U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sent a clear signal to the missile defense community that starting in 2010 budgetary pressures will force the Pentagon to shift priority away from the long-range strategic missile threat toward regional ballistic missile threats. These same pressures dictate that future missile defense systems be capable of adapting to changing threats on the timescale of days and weeks, not months and years, Cartwright said in a March 23 speech at the 2009 Missile Defense Conference here.
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