Subscribe eNewsletter Magazines
Powered by Google Search  Advanced

 







 
Military & Aerospace Electronics Online Article

| Add RSS Feed

BMDO changes its name

What used to be the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization is renamed the Missile Defense Agency

JANUARY 11, 11:57 EST
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon's office in charge of ballistic missile defense is undergoing its third name change since its inception in the mid-1980s. The office, formerly the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) is now the Missile Defense Agency (MDA).

Elevating BMDO to agency status recognizes the national priority and mission emphasis on missile defense, Pentagon officials say. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the redesignation Jan. 4.

This Missile Defense Agency began its life as the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) in February 1986 to adminster then-President Ronald Reagan's ballistic missile defense plan then called the Strategic Defense Initiative -- popularly known as "Star Wars."

Former Defense Secretary Les Aspin, who served in the Clinton Administration, renamed the SDIO the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization in 1993 in attempts to signal the end of Reagan's ambitious space-based missile-defense plan and shift the program's emphasis to theater ballistic missile defense.

The new Missile Defense Agency re-emphasizes the commitment of President George W. Bush to missile defense and provides direction to meet the top four priorities for the United States in this mission area, Pentagon officials say. These are:

-- to defend the United States, deployed forces, allies, and friends from ballistic missile attack;

-- to employ a Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) that layers defenses to intercept missiles in all phases of their flight (i.e. boost, midcourse, and terminal) against all ranges of threats;

-- to enable the U.S. military services to field elements of the overall BMDS as soon as practicable; and

-- to develop and test technologies, use prototype and test assets to provide early capability, if necessary, and improve the effectiveness of deployed capability by inserting new technologies as they become available or when the threat warrants an accelerated capability.

The current director of BMDO, Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald T. Kadish, will assume the title of director, Missile Defense Agency. He will continue to report directly to Edward C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr., undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.

MDA officials are to oversee development of the missile defense system and baseline the capability and configuration of its elements. The military departments will procure and provide for missile defense operations and support.

Military & Aerospace Electronics



| Add RSS Feed

 
Return to Previous Page