FY 2019 Missile Defense Agency Budget Tracker
On August 1, Congress passed the FY 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The bill authorizes a total of $10 billion for the Missile Defense Agency, $51 million more than…
Author: Wes Rumbaugh
Reorganizing the Missile Defense Enterprise
Rethinking the push for program transfer When the U.S. Missile Defense Agency was created in 2002, the expectation was that it would initially develop missile defense systems but then transfer…
Trump’s 2019 Missile Defense Budget: Choosing Capacity over Capability
The administration’s budget request for FY 2019 prioritizes near-term readiness against limited but growing ballistic missile threats from sources such as North Korea. This choice, however, falls short of connecting missile defense efforts to the reality of renewed great power competition as articulated in the National Defense Strategy.
Distributed Defense: New Operational Concepts for Air and Missile Defense
Despite the rising salience of missile threats, current air and missile defense forces are far too susceptible to suppression. Today’s U.S. air and missile defense (AMD) force lacks the depth, capacity, and operational flexibility to simultaneously perform both missions
Dissecting the Big Missile Defense Plus-up
Missile defense funds are likely to grow—a lot. In addition to a September reprogramming of an additional $249 million for the Missile Defense Agency for FY 2017, appropriations for FY 2018 could exceed $11 billion, over $3 billion more than the president’s original request. This would make for the highest level of missile defense funding in a decade…
Analyzing the PB 2018 Missile Defense Agency Budget
The Trump Administration’s proposed FY2018 budget for the Missile Defense Agency was released yesterday with a topline request of $7.9 billion. The amount represents $380 million more than the budget…
Missile Defense 2020: Next Steps for Defending the Homeland
In policy pronouncements over the last two administrations, the protection of the American homeland was regularly identified as the first priority of U.S. missile defense efforts. Homeland missile defense today is provided by the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program and other elements of the larger Ballistic Missile Defense System…
Russian Military Tests Three Ballistic Missiles
The Russian military test-fired two submarine-launched ballistic missiles and a ground-based Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile in the midst of growing tensions between Moscow and Washington over Syria. The SS-N-23 SLBM launches…