Mike Levin: “On May 14, Department of Defense officials announced that they intended to classify details of future flight tests of…”

“On May 14, Department of Defense officials announced that they intended to classify details of future flight tests of the national missile defense system. This occurred after the Senate Armed Services Committee had completed its work on the Defense authorization bill, so we were unable to address this issue in the committee version of the bill. The issue needs to be addressed, however. The administration claims that placing a shroud of secrecy around the national missile defense testing program is necessary to prevent details of its operation from being revealed to potential enemies. One can argue whether such secrecy is truly needed, since we are many years away from deployment an effective national missile defense systems. What is not arguable is that Congress has a right and obligation to know the results of such critical tests, regardless of whether they are classified. The amendment offered by Senator Reed and myself would ensure that Congress gets regular reports, classified as necessary, on the results of each national missile defense flight test, 120 days following the test. The reports should describe the objectives of each test, and whether the objectives were met. Such information is absolutely essential for Congress to be able to understand and evaluate the performance of the national missile defense system.”