The NATO Medium Extended Air Defense System Management Agency (NAMEADSMA) is located in Huntsville, Alabama. The agency was founded by NATO in July 1996 to oversee the tri-national Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), a joint military project intended to replace the aging MIM-104 Patriot missile system.
The United States funds 58 percent of the MEADS program, and European partners Germany and Italy provide 25 percent and 17 percent respectively. MEADS development work is allocated in accordance with national funding. Personnel from the United States, Germany, and Italy staff the agency.
As contracting authority providing management of the MEADS program on behalf of the participating nations, NAMEADSMA is responsible for managing the system acquisition. The U.S. and Italy signed the Design and Development (D&D) MOU on 24 and 27 September 2004, respectively. The NAMEADSMA awarded the MEADS D&D letter contract to MEADS International Inc. on 28 September 2004, initiating the MEADS Design and Development (D&D) phase. The MOU was amended in March 2005 by the U.S. and Italy to allow the German Parliament additional time for their signature decision, and on 22 April 2005 Germany signed the MOU. NAMEADSMA awarded a $3.4 billion D&D definitized contract to MEADS International Inc. on 31 May 2005.
MEADS is being developed in accordance with International Common Operational Requirements that call for capabilities not met by current systems. MEADS incorporates the hit-to-kill PAC-3 MSE missile in a system that includes 360-degree surveillance and fire control sensors, netted-distributed battle management/communication centers, and high-firepower launchers. The system combines superior battlefield protection with unprecedented flexibility, allowing it to protect maneuver forces and to provide homeland defense against tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, and aircraft.
Famous quotes containing the words medium, extended, air, defense, system, management and/or agency:
“The role of the writer is not simply to arrange Being according to his own lights; he must also serve as a medium to Being and remain open to its often unfathomable dictates. This is the only way the work can transcend its creator and radiate its meaning further than the author himself can see or perceive.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)
“Whenever there are in any country uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on.... The small landowners are the most precious part of a state.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“There is something about poverty that smells like death. Dead dreams dropping off the heart like leaves in a dry season and rotting around the feet; impulses smothered too long in the fetid air of underground caves. The soul lives in a sickly air. People can be slave-ships in shoes.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”
—Barry Goldwater (b. 1909)
“The twentieth-century artist who uses symbols is alienated because the system of symbols is a private one. After you have dealt with the symbols you are still private, you are still lonely, because you are not sure anyone will understand it except yourself. The ransom of privacy is that you are alone.”
—Louise Bourgeois (b. 1911)
“People have described me as a “management bishop” but I say to my critics, “Jesus was a management expert too.””
—George Carey (b. 1935)
“It is possible that the telephone has been responsible for more business inefficiency than any other agency except laudanum.... In the old days when you wanted to get in touch with a man you wrote a note, sprinkled it with sand, and gave it to a man on horseback. It probably was delivered within half an hour, depending on how big a lunch the horse had had. But in these busy days of rush-rush-rush, it is sometimes a week before you can catch your man on the telephone.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)