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Last week, Senator Katie Britt wrote Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin highlighting the funding shortfall facing the Missile and Space Intelligence Center (MSIC) Phase 2 construction project.
MSIC is a Department of Defense (DOD) service intelligence center focusing on the analysis and assessment of foreign air and missile defense systems, ballistic missiles, anti-tank guided missiles, anti-satellite missile systems, and direct energy weapons. MSIC’s origin can be traced back to the 1950’s. During the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War, MSIC provided key analysis. Today, it continues to provide critical information for national security.
MSIC is also important for Huntsville and State of Alabama. It employs hundreds of Huntsville-based defense contractors who leverage expertise in weapons systems, modeling and simulation, and computing to help execute their mission.
Unfortunately, Phase 2 is running into “significant cost increases. . . due to a 200 percent increase in the cost of electrical equipment and a 120 percent increase in the cost of specialized mechanical equipment.” The resulting funding shortfall to complete Phase 2 is ~$94 million. “Without Phase 2 construction, MSIC will struggle to meet current scientific and technical intelligence needs for the DOD, the Intelligence Community, and the U.S. acquisition community,” Britt wrote to Haines and Austin.
Given the current “heightened threat landscape around the world,” Britt continued in her letter, “the mission and expertise of MSIC’s highly trained scientists and engineers has never been more relevant and critical to our national defense and the safety and security of our courageous servicemembers deployed around the globe.”
In the letter, Britt called on ODNI and DOD to “explore all avenues to consider reprogramming . . . to fund the remaining Phase 2 project at MSIC.”
The full letter to Haines and Austin is available HERE.
Senator Britt raised this funding shortfall issue during a Senate Appropriations Committee Business Meeting on July 11, 2024, during the markup of the Fiscal Year 2025 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.
At the hearing, Senator Britt discussed the importance of MSIC. She said:
“I want to speak briefly today about a critical military construction shortfall at the Defense Intelligence Agency Missile and Space Intelligence Center (MSIC) . . . While MSIC is located in Huntsville, Ala., it is of nationwide importance and is truly a crown jewel for our intelligence community. Of concern today is the funding shortfall for MSIC’s Phase II construction of its advanced analysis complex . . . The women and men of MSIC are at the tip of the spear to ensure the U.S. is the most lethal fighting force in the world and that we have what we need to defeat enemy weapons. We must ensure that we maintain our critical edge and that we understand the ins and outs of our foes’ weapons systems before they use them against U.S. servicemen and women or our fellow Americans.”
Later in the markup, Senator Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., committed to working with Senator Britt on MSIC’s Phase II shortfall. Sinema said, “I just wanted to say to Senator Britt how much I appreciate her desire to ensure military installations in her state have the funding they need. You have my commitment to work with you to explore option to address the needs for this project moving forward.”
