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.)
Hawaii F-22s Wrap Up Deployment to Japan
April 9, 2021
F-22s and Airmen from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, forward deployed to Japan for almost one month to train with Japanese and U.S. Marine Corps aircraft as part of a “dynamic force employment” operation. The Raptors from the Active-duty 19th Fighter Squadron and Air National Guard 199th Fighter Squadron deployed…