What project MD33 buys
Space Applications for Missile Defense (SAMD) provides the functional elements of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Contractor Support Services, Federally Funded Research and Development Center/University Affiliated Research Center, and civilian manpower into a single entity that provides acquisition, financial, and technical support across the MDA Space Capabilities enterprise. In addition to the functional elements, this activity provides for developing and prototyping new space-based capabilities to support missile defense. SAMD also provides the MDSEA platform, Missile Defense Space Center (MDSC) infrastructure and Test and Integration Lab (TIL) which provides multi-mission ground segment and test integration support for current and future Missile Defense System Space Programs, to include the Discriminating Space Sensor (DSS) program. MDSEA is a highly scalable compute platform that provides mission commanding, data processing, and data storage services for the missile defense space architecture. The Spacebased Kill Assessment (SKA) system was composed of two segments: a space segment and a ground segment. The space segment was composed of a network of small infrared sensors (sensors, processor cards and cabling), each mated to a different satellite. The total number of sensors and their network placement was specifically tailored for the hit and kill assessment missions. The space segment included key design features to improve its resiliency. The ground segment monitored the health and status of the on-orbit sensors, commanded the sensors to perform the hit and kill assessment mission, and analyzed the data to make a hit/kill assessment determination. The ground segment also included the equipment necessary for communications security and information assurance. The Missile Defense Space Center (MDSC) provided the critical infrastructure for SKA data, routing SKA data between the commercial payload integrator and the multi-mission MDSEA. Due to higher Department of War priorities, the SKA experiment was cancelled in FY 2026 after successfully demonstrating hit-assessment capabilities from space.
- Product Development
- Support
- Management Services
Project MD33 funding, FY2025–FY2031
Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure. Projects carry the full five-year plan; the activities inside them stop at the budget year.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 37.0 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 34.2 |
| FY2027 | Request | 88.5 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 98.6 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 49.6 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 40.1 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 40.3 |
2 accomplishments / planned programs
The R-2A exhibit — the only level of the budget that describes work that has not happened yet. Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only, no five-year plan. Coverage is partial across the corpus, so count activities, never total them.
FY2026 to FY2027 change Increase from FY 2026 to FY 2027 provides for further disruptive technology development and prototyping and additional systems engineering and integration activities with partner space capabilities (SBI, operational HBTSS, PWSA) for Missile Defense System - Next.
FY2027 planned work No funding is requested in FY 2027.
FY2026 plans — current year No funding is requested in FY 2026.
Named performers on project MD33
Performers named in the R-3 exhibit under this project. Share is of the project's whole FY2027 R-3 total — the same denominator the program-element split uses, so the two read on one scale and will not sum to 100% when unnamed or government work is in the mix. Budget-justification contract funding, not obligations.