Ballistic Missile Defense Organization

The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (or BMDO) was an agency of the United States Department of Defense. It was known as the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) until it was renamed by the administration of President Bill Clinton in 1993. This change in name was accompanied by a shift in emphasis from national missile defense to theater missile defense, i.e. from global to regional coverage. In 1998, focus shifted back to national missile defense when Defense secretary William Cohen proposed spending an additional $6.6 billion on ballistic missile defense programs to build a national system to protect against attacks from North Korea or accidental launches from Russia or China. [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/jan-june99/nmd_1-28a.html] BMDO was renamed as the Missile Defense Agency in 2002.

The BMDO became better known in the public eye in 1994 when it launched a space probe, Clementine, to the Moon, in collaboration with NASA. The BMDO was primarily interested in field testing new satellite and space reconnaissance technologies incorporated in Clementine, technologies which enabled Clementine to discover pockets of ice at the Moon's south pole.

Timeline

BMDO Timeline

ImageSize = width:700 height:700PlotArea = left:40 right:30 top:10 bottom:20 DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyyTimeAxis = orientation:vertical order:normal format:yyyyPeriod = from:1993 till:2002AlignBars = earlyScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1993ScaleMinor = unit:month increment:6 start:01/01/1993Colors = id:gray value:gray(0.7)

# there is no automatic collision detection,
# so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap

Define $dx = 20 # shift text to right side of bar

PlotData = bar:event width:20 color:blue shift:($dx,-4) from:start till:end color:blue mark:(line,white) at:01/02/2002 text:"January 2, 2002, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization is renamed the Missile Defense Agency."

at:09/11/2001 text:"September 11, 2001, Terrorist attack using aircraft from domestic airlines." at:01/25/2001 text:"January 25, 2001, successful flight test of SM-3 / LEAP." at:05/11/1999 text:"May 11, 1999, Lt. Gen. Ronald T. Kadish confirmed as third director of the BMDO." at:03/17/1999 shift:($dx,-5)text:"March 16-17, 1999, The US Senate and House voted to commit the United States to deploy a national anti-missile defense system." at:08/31/1998 text:"August 31, 1998, North Korean test of a Taepo Dong-1 missile over Japan." at:02/07/1997 text:"February 7, 1997, A PAC-2 missile successfully intercepted a simulated SCUD TBM." at:06/26/1996 text:"June 26, 1996, Lt. Gen. Lester G. Lyles nominated to be the second head of BMDO." at:03/01/1996 text:"March 1996, The Peoples' Republic of China (PRC) fired four M-9 missiles that landed near Taiwan." at:02/11/1994 shift:($dx,5) text:"February 11, 1994, Extended Range Interceptor (ERINT) selected for the PAC-3 theater missile defense program." at:01/25/1994 shift:($dx,-5) text:"January 25, 1994, Clementine mission to the moon, testing BMD sensor technology." at:08/04/1993 text:"August 4, 1993, Major General Malcolm O'Neill nominated to be first head of BMDO." at:05/13/1993 text:"May 13, 1993, SDIO renamed BMDO by Clinton administration."

ee also

* Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO), predecessor organization
* Missile Defense Agency (MDA), successor organization
* National Missile Defense (NMD)
* Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD)
* Anti-satellite weapons
* Anti-ballistic missile
* Militarization of space

External links

* [http://www.mda.mil Missile Defense Agency]
* [http://www.mda.mil/mdalink/html/history.html Missile Defense Agency history page]