[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 10, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S127-S128]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Missile Defense

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, for about 20 years now, I have viewed the 
development and deployment of a layered ballistic missile defense 
shield as probably singularly the most vital thing we could be doing 
around here. People are aware of that now. Adversaries, like North 
Korea and others, have ballistic missiles, and they are increasing 
their range capability. Iran is getting almost everything. One of the 
problems you have is that you get countries like North Korea developing 
missile capabilities, and if they have it, then other adversaries have 
it. I am talking about Yemen and all the rest of them.
  It is important for us to communicate to the American people that the

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threat we face is probably the most imminent threat we have had in the 
history of this country. Today, it is the greatest threat we have had 
certainly in my lifetime.
  I have come to the floor and spoken on this issue in 2001, 2009, 
2012, and this will be the fourth time this year. Over the last 30 
years, we have witnessed the missile defense programs go through 
dramatic investment periods, followed by extreme starvation and 
cancellations--I am talking about in the United States--depending on 
who happens to be President at the time.
  Remember, of course, when Reagan came in and people made fun of him 
with ``Star Wars'' and tried to defame him in any way they could. Yet 
he was able to be persistent and start a program, and we should be very 
thankful we have it today. That was followed in 1989 by President Bush. 
He continued that program.
  However, in 1993, when President Clinton was in office, the first 
thing he did was to cut $2.5 billion out of the Bush missile defense 
budget request for fiscal year 1994. He also terminated the Reagan-Bush 
Strategic Defense Initiative and downgraded the National Missile 
Defense Program to a research and development program. He cut 5-year 
missile defense funding by 54 percent, from $39 billion to $18 billion.
  I say this because these times are changing. Continuing with his 
administration in 1996, he cut the funding and slowed down the 
development of THAAD and the Navy Theater Wide Systems. To remind 
ourselves of how important that was at that time and the cuts he made 
to that and how critical that was, THAAD right now is the only thing we 
have to join forces with South Korea to be able to knock down something 
coming from North Korea to South Korea. The Aegis system is a defensive 
system that we could share with Japan. Without these systems, they 
would be wide open. That was 1996.
  In 1999, the last of the Clinton years, he delayed by at least 2 
years the Space Based Infrared System, which is a very complicated 
system that knocks down incoming missiles. Then, in 2000, Bush came in. 
By the end of 2008, President Bush had succeeded in fielding a missile 
defense system capable of defending all 50 States. One of the things he 
did that was most significant--and this is in the final years of his 
administration--was to recognize the fact that we have had ground-based 
interceptors in our country for a number of years. In fact, there are 
44 ground-based interceptor systems. Unfortunately, they are all on the 
west coast because that is where we thought the threat would be. We 
discovered at that time, during the Bush administration, that the 
threat was from both sides because we recognized that Iran was 
developing the capabilities, as well as North Korea and others. So in 
order to protect Eastern United States as well as Central Europe, we 
had the system that was set up. It was kind of funny because I remember 
being there with one of our strongest allies. The system they set up 
was one where they had a radar system in the Czech Republic, and they 
had a rocket system--a ground-based interceptor--in Poland, right next 
door. I remember when Vaclav Klaus was the President of the Czech 
Republic, one of our strongest supporters, and he said to me at that 
time: Now, if we go ahead and put our system in the Czech Republic and 
in Poland, can you assure me that if we incur the wrath of Russia, we 
are not going to end up being embarrassed and have the rug pulled out 
from under us?
  I said: There is not a chance in the world that would happen.
  Well, that did happen. In fact, it was a total of 44 ground-based 
interceptors that were fielded. That was in Alaska and California, on 
the west coast. We went through this where they pulled the rug out from 
under Poland, as well as the Czech Republic. Then, in April, came our 
first Obama defense cuts, which began disarming America and dismantling 
our layered missile defense system. This is critical because we put 
this in for the reason that we perceived the threat to be coming in 
from the east as opposed to the west coast, and the very system that 
would have protected us was taken down by President Obama.
  I would say, due to his overall reduced budget requests in defense, 
there were not enough Aegis ships. I already mentioned how we are using 
those today in defense of many of our allies, including Japan. Since 
Kim Jong Un took power in 2009, he has already conducted more than 80 
ballistic missile tests. That is far more than his father and his 
grandfather conducted.

  North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests of increasingly powerful 
weapons. The latest test was in September of last year. The major test 
actually came after that, and that was on November 28. On November 28, 
he demonstrated that he had the range of the United States and the 
central part of our country. In other words, it was stated by others 
who observed that he now has the capability of reaching any target in 
mainland United States.
  There were some scientists who did an analysis of what they did on 
November 28. They made it very clear. David Wright, an analyst for the 
Union of Concerned Scientists, wrote that--this is something that 
happened on November 29--that yesterday's test indicates that North 
Korea can now hold the United States well within missile range. He 
said: ``Such a missile would have been more than enough range to reach 
Washington, DC, and in fact any other part of the continental United 
States.''
  Here is the scary part of this. Those who are not wanting to believe 
that the threat is real and the threat is there are saying: Well, we 
don't know that the missile he demonstrated on November 28 could have 
reached that range if it had a full payload, a load of a nuclear 
warhead.
  We don't know if they had one or not, but that doesn't give me much 
comfort. They also questioned whether or not it could sustain the 
reentry back into the atmosphere.
  The point is that they now have that capability, and that is 
something we have to keep in mind as we are making decisions, because 
we have decisions to make, and that is what we are doing right now in 
trying to decide how we are going to keep the government from shutting 
down and develop some kind of a budget plan that is going to serve us 
well.