Congress Should Not Fund the Planned European Missile Defense System
The Bush Administration has requested $720 million in Fiscal Year 2009 for the development and deployment of 10 missile defense interceptors in Poland and a large radar in the Czech Republic. By fielding this system now, the United States would incur large security and monetary costs, while acquiring no defensive capability in return. Deploying the system now would therefore decrease U.S. security, not increase it.
The proposed system has not been adequately tested, could readily be defeated by countermeasures, and is helping fuel a serious erosion in the U.S.-Russian relationship with far-reaching security consequences. Our key concerns about this proposal are discussed in this factsheet.
