Congressional Research Service says that Congress has given only “a mixed reception” to the concept of deploying some long range ballistic missiles in a conventional mode. Even so, both the Air Force and the Navy, urged on by the Administration, have studied concepts and technologies for doing so. The Air Force budget request for 2006 contains funding for its efforts. The Pentagon sees conventional ballistic missiles as key to its new prompt global strike mission.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…