Missile Defense Agency Director Vice Admiral James Syring said the government was requesting about $300 million in fiscal 2015 to redesign the Raytheon Co "kill vehicle" that hits and destroys an enemy missile on contact, add a new long-range radar, and fund other measures to helping the system better identify, track and destroy potential enemy missiles.
The agency's budget request, which must still be approved by Congress, also funds longer-term initiatives to improve the system a decade after what were essentially prototypes to be rushed into operational use.
Overall, the budget requests $8.5 billion for missile defense, including about $7.5 billion for the Missile Defense Agency. Missile defense is one of the biggest items in the Pentagon's annual budget, although Republicans have faulted the Obama administration for scaling back funding in recent years.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the budget, which was shaped by a major review of defense strategy, underscored the continued importance of missile defense, along with space, cyber and special operations, giving rapidly emerging threats.
Syring said the Bush administration's decision to deploy the fledgling missile defense system in 2004 was aimed at countering "a very real threat," but it cut short systems engineering and testing of the system. A slower process would have avoided some of the problems seen now, he said.
Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall told a conference last week that the reviews of the program had revealed "bad engineering" on the current system.
Syring said reforms were needed now, especially given Hagel's decision to add 14 more interceptors to the 30 in place in California and Alaska.