In a dramatic reversal, The Senate on October 2nd unanimously approved a $345 billion defense spending bill allocating the full $8.3 billion requested by the Bush Administration for missile defense, FOX News reported the same day. The bill includes a provision restoring $1.3 billion - which had previously been trimmed from the Administration's request by the Senate Armed Services Committee, under the direction of Sen. Carl Levin (D-Michigan) - while providing the president with the discretion to shift the restored amount to counterterrorism efforts.

As the White House's international coalition against terrorism takes center stage, Russia has renewed its efforts to head off the Bush Administration's missile defense initiative, the Chicago Tribune (September 23) reports. Citing the nature of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Dmitri Rogozin, head of the international affairs committee in the Russian Duma, has publicly stated that "It is becoming clear that the U.S. side has been seeking answers to the wrong questions." According to Rogozin, "The most perfect anti-missile defense is helpless against terrorists who transport their weapons by car or by barge, or hijack aircraft… The entire security system of the greatest powers will have to be revised." For their part, American officials have stressed that the terrorist attacks underscore the pressing need for missile defense. "If these same fanatics had access to ballistic missile technology and, even worse, if they had weapons of mass destruction to put atop those missiles, there's not the slightest doubt in my mind that they would have employed them," according to John Bolton, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.

In the aftermath of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, and amid growing fears of a terrorist backlash against allies of America's global anti-terror campaign, the Turkish government has initiated broad homeland defense measures. Istanbul's Milliyet newspaper reported on September 29th that Turkey's National Defense Ministry has unveiled plans to purchase 148 low-altitude missile defense batteries. The "Harpoon" and "Reckless"-class systems, to be manufactured by Turkey's Aselsan corporation, will initially be deployed to protect the country's military airports, ports, and convoys. At the discretion of the Turkish Armed Forces, however, the defenses could also guard potential civilian targets, including airports and ports, from terrorist or ballistic missile attack.

Following the release of a United Nations report critical of the Bush Administration's missile defense initiative, the Chinese government has publicly urged greater UN scrutiny of American NMD plans, the Xinhua news agency (September 24) reports. In a speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Chinese permanent representative Wang Yingfan, publicly aired his government's support for the Secretary General's report, which condemns American missile defense as a threat to current and future nonproliferation and disarmament efforts. Wang also reaffirmed Beijing's support for the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, which Washington has vowed to abrogate, declaring it to bear "great importance and relevance to maintaining global strategic balance and stability as well as promoting international disarmament and nonproliferation process," and urging that "the success of the international disarmament and nonproliferation efforts depends on the maintenance and observance of this treaty."

The official report of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), a study of American strategy and force structure released by the Pentagon every four years, has called on the Bush Administration to make homeland defense the primary mission of the American military. The report, detailed by the Associated Press (October 1), had previously been expected to overwhelmingly recommend changes to force structure and deployment. However, following the September 11th terrorist attacks on the U.S., the report instead stresses the need to restore "the defense of the United States as the department's primary mission." To this end, among its other recommendations, the QDR outlines the capability of the military to build defenses to guard against ballistic missile attack and other threats based on "surprise, deception and asymmetric warfare."