Jack Reed: “I am just a bit taken aback by the claim of flexibility. The Warner amendment actually sets out a date certain when the…”

“I am just a bit taken aback by the claim of flexibility. The Warner amendment actually sets out a date certain when the tests will be conducted. Particularly, since it is a year away, particularly Mr. Christie is talking about it is premature because it is in the developmental stage. I thought his letter was quite specific. The ground-based midcourse defense element is currently at a material level which requires continued developmental testing with oversight and assistance from operational testing personnel conducting realistic testing in the near term. I guess the question is, What is ``in the near term''? I suggest it would be a year or more. It would be premature and not beneficial to the program. Let me reiterate that this is an extraordinary letter. It says basically this system is not mature enough to test, but we are going to deploy it. I think that is very unusual, particularly given the history of having other systems where, even though they had not completed their operational testing--like the Predator and JSTARS--the plan for operational testing had already been sketched out--not by the Secretary of Defense but by the Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation. I think the flexibility is in my central amendment.”