SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE STATE OF THE MISSILE DEFENSE OF THE UNITED STATES.

SEC. 1689. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE STATE OF THE MISSILE DEFENSE OF THE UNITED STATES. It is the sense of Congress that— (1) the Secretary of Defense should use the Ballistic Missile Defense Review that commenced in 2017 to consider accelerating the development of technologies that will increase the capacity, capability, and reliability of the ground-based midcourse defense element of the ballistic missile defense system; (2) upon completion of the Ballistic Missile Defense Review, the Director of the Missile Defense Agency should, to the extent practicable and with sound acquisition practices, accelerate the development, testing, and fielding of such capabilities as they are prioritized in the Ballistic Missile Defense Review, with respect to the redesigned kill vehicle, the multi-object kill vehicle, the C3 booster, a space-based sensor layer, boost phase sensor and kill technologies, and additional ground-based interceptors; and (3) in order to achieve these objectives, and to avoid post-production and post-deployment problems, it is essential for the Department of Defense and the Missile Defense Agency to follow a “fly before you buy” approach to adequately test and assess the elements of the ballistic missile defense system before final production decisions or operational deployment.