C4ISRNET

The future chain of command for the Missile Defense Agency is up in the air, as legislators express their frustration with how leadership has handled a number of missile defense priorities, including a space-based sensor layer that could track hypersonic weapons.

The House Armed Services’ strategic forces subcommittee is threatening to move the agency away from Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Michael Griffin and place it within the portfolio of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, reflecting a growing rift between Griffin and lawmakers.

The subcommittee’s markup of the draft National Defense Authorization Act notes “that the budget of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has experienced a 650 percent decrease in funding for advanced technology efforts since being aligned to the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and that the majority of MDA programs would be acquisition category 1 efforts in the standard Department of Defense 5000 acquisition system.”

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