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Leaders back missile defense research |
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Wednesday, 15 April 2009 |
By PAUL SIMS
Starkville Daily News
Despite concerns about future funding for missile defense, two federal lawmakers representing Mississippi backed the need for such work Tuesday.
U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Third District, spoke to those gathered for a conference on missile research and development at Mississippi State University’s Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems Tuesday.
The conference – entitled “Missile Defense Research and Development – Technology and Public Policy” – drew speakers from varying sectors, officials said in a statement on the conference.
The Computational Simulation and Design Group at CAVS is helping Northrop Grumman prepare its kinetic energy interceptors, or KEIs, for use on submarines and ships.
“Our role is to provide simulation data and technology that will help Northrop Grumman design the most accurate and robust systems possible,” Dave Marcum, chief scientist at CAVS, said in the statement.
The intent for KEI is to hit a bullet with a bullet, and it is compact – relatively speaking – in size.
It provides the military with a number of options on how and where it can be put into use – be it on land or Navy vessels.
Northrop Grumman has supplied more than $850,000 to MSU for research since 2004.
In his talk to those gathered, Wicker reviewed some of the history of missile defense.
During the Cold War, the threat of “mutually assured destruction” – or the possibility that a ballistic missile battle between the former Soviet Union and the United States would leave both nations in ruin – “kept us safe – thank Heaven – for decades,” Wicker said.
Today, “that is not the dynamic,” he said.
Wicker discussed the potential threat that such nations as North Korea and Iran bring and said “we need this capability. ... We need multiple opportunities to destroy a long range ... missile.”
Wicker says that President Barack Obama’s budget doubles the national debt in five years and triples it in 10 years.
Harper says officials have announced missile defense cuts of $1.4 billion, and such cuts are “not a good idea for the protection of our country.”
The nation does not need to try to solve its long-term debt problems “on the backs of national defense,” Wicker said.
Harper spoke of the responsibility “to protect America first and our allies second.”
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 16 April 2009 )
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