[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8685-8686]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO VICE ADMIRAL JAMES D. SYRING

  Mr. SHELBY. Madam President, today I wish to mark the retirement of 
VADM James D. Syring from the U.S. Navy following more than three 
decades of military service to this great Nation.
  In his last post, he served as the Director of the United States 
Missile Defense Agency, MDA. As Director, Admiral Syring made enormous 
contributions to the successful development and fielding of the 
Ballistic Missile Defense System, BMDS, in order to protect our Nation, 
American troops deployed abroad, our allies, and our international 
partners.
  Beginning as a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy, the Navy 
recognized his potential early on and designated him an engineering 
duty officer, where he served in various assignments.
  Upon selection to flag rank in 2010, Admiral Syring served as the 
program executive officer for Integrated Warfare Systems, where he 
managed integrated weapons systems for ships, submarines, carriers, and 
aircraft within the Fleet and Joint Force.
  His intellect, work ethic, and ability to deliver complex weapons 
systems resulted in his being nominated and confirmed as the ninth 
Director of MDA in November 2012, the first naval officer to assume the 
directorship of this multibillion-dollar Agency. He oversaw MDA's 
worldwide mission to develop and deliver to the warfighter a capability 
to defend the United States against ballistic missile attacks. He has 
done an outstanding job.
  During his time at MDA, the Agency and the Department of Defense made 
significant progress in addressing current and emerging ballistic 
missile threats of all ranges. The progress made is even more 
remarkable considering the budget cuts sustained during that time. In 
response to the growing North Korean ICBM threat, Admiral Syring 
implemented a program to expand the capacity of homeland missile 
defenses. His leadership brought acquisition rigor to the critical 
Ground-based Midcourse Defense--GMD--Program and laid the foundation 
for the Agency to implement ground system modernization, a robust 
ground-based interceptor--GBI--Stockpile Reliability Program, as well 
as the Redesigned Kill Vehicle Program.
  Under Admiral Syring's steady hand, the Agency successfully fielded a 
new data terminal at Fort Drum, NY, providing the warfighter the 
capability to improve communication with homeland defense interceptors.
  He also oversaw a strategy to improve the overall sensor and 
discrimination capability of the Ballistic Missile Defense System. With 
the Long Range Discrimination Radar--LRDR--Program, MDA will deploy an 
improved persistent midcourse BMDS discrimination capability to enhance 
the Pacific architecture. The program today is within cost and is on 
schedule to deliver an initial capability to the warfighter in 2020. 
Those most familiar with major defense acquisition programs know that 
this is no small accomplishment.
  Overall, Admiral Syring's advocacy for additional interceptor 
capacity, improved GBI reliability, a redesigned kill vehicle, and LRDR 
resulted in a fielded system that meets the threat today and is well-
positioned to be expanded upon for future challenges.
  Admiral Syring was also responsible for major BMDS asset deployments 
around the globe. He strengthened regional defenses by continuing 
deliveries of terminal high altitude area defense--THAAD--interceptors 
and Standard Missile-3--SM-3--Block IBs for use on Aegis Ballistic 
Missile Defense ships and at Aegis Ashore sites. He took steps to 
ensure that the United States remained committed to the planned 
European phased adaptive approach--EPAA--deployments.
  He oversaw the delivery of the Aegis Ashore system in Romania in 
support of EPAA Phase 2, which was accepted for operations by the 
warfighter in May 2016. In addition, under his leadership, construction 
of the Aegis Ashore site in Poland commenced to improve European NATO 
defenses against medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. He 
kept the Agency on track to deliver by the end of 2018 the

[[Page 8686]]

initial SM-3 Block IIA missiles developed in cooperation with Japan to 
support EPAA Phase 3.
  Additionally, Admiral Syring supported successful negotiations 
between the United States and the Republic of Korea, ROK, on the 
deployment of a THAAD battery to the ROK, shoring up defenses against 
the growing threat from North Korean ballistic missiles.
  In order to deal with future missile threats, Admiral Syring pursued 
an advanced technology program with the goal of reducing the cost of 
engaging increasing and complex ballistic missile threats.
  Finally, Admiral Syring successfully initiated the development of an 
experimental space sensor layer for the BMDS, a new, low-cost program 
called Space-based Kill Assessment, SKA. The program will increase the 
performance of the BMDS by collecting data on missile intercepts, a 
critical capability of which the significance cannot be overstated.
  Our Nation has long hoped and, indeed, expected that we will always 
be able to recruit and retain capable individuals with a strong sense 
of patriotism, who will spend their careers ensuring that our country 
is safe in peacetime and capable in time of war. The contributions that 
VADM James D. Syring made to the Missile Defense Agency, the U.S. Navy, 
and the national security of the United States of America over his 
career have again shown our Nation's hopes are not too great to be met. 
As he retires after more than three decades of military service, I wish 
him and his family well, and I hope he has a deep appreciation of his 
legacy to this Nation and of the gratitude of his fellow citizens.

                          ____________________