Missile Defense

The Army and the Missile Defense Agency -- after two years of haggling over responsibility for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense program -- are nearing agreement to adopt the status quo as a long-term division of labor where MDA looks after research, development and procurement and the service is responsible for operations and sustainment.

The Missile Defense Agency has set a May 2020 target for declaring operational the third and last increment of the European Phased Adaptive Approach and simultaneously dialed back planned intercept testing.

A House panel wants the Army to prepare options for a "low-cost" generic interceptor that can operate as part of the Patriot surface-to-air missile system, a move that comes as the price tag for the newest variant of the Patriot interceptor approaches $1 million and lawmakers are seeking options to bolster inventories and foreign buyers are asking for less expensive options.

A House panel is directing the Defense Department to conduct an enterprise-wide analysis of competing technology projects that all aim to one day deliver a weapon capable of intercepting an intercontinental ballistic missile during the boost phase of flight -- and identify which project offers the best option.

The Defense Department will not direct or require the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent prime contractors to use more than one supplier of large solid-rocket motors.

House lawmakers want to explore options for folding the Missile Defense Agency into other Defense Department organizations and removing an exemption in place for 17 years that allows development and procurement of ballistic missile defense programs outside traditional weapon system acquisition rules.

House lawmakers are proposing legislation that would force the Pentagon to identify the “preferred location” of a third missile defense site which the Missile Defense Agency would actually prefer not to build. The statutory provision could potentially nudge the Defense Department toward a future multibillion-dollar military construction project favored by members of Congress whose districts stand to benefit.

A House panel is calling for the Defense Department's Space Sensor Layer effort to remain within the Missile Defense Agency, despite the Pentagon's plan to shift funding for that work to the new Space Development Agency.

A House panel is enthusiastically backing the Navy's proposal to adapt a scaled-down version of the SPY-6 radar for the bulk of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer fleet, directing the service to draft a plan on the cost and technical feasibility of swapping out the legacy SPY-1 radar on the DDG-51 Flight IIA variants with a smaller version of the larger SPY-6 designed for the DDG-51 Flight III variant.