Bush pushes for seed money for missiles in space

By Jim Wolf

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Reuters) - The Bush administration and Republican allies in Congress are again pushing for seed money to explore options for putting a multibillion-dollar layer of ballistic-missile interceptors in space.

Last year, the Democratic-controlled Congress rejected the administration's request for $10 million to resume studies on the idea, first floated in the 1980s as part of then-President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative.

Derided by critics as "Star Wars," the concept has been embraced by missile-defense backers as potentially more effective than sea- and ground-based parts of an emerging shield against missiles that could be tipped with chemical, germ or nuclear warheads.

Any such space project would be a boon for U.S. missile-defense contractors such as Boeing Co, Lockheed Martin Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp, Raytheon Co and Orbital Sciences Corp.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, told Congress recently that the administration was again seeking $10 million to study interceptors in space.

"I think it's very prudent that out of a $9.3 billion request (for the Missile Defense Agency in the 2009 budget year), that we allocate at least $10 million to maintaining our options with respect to the future," Obering said at an April 1 hearing of the Senate Armed Forces strategic forces subcommittee.

"And that future -- in terms of flexibility, of not knowing which axis the threat may come from -- is in space," Obering said.

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