congressional defense committees, not later than 90 days
after the completion of the Ballistic Missile Defense Review,
a report on options to increase the capability, capacity, and
reliability of the ground-based midcourse defense element of
the ballistic missile defense system and the infrastructure
requirements for increasing the number of ground-based
interceptors in currently feasible locations across the
United States.
(2) Contents.--The report required by paragraph (1) shall
include the following:
(A) An identification of potential sites in the United
States, whether existing or new on the East Coast or in the
Midwest, for the deployment of 104 ground-based interceptors.
(B) A cost-benefit analysis of each such site, including
tactical, operational, and cost-to-construct considerations.
(C) A description of any completed and outstanding
environmental assessments or impact statements for each such
site.
(D) A description of the existing capacity of the missile
fields at Fort Greely and the infrastructure requirements
needed to increase the number of ground-based interceptors to
20 ground-based interceptors each.
(E) A description of the additional infrastructure and
components needed to further outfit missile fields at Fort
Greely before emplacing additional ground-based interceptors
configured with the redesigned kill vehicle, including with
respect to ground excavation, silos, utilities, and support
equipment.
(F) A cost estimate of such infrastructure and components.
(G) An estimated schedule for completing such construction
as may be required for such infrastructure and components.
(H) An identification of any environmental assessments or
impact studies that would need to be conducted to expand such
missile fields at Fort Greely beyond current capacity.
(I) An operational evaluation and cost analysis of the
deployment of transportable ground-based interceptors,
including an identification of potential sites, including in
the eastern United States and at Vandenberg Air Force Base,
and an examination of any environmental, legal, or tactical
challenges associated with such deployments, including to any
sites identified in subparagraph (A).
(J) A determination of the appropriate fleet mix of ground-
based interceptor kill vehicles and boosters to maximize
overall system effectiveness and increase its capacity and
capability, including the costs and benefits of continued
inclusion of capability enhancement II (CE-II) Block 1
interceptors after the fielding of the redesigned kill
vehicle.
(K) A description of the planned improvements to homeland
ballistic missile defense sensor and discrimination
capabilities and an assessment of the expected operational
benefits of such improvements to homeland ballistic missile
defense.
(L) The benefit of supplementing ground-based midcourse
defense elements with other, more distributed, elements,
including both Aegis ships and Aegis Ashore installations
with Standard Missile-3 Block IIA and other interceptors in
Hawaii and at other locations for homeland missile defense.
(3) Form.--The report submitted under paragraph (1) shall
be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a
classified annex.
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