The cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan is forcing the United States to reduce operations at its Pacific Ocean missile-testing range in the Marshall Islands, the base commander said. “The global war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan costs money, and it has to come from somewhere,” said Reagan Test Site commander Colonel Stevenson Reed. “We're not immune,” he said after briefing Marshall Islands President Litokwa Tomeing in the islands' capital of Majuro. About $6 million will be cut from the $250 million annual budget this year, forcing layoffs for more than 7 percent of the base's U.S. and Marshall Islands workforce. The missile range at Kwajalein atoll has been the testing center for every U.S. missile and anti-missile system since it was first established in the mid-1960s. The United States pays Kwajalein landowners more than $15 million annually to rent islands that are full of radar, infrared cameras, and launch pads.
