MDA told to stay home on budget day

Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Heath Collins revealed today the agency had no role in the decision to break a more-than-two-decade-long tradition of publicly discussing a new spending request as part of the Pentagon's annual budget rollout.

“I was told that MDA wasn’t briefing,” Collins said at the McAleese conference in Washington today. “Any other questions on why will have to go to the [Defense D]epartment.”

For more than 20 years, Pentagon leaders have included a separate briefing on missile defense projects in addition to new fiscal year budget requests by the Office of the Secretary of Defense along with the Army, Navy and Air Force. But that tradition appears set to end on March 11 when DOD rolls out its FY-25 budget request.