The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is plagued by shrinking budgets and growing responsibilities that are increasingly hurting its ability to conduct the research and development needed to modernize the nation’s missile defenses, according to a report released July 29 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The agency’s budget, which peaked at $9.4 billion in fiscal year 2007, has fallen by over 20 percent since then and is expected to stay at the reduced level through the future years defense program, the report says. Meanwhile, a growing share of MDA’s budget is devoted to procuring, operating and maintaining land- and sea-based systems that have matured, and to helping Israel field its own missile defenses.MDA logo

As a result, MDA has less money to improve systems to keep ahead of advances in missile threats. For instance, funding to test the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system fell from $341 million in FY 2008 to $79 million in the FY 2017 budget request, slowing the agency’s ability to try out upgrades.

These trends have combined to create “a squeeze on MDA’s budget and its ability to outpace developing missile threats,” the report says. “This confluence threatens to leave the United States without the necessary missile defense assets to meet the missions laid out for MDA and outpace the rapidly developing threat.”

The report recommends increasing MDA’s budget or restoring the agency to its traditional R&D role. Under the latter approach, procurement and operations would be transferred to the services, and Israeli programs might be shifted to the foreign military financing program.

Ret. Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry “Trey” Obering, a former MDA director who contributed to the report, suggested combining both options, saying the agency’s budget should rise to $10 billion a year and that “hybrid program offices” should be set up to move activities to the services.

Army Maj. Gen. Ole Knudson, MDA’s deputy director, said his agency has talked with the Army for a year about transferring the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and TPY-2 radar to the service. While those discussions are “making progress,” a key sticking point is whether existing funding would follow the systems. “I think we’ll get there, but at the end of the day, it does come down to the money,” he said.

Knudson also said the Israeli programs are a “challenge” because they typically receive congressional plus-ups, the amounts of which are difficult to predict. But Israel needs the help, he added, because it faces an “extreme situation” of missile attacks.