In support of administration priorities, the fiscal year 2013 budget request for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is $7.7 billion, down from $8.4 billion in FY ’12, with funding reductions in various programs to support Defense Department goals.
The budget request $9.7 billion for missile defense activities for FY ’13, for a total of $47.4 billion from FY 13-17. MDA and the Army are missile defense program developers. Other DoD activities invest and build air and missile defense capabilities. For example, the request includes funds to complete design and development work on the tri-national Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS).
The proposed $400.9 million request supports completing the MEADS Proof of Concept and demonstration contract that ends in 2014 to allow harvesting useful technologies. The United States, Germany and Italy are working on the program that has faced critics of the program cost and schedule and performance on the Hill (Defense Daily, Nov. 18).
The FY ’13 budget also support $763.4 million for procurement of 84 Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles and the procurement of 38 Enhanced Launcher Electronic Systems capable of firing PAC-3 missiles; and, $81.9 million for continued development of the PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement designed to extend the PAC-3 range.
The budget request for MDA: “balances capabilities and risks to deter aggression, protect U.S. and allied interests, and pursue cost-effective and operationally-effective capabilities as a hedge against future threats,” budget briefers said at the Pentagon yesterday.
A year ago, the MDA budget request was $8.6 billion. Additionally, under then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s mandate to save money and move DoD away from being “too reliant” on contractors, MDA was ordered to terminate 360 contract personnel (Defense Daily, Jan. 7, 2011).
The main MDA contractors are Boeing [BA] Lockheed Martin [LMT] Northrop Grumman [NOC] and Raytheon [RTN].
At the budget briefing yesterday, Frank Kendall, the acting under secretary of defense for acquisition technology and logistics said because of affordability costs the Sea-Based X-band radar will not be needed, as other platforms can fulfill the radar’s use in tests. “We will protect our investment in homeland missile defense and we will protect the European Phased Adaptive Approach,” said Undersecretary of Defense Comptroller/CFO Robert Hale.
The FY 2013 budget provides funding to support phased adaptive approaches (PAA) in the Asia Pacific and the Middle East, new focus areas discussed in the Strategic Guidance, by building on current efforts in those regions.
Aegis ballistic missile defense, a vital component of the new strategy, would receive $1.3 billion in research, development, test and engineering and procurement for the continued conversion of Aegis ships, with a planned operational availability of 32 ships by FY 2017, and the procurement of 29 SM-3 interceptors for Aegis BMD ships.
In light of ballistic missile threats around the globe, the budget requests $950 million to support a block buy of space vehicles 5 and 6 for the Space-Based Infrared System, the satellite system that provides the initial early warning of ballistic missile launches. Also yesterday, Lockheed Martin said the first SBIRS geosynchronous (GEO-1) satellite is now delivering critical infrared data to users, as the spacecraft under goes its operational certification process.
The European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA), designed to protect NATO allies and forces from regional ballistic missile threats, is also supported.
The Department has met its objectives for EPAA Phase 1 with the deployment of Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) ships and land-based radar in Europe in 2011.
The next three EPAA phases include deploying an Aegis Ashore in Romania with Standard Missile-3 Block IB (SM-3 IB) interceptors, deploying an Aegis Ashore in Poland with SM-3 IIA interceptors, and the addition of SM-3 Block IIB interceptors and early intercept capability.
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) is key for combatant commanders with its short-and medium-range capability within and outside the atmosphere for ballistic missile defense. The FY ’13 budget proposes $777.7 million for 36 interceptors as well as continued development.
The Army Navy/Transportable Radar Surveillance-2, the transportable X-band radar, requests $574.4 million for the radar than can be used to support boost phase and terminal missile defense. The FY ’13 funds would acquire one radar and continue development, testing and sustainment of the radars.
The FY ’13 budget supports a $903.2 million procurement of five ground-based interceptors (GBIs) to support the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense flight test program, and procurement of GBI reliability enhancements.
According to MDA’s historical funding charts, to date the agency has spent $149.5 billion in pursuit of national priorities to provide ballistic missile defense to protect the United States, its deployed troops and allies.