Armed Services panel nudges Pentagon toward more Patriot batteries

The bill would also require the secretary of Defense to update lawmakers by March 1, 2023, on the Pentagon’s latest “comprehensive, layered strategy” to defend against hypersonic missiles.Additional options, beyond the current glide-phase interceptor, which targets the incoming missile with another missile, could include directed energy, microwave systems and cyber capabilities, a second aide said.“As these technologies mature, the strategy would hope to synchronize them across the portfolio,” the second aide said.The subcommittee’s portion of the bill does not touch upon the B-83 nuclear bomb, which the Biden administration hopes to retire, or the nuclear sea-launched cruise missile, an option developed during the Trump administration, but which saw its funding zeroed out in the Biden administration’s fiscal 2023 budget request.The full committee will consider those…

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