The director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) confirmed on Thursday that he was directed from above to not participate in the annual budget briefings planned for March 11, a first in over two decades.
“I was told that MDA wasn’t briefing and any other questions on why would have to go to the [Department of Defense] to answer that,” Air Force Lt. Gen. Keith Collins said during the annual McAleese defense systems conference.
Inside Defense first reported Wednesday that MDA was not giving a budget briefing this year.
MDA has participated in the budget briefings as a separate briefer, often last, for over 20 years. During the briefings the director outlines the agency’s budget request, notable items, upcoming missile defense tests, and fields reporter questions.
Collins said his team will now determine how they will get the budget request information to the public.
“And so we will look to do that, not in the form, obviously that we’ve done it in the past, but we’ll still make sure that, when the budget goes over, we’ll want to get the appropriate information out.”
Separately, when asked how he would want to spend any additional funds over requests, Collins focused on inventory capacity. He noted the example of Red Sea operations against Houthis in Yemen using munitions quickly.
“Increasing capacity in some of our inventories as we see the number of interceptors that we’re launching in an easy fight, in a less complicated fight [Red Sea]. We’re going through quite a number of interceptors. We need to make sure that we have the capacity in the fleet, so they have the shooters that they need as they go forward.”