TALKING POINTS ON NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE AND THE ABM TREATY
(Updated; 5/22/96)
Overview
- The Administration's ballistic missile defense program starts
with a sober and clear-eyed look at the missile threat. It
responds with a balanced program that emphasizes the current
threat and stays well ahead of future threats, without wasting
taxpayers' dollars on unnecessary systems or undermining our
gains in reducing the nuclear threat through arms control.
A Responsible Program for National Missile Defense
- The Administration is committed to developing by the year 2000
an NMD system that could be deployed as soon as 2003 -- well
ahead of when we expect to see a long-range threat to the
United States.
- By delaying a deployment decision until required by an
emerging threat, we avoid committing to a specific technology
and thus ensure deployment of the best possible NMD system if
and when the threat emerges.
- We also avoid premature consideration of whether amendments to
the ABM Treaty are needed, thereby ensuring that the massive
reductions in nuclear forces mandated by START T and START II
-- resulting in a reduction by 14,000 in the number of
deployed U.S. and Russian nuclear warheads -- remain on track.
Job 1: Defense Against Existing Threats
- The Administration's first priority has been to provide effective theater missile defenses (TMD) against short-range
missile threats we face today in the Middle East and Asia.
- Making TMD our top priority puts the U.S. in the best position
to defeat existing threats to U.S. forces, friends and allies.
- Since 1993, the Administration has requested almost $6 billion
for research, development arid procurement of effective TMDs,
such as the Patriot, PAC-3 and Navy "Lower Tier," designed to
shoot down short-range missiles armed with conventional,
chemical, biological or nuclear warheads.
- Patriot is in use now and the PAC-3 and Navy Lower Tier will
be fielded in 1998.
- Top U.S. government scientists agree that it would take
at least a decade before a space-based laser weapons
system could be tested; at present, the U.S. lacks space
boosters large enough to lift such a system into orbit.
Yet the bill suggests full-deployment by 2003 -- but is
silent on how much this would cost or where we would get
the money.