Wayne Allard: “What we are striving for is a commonsense approach to accountability in the missile defense program without so much…”

“What we are striving for is a commonsense approach to accountability in the missile defense program without so much evaluation that we delay it. Each delay adds more and more costs to the program. Then those people who oppose the missile defense program will use that as a reason to defeat the program. The fact is, right now we are in the process of putting those missiles in the ground. This fall we expect them to be operational. In order to have the proper developmental process in place, we have to have a test bed. While we are putting the test bed in place, it requires such a wide area we might as well make it operationally functional at the same time. That is what we are trying to do. The Warner amendment provides the flexibility but still the accountability that we need. I am happy with what he has laid out in that amendment.”