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House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) and House Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Chairman Michael Turner (R-OH) sent a letter Friday to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta expressing concern over the Obama Administration’s plans to continue a sharp decline in the attention and resources invested in U.S. national missile defenses.
According to the Letter:
“In 2009, the Administration justified a significant shift in U.S. missile defense policy on the basis of what was labeled 'new intelligence assessments.' Secretary Gates, in a September 17, 2009, press conference, stated, 'our intelligence assessments also now assesses that the threat of potential Iranian intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities has been slower to develop to than was estimated in 2006.' It therefore follows that a shift in intelligence could justify a further change in U.S. missile defense strategy.”
The recently released unclassified 2012 Report of Military Power of the Islamic Republic of Iran may be one such piece of evidence that such a shift may be at hand.
Read the full letter here.