The event was hosted by Acting DIA Director Christine Bordine and attended by Alabama Representative Dale Strong and Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Aaron Lukas, among others. The new project follows two years of work on the Phase I Materiel Exploitation Center (MEC).
The MACE facility will expand the Advanced Analysis Complex at the Richard C. Shelby Center for Missile Intelligence, providing increased simulation capability, dedicated analysis space and a high-performance supercomputing centre. According to DIA, the new site will deliver “a world-class supercomputing modeling and simulation (M&S) capability to defeat complex future threat systems, and it showcases DIA’s commitment to reestablishing deterrence and rebuilding the military.”
MSIC provides scientific and technical intelligence assessments of foreign weapons systems to warfighters, weapons developers and policymakers. “MSIC provides our customers — warfighters, weapons developers, policymakers, and homeland security — intelligence assessments on foreign weapons systems. We use scientific and technical methods to evaluate intelligence data, and determine the characteristics, performance, operations and vulnerabilities of foreign weapons systems,” the agency stated.
The centre is designated as a Department of Defense centre of excellence, focusing on foreign air and missile defence systems, ballistic missiles, anti-tank guided missiles, anti-satellite missile systems and directed energy weapons. “We are dedicated to developing intelligence assessments that provide strategic and tactical advantages to U.S. and allied forces in all current and future conflicts,” DIA noted.
MSIC employs all-source analysts from aerospace, electrical, mechanical and computer engineering, as well as physics. Most positions are assigned to the Scientific and Technical Intelligence Career Specialty within the Analysis Career Field.
The agency highlighted that “MSIC’s scientific and technical intelligence analysis is vital to the security of our Nation, especially in conflicts where U.S. military strategy requires dominance of foreign air defense systems and the ability to counter ballistic missiles that threaten ground forces and civilian populations.”
