The Senate Armed Services Committee has backed the Missile Defense Agency’s decision to suspend production of Raytheon Co. “kill vehicles” that are designed to destroy incoming ballistic missiles.
The panel, in its report on the Pentagon’s 2012 budget, said the MDA was right in “suspending further production” of the exoatmospheric kill vehicles, which are linked to two test failures of the primary U.S. missile defense system. The suspension should not be lifted until the agency “has verified through extensive testing that the problem has been successfully corrected,” it said.
