Security

Will Obama Continue 'Star Wars?' (Updated)

President-elect Obama may not exactly see eye-to-eye with the chiefs of the Missile Defense Agency. But don’t expect the latter-day Star Wars program to go away, Time magazine’s Mark Thompson argues. "The Russians — along with the two men most likely to end up running the Pentagon for the President-elect — have already made sure […]

Ftt09a

President-elect Obama may not exactly see eye-to-eye with the chiefs of the Missile Defense Agency. But don't expect the latter-day Star Wars program to go away, *Time *magazine's Mark Thompson argues. "The Russians — along with the two men most likely to end up running the
Pentagon for the President-elect — have already made sure of that."

If Obama keeps Defense Secretary Robert Gates on, as some advisers are arguing he should, that would come as no surprise. "Russia has nothing to fear from a defensive missile shield,"
Gates said Thursday as he argued for extending the system to Europe... The other leading contender for the Pentagon post is Richard Danzig, a Clinton Navy secretary, who recently told reporters that the Obama team has "a strong view that national missile defense is a rewarding area and should be invested in."

True. And, as Nathan noted last week, the agency has done a masterful job of spreading its largess throughout Congressional districts. But I'd bet either man might use the change-of-administration to force the sprawling, $10 billion-per-year Missile Defense Agency to make some cuts. In lean budget times, the MDA is looking awfully blubbery.

Last month, a report by the influential Institute for Defense Analyses suggested that the MDA become a research and development shop -- letting the other military services run the anti-missile projects, once they're more than glorified lab tests. In the transfer, some of the MDA's thousand-and-one projects could get sifted out.

UPDATE: "Congressional committees are looking to scale back the role of the Missile Defense Agency, an organization that has operated outside the normal rules for weapons programs since it was created by then-Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld in 2002," writes CQ's Josh Rogin.

"I think it’s unlikely you’ll see MDA in its current form after next year. It’s going to be downgraded," one Democratic committee aide tells Rogin. "MDA needs to stop doing everything, and they need to go back to their core mission."

[Photo: MDA]

ALSO: