Cuts to the missile defense budget since last year threaten to undermine US ability to defend the homeland, said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). “After huge investment over decades, to prove the technology of a Ground Based Interceptor system, it would be foolish indeed to fail to deploy it effectively, especially when the final cost would really be relatively small,” underscored Sessions last week during a National Defense University Foundation-sponsored speech on Capitol Hill. The GBI is a component of the nation’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense architecture that is meant to protect the United States from long-range ballistic missiles. Underfunding the GBI means that flight testing “will be delayed by at least a year, and this is likely to postpone the manufacture and delivery of GBI boosters, driving up cost,” said Sessions. (For more from Sessions’ July 14 address, see Dances with Bears.)
U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagles have roared out of Barnes Air National Guard Base, Mass., for the last time. The 104th Fighter Wing’s last three F-15Cs departed the base Oct. 23 for the “Boneyard” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., ending the aircraft's era on the frontlines of homeland defense.
