THAAD Battery Launcher. (Lockheed Martin)
WASHINGTON — The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is asking for almost $10.9 billion in its fiscal 2024 budget request, up only slightly from the $10.5 billion Congress enacted for the agency last year, money it says it needs to defend against an ever-advancing array of missile threats.
Moreover, the agency is asking for some $55.3 billion over the Pentagon’s five year budget planning period, FY24 to FY28.
“Missile threats continue to increase, growing more numerous and complex,” MDA’s budget overview released today explains. “Adversary missile systems are becoming more mobile, survivable, reliable and accurate, while also achieving longer rangers. Hypersonic glide vehicles delivered by missile boosters are an emerging threat that pose new challenges to missile defense systems.”
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In addition, the overview notes that adversaries are improving their “denial and deception” measures at missile launch facilities — becoming trickier about their activity — as well as increasing the use of mobile missiles to improve survivability.
As usual, the bulk of MDA’s funding FY24 request is in research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) funding, with a total of $8.7 billion. That is up about $400 million from last year’s appropriation.
Procurement is slated at $1.45 billion for FY24, down slightly from the $1.66 billion appropriated in FY23. The operations and maintenance budget is nearly flat, set at $564 million in FY24 as opposed to $542 million last year. Military construction, on the other hand, gets a big boost, going from $47 million in the FY23 appropriation to $149 million in the FY24 request.
Defense Of Guam
One key area of effort for MDA in FY24 is the Defense of Guam portfolio, for which the agency is requesting a total of $801.7 million, including $632.1 million in RDT&E and $169.6 in procurement. That request is part of the Defense Department’s larger effort to protect Guam against missile threats from China — with budget materials provided by the DoD Comptroller showing the Pentagon’s total request at of $1.5 billion.
MDA Director Adm. Jon Hill told reporters in a briefing today that the Guam program integrates both Navy and Army capabilities, including AN/TPY-6 radars deployed on the “periphery” of the island to meet Indo-Pacific Command requirements. Also involved are a mix of vertical launchers and mobile launchers, which Hill explained in essence are a “disaggregated version of the Aegis Ashore.”
Ground-based Missile Defense (GMD)
Meanwhile, MDA is asking for a total of $3.3 billion for Ground-based Missile Defense (GMD) efforts, Michelle Atkinson, the agency’s director of operations, explained during today’s briefing.
One of the biggest MDA investments for FY24 is $2.1 billion for the Next-Generation Interceptor for its Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program, which the overview says “features a multiple kill vehicle payload.” The funds will cover “design, development, prototyping, integration and relevant environmental testing to mature the booster, payload, sensor(s), and design-specific critical technologies and technology elements to reduce technical risk,” the document adds.
MDA is bringing two different NGI designs through critical design review this year, Atkinson said. The agency awarded contracts to Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman in 2021. The goal is to field the new interceptor by 2028.
MDA also wants $903.6 million in RDT&E for upgrades to the current Ground Based Interceptor and related GMD hardware and software improvements.
Hypersonic Defense
Two years after China apparently took the US by surprise with a hypersonic vehicle test, MDA is slating $209 million for “Hypersonic Defense” to develop a “glide phase intercept defense capability” with industry partners. Specifically, the agency intends to develop the Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI), as well as to modify the Aegis Weapon System to fire it.
Hill said that the agency is still working to figure out the GPI “mission solution” and is “determining what technology is needed.” MDA has two ongoing Other Transaction Authority contracts with industry, Hill noted, and while at this stage determining a timeline is “hard” is looking at initial deployment in “the early ’30s.”
MDA last June chose Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman to move ahead with GPI designs
Out In Space
In addition, MDA is requesting $109.5 million for Missile Defense Space Programs, which includes funds for the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) that the agency intends to launch in 2023. The FY24 request of $81 million for HBTSS will cover on-orbit demonstration and testing activities, the budget materials explain.
The space budget pot also includes $28 million in funding for the Space Based Kill Assessment program, Atkinson said. That effort will create “a network of fast-rate infrared sensors hosted on commercial satellites to deliver a hit and kill assessment capability,” according to the MDA budget documents.
THAAD And Aegis Missile Defense
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) terminal defense system is slated for $220.3 million in FY24 RDT&E for a bevy of upgrades, according to the MDA documents. The agency also wants $216.8 million for THAAD procurement, covering a buy of 11 interceptors.
The agency is requesting a total of $1.6 billion for Aegis Missile Defense, Atkinson said. The MDA budget documents elaborate that $693 million is slated for RDT&E, and another $193.5 for the Aegis test program. The FY24 request also includes $837.8 million for Aegis procurement, covering a buy of 27 SM-3 Block IB missiles and 12 SM-3 Block IIA missiles.
Another $22.2 million is being requested for modernizing and testing Aegis Ashore at the Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Test Complex in Hawaii, as well as to support “operations at the site in Romania and transition activities for the Poland site.”
Hill noted that construction has been completed on the Polish site, and that MDA expects it to be ready for operations later this summer — although actual operations must wait for acceptance of the capability by local and NATO commanders.
The budget materials further note that the Navy will have 52 “deployable” Aegis ships available in FY24.
Radars
The MDA budget request also includes a handful of programs aimed at improving its radar capabilities:
- $177.9 million for the Sea-Based X-band (SBX) radar, planning for the SBX to spend 335 days at sea in FY24.
- $103.5 million in FY24 for the Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR), designed to “provide persistent long-range midcourse discrimination, precision tracking and hit assessment to support GMD capability against long-range missile threats from the Pacific theater.” LRDR was initially fielded in 2022, the budget overview explains, and MDA plans to transfer its operations to the Space Force in FY24.
- $568 million for the for the AN/TPY-2.
- $22 million for upgrades to the Space Force’s Cobra Dane radar, and the Upgraded Early Warning Radars.
Israeli Programs
Looking abroad, another $500 million is being requested for Israeli programs, including co-development and co-production of the David’s Sling Weapon System and the Arrow.