Pentagon Overstated Shutdown Impact on Secretive Missile Program

The Pentagon inflated the government shutdown’s national-security impact on a secretive, ultra-long-range missile that’s key to helping the US compete militarily against China, with the Air Force later acknowledging the program was unaffected.

The House Armed Services Committee posted publicly on Oct. 23 that there would be a “three-month delay in deploying” the crucial Air Force Joint Advanced Tactical Missile program, a Lockheed Martin Corp. air-to-air missile that “is central to our air combat capabilities.” It said the missile was “necessary to catch up with China, which has significantly outpaced the US in the ability to target important assets with ...