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.)
Lockheed Martin plans to enter the Advanced Tactical Trainer fray to supply the Air Force with a new jet to bridge between undergraduate flight instruction and fighter training units, but declined to say whether it will offer a T-50A derivative, a different non-developmental airplane, or a clean-sheet design. It's comments…