August 01, 2024
Schedule
6:00 p.m.
Simi Valley, CA.
In honor of our exhibition, Defending America & the Galaxy: Star Wars and SDI, Lt. Gen. Heath Collins, Director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), will speak at the Reagan Library. Lt Gen Collins will discuss the Missile Defense Agency - its responsibilities, its challenges and opportunities, and the importance of what the MDA does every day for our nation's security.
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On March 23, 1983, in a televised address to the nation, President Reagan announced his intention to embark upon groundbreaking research into a national defense system that could make nuclear weapons obsolete. At the heart of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was the development of a space-based missile defense program that could protect America from a large-scale nuclear attack. Flash forward to today, and now our country has the Missile Defense Agency to develop and deploy a system to defend the United States and its allies - exactly what President Reagan envisioned 40 years ago.
Lieutenant General Heath Collins is the Director, Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and advises the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering on Missile Defense programmatic policy, requirements, priorities, systems, resources, and programs. MDA's global mission is to develop, test, field, and sustain integrated, layered missile defense capabilities to defend the United States, its deployed forces, allies and friends against missile attacks in all phases of flight. Lt Gen Collins directs the $11 billion global organization with more than 9,000 military, civilian and contract personnel. He exercises management oversight for the Missile Defense System to include program management of missile defense resources which he synchronizes with the services in support of Combatant Command requirements.
