Funding Request for Ballistic Missile Defense
($ in Millions)

BACKGROUND: As part of its Fiscal Year 2002 budget request, the Defense Department announced a major restructuring of the Ballistic Missile Defense Office (BMDO). Funding for a range of programs within BMDO were absorbed and redistributed in to five major areas of research. These are the Terminal, Midcourse and Boost Segments, the Ballistic Missile Defense Segment, and Ballistic Missile Defense Sensors.

On January 4, 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld redesignated the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization as the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). According to the Defense Department, “Elevating BMDO to agency status recognizes the national priority and mission emphasis on missile defense” (Defense Department News Release #008-02, January 4, 2002).

As part of the FY’02 reorganization, some specific missile defense programs were absorbed in to the general research areas (see DoD’s “Missile Defense Description” below), and have, from a funding prospective, effectively disappeared. Other programs, such as the Space Based Infra-Red System-High (SBIRS-High), are now funded outside the MDA budget.

 

	FY'02 Total	FY'03 Request
Ballistic Missile Defense System	808.0	1,066.0
Boost Segment	599.8	796.9
Midcourse Segment	3,762.3	3,192.6
Terminal Segment	200.1	170.0
Sensors	335.4	373.4
Technology	139.3	121.7
Joint Theater Air Missile Defense Org. (JTAMDO)	26.9	73.1
Other Programs	30.5	35.4
Military Construction	8.2	23.4
Navy Area	99.3	----
MEADS	?----?	117.7
THAAD	866.5	934.7
Patriot PAC-3	898.7	858.2
Total Ballistic Missile Defense*	7,775.0	7,763.1
Space Based Infra-Red System-High (SBIRS-High)	438.7	814.9
GRAND TOTAL Ballistic Missile Defense*	8,213.7	8,578.0

NOTE: Total is the official DoD figure. Grand Total is a CDI figure which includes missile defense programs not funded though the Missile Defense Agency (MDA).
Feb. 7, 2002 Update -- According to MDA, the $598.0 million request for the Airborne Laser (ABL), now known as "Air Based Boost," is included in the "Boost" segment funding.

“[Missile Defense] Description: A multi-layer, multifaceted development program designed to protect the United States, our allies and deployed forces from missile attack. The program is managed as one system that will explore concepts and eventually develop air, sea, ground, and space systems that will intercept any range of threat in the boost, midcourse or terminal phases of flight trajectory. As these programs mature in their acquistion cycle they will transfer to the respective military department. Major systems include Ground Based Midcourse (formerly National Missile Defense), Air Based Boost (formerly Airborne Laser), Sea Based Midcourse (formerly Navy Theater Wide), Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), PATRIOT PAC-3 and Space Based Infra-Red System-Low (SBIRS-L).” (Defense Department’s Program Acquisition Costs by Weapon System, February, 2002, page 64.)

 

Prepared by Christopher Hellman CDI Senior Analyst chellman@cdi.org

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