HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) probably will have to live within its current financial means despite calls in some quarters for the agency to get more money, MDA’s director said Aug. 17.
Overall Department of Defense funding continues to be constrained, and MDA already has several significant efforts underway to improve its systems to outpace Iranian and North Korean missile advances, making a major budget increase for the agency unlikely, Vice. Adm. James Syring said.
“Every organization in DoD will say that they need more money,” Syring told the annual Space and Missile Defense Conference in Huntsville. “What I think about is how is this country postured against the threat that we face from North Korea and Iran, and I can say from a developer’s standpoint [that] we’re pretty good, given the limited dollars that we have, where defense spending fits and what this country faces in terms of debt in the future.”
But Syring expressed confidence that if a new threat materialized and the technology to counter it was mature, DoD would come through with more money for the agency.
Syring’s comments came in response to a recent report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which concluded that MDA’s shrinking budgets and growing responsibilities are increasingly hurting its ability to conduct research and development. One option, the report said, would be to add more than $2 billion a year to the agency’s budget. MDA’s fiscal year 2017 budget request, which is pending before Congress, is $7.5 billion, down from an FY 2007 peak of $9.4 billion.