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BMDO
The fundamental objective of the BMD program is to develop the capability to defend the forces and territories of the United States, its Allies, and friends against all classes of ballistic missile threats. The Department will develop technologies and deploy systems promising an effective, reliable, and affordable missile defense system. The RDT&E program is designed to develop effective systems over time by developing layered defenses that employ complementary sensors and weapons to engage threat targets in the boost, midcourse, and terminal phases of flight and to deploy that capability incrementally. At the direction of the Secretary of Defense, we have developed a research, development and test program that focuses on missile defense as a single integrated BMD system, no longer differentiating between theater and national missile defense. This revised structure involves three basic thrusts. First, the new BMD program will build on the technical progress we have made to date by providing the funding required to develop and test selective elements of the current program fully. Second, the new program will pursue a broad range of activities in order to aggressively evaluate and develop technologies for the integration of land, sea, air, or space-based platforms to counter ballistic missiles in all phases of their flight. The new program will not cut corners. Rather, it is designed to pursue parallel development paths to improve the likelihood of achieving an effective, layered missile defense. Third, the new testing program will incorporate a larger number of tests than in the past. They will employ more realistic scenarios and countermeasures. This will allow us to achieve greater confidence in our planning and development. Through this robust testing activity, we may discover opportunities to accelerate elements of the program based on their performance, and increase the overall credibility and capability of BMD systems. This approach is designed to enable contingency use of the demonstrated BMD capabilities, if directed. The goal of the BMD System is a layered defense that provides multiple engagement opportunities along the entire flight path of a ballistic missile. Over the next three to five years we will pursue parallel technical paths to reduce schedule and cost risk in the individual RDT&E efforts. We will explore and demonstrate kinetic and directed energy kill mechanisms for potential sea-, ground-, air-, and space-based operations to engage threat missiles in the boost, midcourse, and terminal phases of flight. In parallel, sensor suites and battle management and command and control (BMC2) will be developed to form the backbone of the BMD System. For more information, link to "http://www.acq.osd.mil/bmdo/bmdolink/html/system.html"