Senate Subcommittee Meeting on U.S. Missile Defense Gets Tense

At a hearing late today (May 8, 2024) before the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Chairman Senator Angus King (I-Maine) tore into a senior Department of Defense official, NORAD 4-star commander Gregory Guillot, and two 3-star generals, for what King regards as woefully insufficient emphasis on the development of directed energy weapons.

King: "In the Red Sea, the Houthis are sending $20,000 drones and we're shooting them down with missiles that cost $4.3 [million].... Your budget for directed energy is one-one-thousandth of your total budget. It has gone down... What in the hell are you guys thinking? Directed energy is the answer. It costs twenty-five cents a shot....That's a scandal. We can't possibly defend ourselves with $80 million missiles."