In new timeline, Army set to take full control of THAAD missile program by 2027

WASHINGTON — The Army will soon officially assume control of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system, a program the Missile Defense Agency has long managed, according to a new timeline disclosed by a service official.

Lt. Gen. Frank Lozano, the Army’s Program Acquisition Executive of Fires, told an audience at the annual McAleese Defense Programs Conference Tuesday the current THAAD office “will be transferring over to me from MDA in [fiscal year] ’27.”

“We’re working very closely with MDA right now on that transfer plan and that memorandum of understanding and agreement,” he said.

The Army already operates the layered missile defense system, but currently the MDA is in charge of its development and procurement.

Talk of transferring the program has been in the works for several years, but reportedly has also been a point of some debate. Though the Army provides soldiers for THAAD units, MDA leaders have maintained that the program will have better oversight if it remains under its agency as its likely not to be “prioritized” under the service and transferring the weapons system could potentially cause a disruption to production, as Defense News previously reported. 

During his address Tuesday, Lozano did not specify why transferring THAAD to the Army would be beneficial to the service, nor did he respond to a request for comment regarding the MDA’s past concerns by the time of publication. 

The THAAD system, made by Lockheed Martin, is a mobile, truck-mounted air defense system loaded with eight interceptor missiles designed to take out threats “inside or outside the atmosphere during their final, or terminal, phase of flight” and is “highly effective against ballistic missile threats,” according to the MDA.

Recently, the system has been in the spotlight as one of the defenses used by the US and its allies in the Middle East to confront missile and drone threats from Iran during Operation Epic Fury.

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During the conflict, experts and analysts have raised alarm on how firing THAAD missiles, along with those from Tomahawks, will impact American stockpiles, especially at a time when the US has shifted its focus in recent years to a potential conflict in the Indo-Pacific theater. 

“As concerning as that is, the expenditure of long-range weapons should also give us pause,” Tom Karako, a senior fellow with the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Breaking Defense earlier this month. He added that every Tomahawk used against Iran, for instance, is one less that could be employed in a conflict with China.

The Pentagon has reportedly moved parts of THAAD systems stationed in South Korea to the Middle East, though officials told The Washington Post that was only a “precautionary” move.

More generally, though President Donald Trump convened defense industry CEOs at the White House to urge them to boost production, senior US officials have maintained they have plenty of hardware for current operations.