What does MDE stand for?

The administration's new plan still will involve deploying missile defense elements to the region, and President Barack Obama has promised to give Poland and the Czech Republic priority in its basing decisions.

The Joint Staff conducted studies, for example, to identify the minimum interceptor quantities needed for certain ballistic missile defense elements designed to defend against short-to-intermediate-range threats.

US ballistic missile defense elements such as the AN/TPY-2 the American X-Band radar deployed in the Negev - Y.

But in recent months, Rumsfeld and Kadish have moved to focus the program on the most promising missile defense elements, a move urged last summer by a Defense Science Board panel of senior advisers.

Army Forces Strategic Command (SMDC/ARSTRAT) by leading an integration contractor team to plan, organize and coordinate operations, tests and analyses with comprehensive, widely distributed experimental weapons systems, such as Ground Based Midcourse Missile Defense hardware/element labs, early warning radars, sea-based missile defense elements, mid and lower tier missile defense elements, or representative element simulations; and/or other equipment of interest, such as communications network hardware/simulation, command and control, and/or threat systems data.

Since 2002, MDA has been directed by DOD to begin planning for the transfer of missile defense elements, including the direction to coordinate with the services on resources and personnel needed to provide an effective transition of responsibility.

ballistic missile defense elements such as the AN/TPY-2 (the American X-Band radar deployed in the Negev), THAAD and Aegis BMD will participate in these flight tests and exercises to demonstrate the interoperability and develop operational tactics, techniques and procedures associated with this coalition architecture," O'Reilly said.

Both the Center and the base were specifically chosen to enable JFCC-IMD to leverage the plethora of developmental and test resources from the Missile Defense Agency, as well as to afford direct access to the Army's Ground-based Midcourse Defense Missile Defense Element and U.