Not surprisingly, the goal of our country’s Missile Defense Agency is to protect the US, our armed forces, and our allies from all threat missile in all stages of flight. And we work closely with the MDA and other parts of the US government to do just that—serving right now as a prime contractor on three MDA contracts and a subcontractor on seven more MDA contracts.
When we acquired Sparta Inc., back in 2011, they were already providing research and development to help the agency gain a clear understanding of what missile defense capabilities the nation would need to counter existing and emerging threats. Flash forward 10 years, and we’re awarded a $2 billion contract from the MDA to provide Technical, Engineering, Advisory, and Management Support (TEAMS)–Next Systems Engineering, meaning we’re providing engineering, analysis, and management support for the development of integrated and layered missile defense systems that defend US and allied forces against ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missile threats, while advancing the agency’s integrated air and missile defense, command and control, and battle management communication missions across the all-domain battlespace.
Collectively, it’s been about four decades of partnership between Parsons and the MDA, during which we’ve provided research and development, along with everything from communications and control networks to sensors, optics, and infrared seekers to shield our country from short-range missiles, medium-range missiles, intermediate-range missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and now hypersonic missiles, which operate at Mach 5 to Mach 10, which is 3,800 to 7,700 miles per hour and beyond.
However, according to Brian Clemons, who’s supported the Missile Defense Agency for 38 years and serves as our VP of operations for our Systems Engineering and Integration Services directorate within our Federal Solutions segment, it’s our people who are the real value we offer the MDA.
We have world-class subject matter experts and technical experts in all domains of missile defense.”
Brian Clemons
And these specialists work all over the world, with our core staff stationed at the Redstone Arsenal, in Huntsville, Alabama; the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, in Dahlgren, Virginia; the Schriever Air Force Base, in Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Fort Belvoir, in Fairfax County, Virginia.
These people have contributed to innovations like the miniaturization of electronics components that have allowed us to produce lighter, faster interceptors; technology developments for radar systems that allow us to design and build more powerful radars that can detect things further away with higher fidelity; and communications networks that reduce delays, enabling us to know where things are quicker and more accurately, effectively reducing errors.
And this isn’t just theoretical work. These systems have been involved in actual combat, like when we used the Patriot system in Operation Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia, when Iraq attacked, and when we countered launches with the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense System, or THAAD, in the UAE in January of this year. MDA’s systems are deployed on the US Navy’s AEGIS ships patrolling our seas around the world today. And we’ve been instrumental in the facilities requirements to deploy missile defense systems in allied countries, like Japan, Poland, and Romania. Brian shares, “Missile defense experts are hard to come by, and so it’s truly our people who enable us to develop technology that is quicker, more efficient, more reliable, faster. These people are real rocket scientists, the best and the brightest, with advanced degrees in specialized fields like radars, communication technologies, propulsion systems, and guidance and controls.”
Every year—every day, in fact—our people contribute innovations in areas such as directed-energy systems and laser systems, both for communications and weapon systems. We’re continuously making advances that improve and evolve those systems for missile defense. We know the next frontier in missile defense is space capabilities, and as Brian says, “We’ll be ready. What we have to offer is the most dedicated, most proud, most passionate group of people doing some of the most complex, vital work every day to protect our citizens, our allies, and our warfighters around the world by staying ahead of our adversaries.”
Our people are committed to the mission—whatever that mission might be—and that’s what makes us different, more innovative, better.