Congress wants Pentagon to rebuild stockpile and close the China missile gap
by Russ Read
| June 02, 2019 12:00 AM
The United States needs more production lines making more missiles.
That's the message from Congress to the Pentagon, via the Senate Committee on Armed Service's recent markup of the 2020 defense budget. The markup contains a provision to continue the Pentagon's work in acquiring high-end, long-range missiles in an effort to close what is known in the national security world as the "missile gap."
As the Pentagon continues to reorient itself to counter threats posed by China, the Senate wants defense officials to maximize as many missile production lines as possible.
"There's a huge missile gap between the United States and China in particular," Rebecca Heinrichs, a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute who specializes in missile defense, told the Washington Examiner. "And so the United States has got to a point where we're being prudent, and making sure that we have our own industrial base capable and ready to ramp up production rates."
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/congress-wants-pentagon-to-rebuild-stockpile-and-close-the-china-missile-gap
