U.S. Missile Defense Agency opens new facility in Alabama

The head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has inaugurated a new facility at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, the agency said in a press release.

Air Force Lt. General Henry Obering III officiated at the commissioning of the $44.4 million building, which will accommodate 1,000 MDA workers as part of a base realignment initiative that will see about 5,500 agency employees move to the Tennessee Valley by 2011. Some 8,500 people currently work for the MDA.

"This is the physical manifestation of the first major milestone of MDA's move to the Tennessee Valley," he said. Since June, the Redstone Arsenal has been the headquarters of the Space and Missile Defense Command.

Congress recently adopted a resolution making the creation of an anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system official government policy, and has allocated some $8.6 billion in the 2008 budget for its development. RIA Novosti