Statement of Robert F. Hale, Assistant Director, National Security Division, Congressional Budget Office
Abstract
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the budget of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). For fiscal year 1988, the Administration has requested $5.2 billion for SDI research in the Department of Defense (DoD). Over the next five years (1988-1992), the request totals about $37 billion. (The total request for SDI research -- $5.8 billion in 1988 -- includes about $600 million for work to be done by the Department of Energy, but I will focus on DoD funds.) My testimony describes this SDI request and discusses some important trends in funding. Those trends suggest that SDI will consume a sharply growing share of all DoD research funds. There are also shifts in funds within SDI that suggest a growing emphasis on more mature technologies, though SDI continues substantial funding for many types of technologies. It is beyond the scope of my testimony to judge the desirability of these requests. SDI has a far-reaching goal: to deter nuclear war by defending populations against a nuclear attack rather than by relying primarily on retaliation to provide deterrence. The desirability of SDI's funding requests depends on an assessment of the importance of that goal and the likelihood of achieving it. It also requires examining the impact of SDI funding on other research programs for defense. The five program elements of SDI research are Kinetic Energy Weapons (KEW); Directed Energy Weapons (DEW); Surveillance, Acquisition, Tracking, and Kill Assessment (SATKA); Systems Analysis and Battle Management (SABM); and Survivability, Lethality, and Key Technologies (SLKT).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 26, 1987
- Accession Number
- ADA529879
Entities
People
- Robert F. Hale
Organizations
- Congressional Budget Office