2006 Strategic Intent of the Missile Defense Agency

DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE: I am pleased to present the Strategic Intent of the Missile Defense Agency. It is designed to communicate our agency's vision, guiding principles and personal values, and strategic goals and objectives to chart our course for the future. I expect the Strategic Intent to become the first point of reference for all of us in MDA, for our key stakeholders, including others in the Department of Defense, and most importantly, for the U.S. Congress and American people, whose support is critical to our success. The foundation for the Strategic Intent has been laid in the National Missile Defense Act of 1999, the National Policy on Ballistic Missile Defense, and the National Defense Strategy. They emphasize the growing threats from ballistic missiles many of which can be armed with weapons of mass destruction. These missiles are being proliferated at an alarming rate around the world and with increasing ranges and more sophisticated countermeasures. State and non-state actors may want to use weapons of mass destruction carried on ballistic missiles to blackmail and intimidate us and even murder hundreds of thousands of people. In response, the United States must develop and deploy ballistic missile defenses drawing on the best technologies available. Our mission at MDA is to develop and field an integrated, layered, ballistic missile defense system to defend the United States, its deployed forces, allies, and friends against all ranges of enemy ballistic missiles in all phases of flight.