May 11, 2022
Press Release
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, delivered the following opening remarks at a hearing on the Department of Defense’s missile defense and defeat policy, priorities, and requirements.
Rep. Lamborn’s remarks as prepared for delivery:
Thank you, Chairman Cooper, for calling today’s hearing, and thank you to our witnesses for being here today.
When tensions are high or when hostilities occur, the demand for missile defense shoots through the roof. But missile defense assets aren’t spigots that can be readily or easily turned on and off when a crisis emerges. The decisions and investments we make today will determine the strength of our posture in conflicts over the next decade.
The importance of ready and comprehensive missile defense has been brought to the forefront considering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The conflict has presented a clear need for additional missile defense systems to persistently defend U.S. and NATO assets, as well as exportable and easy to use systems that we can provide to allies or partners in need. In this case, such systems would enable Ukrainians to better stem the Russian onslaught and defend their civilian population.
We must proactively and innovatively invest in both of these needs at the same time. Stingers are excellent systems, but they are not enough to take out high-end Russian fighters. Robust homeland defense capabilities are essential for deterrence, but they are not battlefield systems.
Given the pace of the North Korean ICBM threat, the Next Generation Interceptor can’t get here soon enough. Admiral Hill, you need to keep us on schedule for a successful test and we need to maintain both contractors through Critical Design Review.
And because of the timelines for a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan as outlined by Admiral Davidson, full funding for the Guam Defense System is non-negotiable.
We must also reckon with the Chinese and Russian hypersonic threats that are no longer emerging and have rapidly arrived. We need to develop our next generation of technologies to defeat these systems.
Additionally, we need to work better with foreign defense firms on co-development and co-production to fill gaps and buy-down risk more rapidly. Our joint development of missile defense capabilities with Israel exemplifies the mutually reinforcing benefits that working with our closest allies and partners can provide in these efforts. And the statement yesterday by the Canadian Defense Minister that Ottawa is interested in joining the United States’ ballistic missile defense system shows how significant these partnerships can be.
And most importantly, we need to fix our manning issues. U.S. forces working the missile defense mission are overworked with Army dwell times hovering around one-to-one. Even if we had additional Patriot batteries to deploy to Eastern Europe, I doubt we could currently man them without significantly over-taxing the force. I hope to hear from our witnesses how they are addressing these key issues, but the manning issue most of all. The demand for missile defense assets isn’t going away. In fact, the demand will only increase and we need to have a force in place to support this high op-tempo.
Lieutenant General Shaw, I’m worried that we still aren’t funding the Hypersonic Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) sufficiently. We must be able to track these challenging targets like the hypersonic threats.
I was also disappointed to see key directed energy programs no longer funded in the Biden budget request. This seems short-sighted, and it seems likely that we in Congress will have to fix this mistake.
With that, I again thank the Chairman and our witnesses, and look forward to the forthcoming testimony.