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U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA)

US

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is a research and development agency within the Department of Defense. Its mission is to develop and deploy a layered missile defense system to protect the United States, its deployed forces, allies, and friends from missile attacks in all phases of flight. MDA is developing space-based sensors for tracking ballistic and hypersonic missiles and works with partners like the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Navy on testing and deployment. Keywords associated with MDA include missile defense, ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, space-based sensors, and interceptor technology.

gov defenseFounded 2002
United States
www.mda.mil/
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All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.

Northrop Grumman was selected by the Missile Defense Agency to build a prototype sensor satellite capable of tracking hypersonic and ballistic missiles.

RelationshipsCapabilityValue 4.3Jan 22, 2021Northrop Grumman and L3Harris to build sensor satellites for Missile Defense Agency

The Missile Defense Agency and the Space Development Agency are expected to procure hundreds more satellites to eventually provide global coverage.

RelationshipsPlanValue 3.8Jan 22, 2021Northrop Grumman and L3Harris to build sensor satellites for Missile Defense Agency

The Missile Defense Agency will develop an additional 28 wide field-of-view satellites.

PlanGrowthValue 4.3Oct 7, 2020L3Harris, SpaceX bag contracts to build missile-warning satellites

The medium field-of-view OPIR sensors developed by the Missile Defense Agency will provide more specific target location data to cue weapons automatically.

CapabilityGeneralValue 4.0Oct 5, 2020L3Harris, SpaceX win Space Development Agency contracts to build missile-warning satellites

The Department of the Air Force, the Missile Defense Agency, the Space Development Agency, and others are planning to spend tens of billions of dollars pursuing various potential satellite constellations with a variety of sensor types, constellation sizes, and orbits ranging from proliferated low Earth to geosynchronous.

PlanFinancialGeneralValue 4.1Sep 22, 2020Space Force, DoD agencies, NRO try to get on the same page on future acquisitions

The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency is designing a medium-field-of-view satellite layer that has not yet been funded.

PlanGeneralValue 3.2Jun 7, 2020Space Development Agency to deploy hypersonic missile defense satellites by 2022

Constellations of satellites that use infrared sensors to detect missile launches are being developed by the U.S. Space Force, the Space Development Agency, and the Missile Defense Agency.

CapabilityGeneralValue 4.0Mar 18, 2020Space Force to deliver report to Congress on proposed changes to acquisitions

The military services and the Missile Defense Agency submitted nearly $18,000,000,000 in unfunded priorities for fiscal year 2021.

FinancialGeneralValue 2.8Feb 22, 2020U.S. military’s annual list of ‘unfunded priorities’ includes $1 billion for Space Force

A Missile Defense Agency test to intercept a ballistic missile target over the Pacific Ocean is planned for late 2020.

PlanValue 3.7Dec 18, 2019Air Force to schedule nine small launch missions in 2020

The Missile Defense Agency awarded Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Leidos, and L3Harris each a $20,000,000 contract to design space sensors that can track hypersonic and ballistic missiles on 2019-10-29.

RelationshipsFinancialCapabilityValue 5.0Oct 30, 2019Missile Defense Agency selects four companies to develop space sensors

The subcommittee provided $108,000,000 to the Missile Defense Agency for the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor program, formerly known as the Space Sensor Layer.

FinancialGeneralCapabilityValue 4.4Sep 10, 2019Senate defense appropriators support DoD space request, propose ‘tactical responsive launch’ program

The subcommittee included $237,800,000 for the Missile Defense Agency to accelerate hypersonic defense programs.

FinancialPlanValue 4.2Sep 10, 2019Senate defense appropriators support DoD space request, propose ‘tactical responsive launch’ program

The White House opposes a Senate NDAA provision that assigns the Missile Defense Agency responsibility for developing and deploying a hypersonic and ballistic tracking space sensor constellation "as soon as technically feasible."

LegalPlanValue 4.0Sep 8, 2019White House pushes back on Senate language on Space Force, missile defense satellites

The Missile Defense Agency requested $157,400,000 to continue developing space-based sensors to defend the United States and allies from hypersonic threats.

FinancialCapabilityGeneralValue 4.0May 27, 2019SASC bill directs DoD to make use of commercial spaceports for small satellite launches

The Missile Defense Agency requested $157,000,000 for 2020 to continue studying a space architecture for hypersonic missile defense.

FinancialPlanGeneralValue 4.0Apr 28, 2019Harris weather sensors see role in missile warning constellations

SPI will pay an additional $6,000,000 to NASA and $5,000,000 to the Missile Defense Agency as part of a separate civil settlement.

RelationshipsFinancialValue 4.7Apr 24, 2019Justice Department reaches deal with company implicated in Taurus launch failures

SPI will pay $34,100,000 in combined restitution to NASA, the Missile Defense Agency, and commercial customers.

FinancialLegalValue 4.6Apr 24, 2019Justice Department reaches deal with company implicated in Taurus launch failures

The Missile Defense Agency has been studying options to deploy a space sensor layer for hypersonic detection, and the Department of Defense currently has no official requirement to develop such a layer.

PlanGeneralGovernanceValue 3.0Apr 10, 2019Hyten: Hypersonic missile defense satellites a job for the Space Development Agency

Fred Kennedy's memo estimates that as many as 20 civilian and 15 military positions could be reduced at the Missile Defense Agency, which employs 2,900 government personnel.

PlanGeneralValue 2.7Mar 20, 2019Space Development Agency promises to do more with less

The Missile Defense Agency plans to select three of the nine contractor submissions 2019 to continue work for another six to nine months.

PlanRelationshipsValue 3.5Jan 21, 2019Next steps for the Pentagon’s new space sensors for missile defense
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