Jack Reed: “The amendment I support today would provide a condition on the acquisition of interceptors 21 through 30 of the national…”

“The amendment I support today would provide a condition on the acquisition of interceptors 21 through 30 of the national missile defense. The condition would be that the operational testing would be completed--or initiated, at least--prior to the acquisition of these missiles. In a sense, it embraces two issues. The first issue is the unwise acquisition of another 10 missiles beyond the 20 that already have been designed for this initial rudimentary deployment of the national missile defense system. That issue is one. The second issue, again, is the issue of making sure we have realistic operational testing. My legislation, as amended by that of Chairman Warner, would require realistic testing. In fact, it set a date of October 1, 2005, to complete such testing. But I do believe it is important to once again look at this issue of testing, particularly in the context of the acquisition of these additional missile systems.”