The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is the section of the United States government's Department of Defense responsible for developing a layered defense against ballistic missiles. The agency has its origins in the Strategic Defense Initiative, which was established in 1983 and was headed by Lt. General James Alan Abrahamson with physicist and engineer James Ionson, Ph.D., as head of the Innovative Science and Technology Office. It was renamed as the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization in 1993, and then renamed as the Missile Defense Agency in 2002. See National Missile Defense for the history of DoD missile defense programs.
Read more about Missile Defense Agency: Mission Statement, International Mission, Potential Enemies of The United States, Categories, Boost Phase Defense, Ascent Phase Defense, Midcourse (ballistic) Phase Defense, Terminal Phase Defense
Famous quotes containing the words missile, defense and/or agency:
“... the truth is the hardest missile one can be pelted with.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“From a bed in this hotel Seargent S. Prentiss arose in the middle of the night and made a speech in defense of a bedbug that had bitten him. It was heard by a mock jury and judge, and the bedbug was formally acquitted.”
—Federal Writers’ Project Of The Wor, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“It is possible that the telephone has been responsible for more business inefficiency than any other agency except laudanum.... In the old days when you wanted to get in touch with a man you wrote a note, sprinkled it with sand, and gave it to a man on horseback. It probably was delivered within half an hour, depending on how big a lunch the horse had had. But in these busy days of rush-rush-rush, it is sometimes a week before you can catch your man on the telephone.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)