Additional budget of $4 billion for US missile defense programs.

According to the website Forecast International, United States released a $5.9 billion supplemental budget request on November 6, 2017, that contains $4 billion for missile defense programs in light of increased tension with North Korea.

The Ballistic Missile Defense System, public domain Missile Defense Agency.

The supplemental includes $2.4 billion in emergency procurement funding, and just $42.4 million for OCO procurement. The former includes $647 million for 147 Patriot missiles; $167 million for Patriot modifications; $70 million for Army Tactical Missile modifications; $509.1 million for 50 THAAD interceptors; $451 million for 16 SM-3 Block IIA interceptors; and $268 million for the ground based midcourse defense segment, including $88 million in advance procurement for 20 ground-based interceptors (GBIs). Another $200 million in military construction funding would go toward building a fourth missile field at Ft. Greely, Alaska.

Another $1.3 billion is included for research, development, test and evaluation, including $129 million for midcourse BMD, $62.1 million for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, and $170.9 million to support the proposed GBI procurement. Another $306.7 million is set aside for a budget line item called advanced innovative technologies to address emergency warfighting requirements.

According to Missile Defense Agency (MDA) estimates, Congress has appropriated roughly $190 billion for the agency’s programs between fiscal years 1985 and 2017. For nearly two decades, U.S. ballistic missile defense policy has sought to protect the homeland against limited long-range missile strikes from states such as Iran and North Korea, but not major nuclear powers Russia and China,