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Dear Members and Friends,
In support of one of our key mission sets – advocating for the effective deployment of Missile Defense capabilities to make our world a safer place, the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance chaired its second annual Air and Missile Defense Technology conference. This event was held November 13-14, 2024, in London, United Kingdom and was a packed conference, with all tickets sold out. This marks our 5th Chaired Conference/Forum in the past 12 months around the World in an effort to spark dialogue, create trust and promote urgency in developing courses of action on different aspects of Missile Defense. Below are links to the events MDAA has chaired from sites in North America, Europe, and the Pacific.
This London Conference on NATO IAMD comes at a pivotal time, a week after the election of Donald Trump, the prospect of a settlement coming in Ukraine where both sides are positioning with urgency to negotiate from positions of strength, an ongoing Administration policy that restricts and hamstrings NATO and Ukraine missile and drone defense efforts and prevents having sufficient capacity and the best capabilities rapidly deployed to NATO nations. This Conference addressed the gaps and seams of the NATO missile defense architecture in the face of the evolving and persistent threat from Russia.
We find ourselves at a critical juncture of unprecedented challenges and strategic imperatives that challenge existing U.S. leadership. The ever-changing nature of threats being used in combat in Ukraine necessitates constant adaptation and innovation to include a hi-low mix of exquisite, expensive capabilities and low-cost, locally sourced new technologies. Missile Defense innovation emerged as a common thread in this cost-curve revolution, or the investment in non-standard technologies. Ultimately, success in missile defense requires trust, innovation and collaboration across governments, militaries and industry partners.
The candid discussions at the conference drove Courses of Action across five major areas: Updating IAMD Policies, Developing Regional Missile Defense Efforts, Open Data Sharing, Utilizing the Ukraine Test Bed, and Sensor Expansion in Space. To provide clarity and vision, we will host our 65th Congressional Roundtable this Friday the 22nd of November 11:30-12:30 ET with our Panelists the NATO Assistant Secretary General for Operations Tom Goffus, MDAA Board Member Rear Admiral (Ret) Mark Montgomery, and myself.
Respectfully,
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