The United States Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is pushing to create a culture that places artificial intelligence (AI) at its center, according to an Inside Defense report. The strategy will extend beyond tactical applications, encompassing sensor algorithms, enterprise decision-making platforms, systems engineering automation and organizational restructuring. The scope of MDA’s AI investment reveals a shift beyond individual capability development toward systemic organizational transformation, with the agency leveraging AI to improve decision-making from headquarters to the battlefield while redesigning its acquisition and engineering processes to accelerate delivery to warfighters, according to the report.
“MDA also is applying digital technology to daily operations, workflows, applications, and processes across the enterprise to reach unprecedented speed of delivery and create new value while fostering enhanced customer experiences,” U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Heath Collins, MDA director, told lawmakers in April 2026.
The Inside Defense report lists several target areas for AI integration:
- Sensor-level AI integration: The agency is implementing machine learning algorithms at the sensor level to improve threat identification and reduce false positives in midcourse defense operations. An upgraded early warning radar will incorporate machine learning and new algorithms for classification of threat objects.
- Space-based sensor AI: MDA’s ballistic missile defense system space programs budget line designates AI and machine learning modeling to support space-based sensor development for detecting and tracking hypersonic and ballistic threats.
- Enterprise decision support: MDA is developing artificial intelligence platforms to provide decision support at strategic and operational levels, moving beyond tactical applications into enterprise command and control.
- Tactical application and kill-chain integration: MDA seeks to optimize engagement functions by the warfighter by embedding AI and machine learning across the kill web. Ongoing implementation will enhance decision superiority by optimizing weapon systems and resource allocation.
- A national integrated air and missile defense center: MDA plans a hybrid physical and virtual environment to serve as a primary platform for AI integration across joint warfighting systems.
- MDA’s plans reflect the Department of War’s (DOW) overall push to incorporate AI into its systems. Revised targeting principles approved by the DOW in April 2026 envision “systems where AI initiates actions with human monitoring,” according to Bloomberg News, citing a DOW report. This is an evolution from the current practice of having systems in which a human initiates actions. “The speed of future warfare, along with our adversaries’ own advances in AI, may require the joint force to adopt completely autonomous systems,” the report says, according to Bloomberg News.
“The War Department ensures that a human is always in the loop for critical operational decisions,” the DOW said in a statement to Bloomberg News. “Department AI technologies do not autonomously select or strike targets; it ensures commanders remain in charge of every decision, empowering them to act on the most current and accurate operational picture possible.”
In June 2026, the DOW announced Agent Network, a project aimed at employing “advanced, AI-enabled tools to compress the time it takes to turn intelligence into informed options for commanders around the world,” according to a DOW news release.
“Agent Network delivers on the Department’s commitment to field AI capabilities with speed and accountability. By pairing established defense technology leaders with innovative new entrants, we are building an interoperable network of AI agents that gives commanders faster access to better information while keeping human judgment at the center of every targeting decision,” Cameron Stanley, DOW’s chief digital and AI officer, said in the news release. “This is warfighting AI at operational scale.”