In a new review of the nation’s ballistic missile defense program, Congressional Research Service analysts say the data on flight test efforts to develop a national missile defense system is “mixed and ambiguous.” There is no conclusive evidence of a learning curve from more than two decades of testing, the report states. And, CRS believes tests lack realism. What is its ultimate conclusion on the efficacy of the kinetic hit-to-kill concept—which it says has consumed most of the $100 billion spent on missile defense since the mid-1980s—it doesn’t have one because it would be “ambiguous at this juncture.” Ah, thanks.
Senior U.S. lawmakers expressed frustration that they are being cut out of some of the Trump administration’s most central decisions on military policy and spending. Their concerns, which are shared on both sides of the aisle, concern the budget reconciliation process as well as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plans to slash…