The U.S. Army could be in line to get nearly $640 million in extra funding for new medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBM), including ones capable of hitting ships at sea.
Work on MRBMs, a long-range strike capability the Army has not had since the end of the Cold War, is one of a slew of efforts that would be accelerated by a $150 billion defense spending package recently proposed by members of Congress. The Army is already looking at a medium-range version of its Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) short-range ballistic missile, but the legislation on the table now may also point to a new design in the works.
The current Republican Party chairs of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees rolled out the proposed multi-billion-dollar defense spending legislation yesterday. If passed and signed into law, it would provide funds to accelerate work on a host of advanced capabilities across the U.S. military, including, but certainly not limited to the Air Force’s F-47 and Navy’s F/A-XX sixth-generation stealth fighter programs, the B-21 Raider stealth bomber, the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, a new sea-launched nuclear-tipped cruise missile, new medium landing ships for the U.S. Marine Corps, and President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative. Additional funding to help expand the U.S. defense industrial base to meet these and other demands, as well as spur further research and development, is also part of the package.
When it comes to Army MRBMs, the spending plan includes four separate provisions amounting to a combined $639 million:
- “$175,000,000 for production capacity expansion for next-generation Army medium-range ballistic missiles”
- “$50,000,000 for the accelerated development of Army next-generation medium-range anti-ship ballistic missiles”
- “$114,000,000 for the production of Army next-generation medium-range ballistic missiles”
- “$300,000,000 for the production of Army medium-range ballistic missiles”
The legislation does not name any specific Army MRBM program, and TWZ has reached out for more information.
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