UA partners with defense group to tackle rising security threats
The University of Arizona is partnering with a missile defense advocacy organization to help address some of the United States’ most pressing national security needs.
As technology and threats against the U.S. continue to advance and adapt, the U.S. needs to be able to develop solutions faster, said David Hahn, the dean of the College of Engineering at the university.
“The threats are changing weekly, monthly, daily. So, we have to be able to be nimble, to innovate very quickly, and you know, academia can do that,” he said.
A new program called Advanced Education in Terrestrial Operations and Space aims to do that by training leaders for a rapidly evolving field. The program is a collaboration between the university’s College of Engineering and the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, a nonprofit missile defense think tank.
It will be the nonprofit’s third academic program, following collaborations with the University of Southern California and the University of Hawaii.
The eight-month program will be aimed at recruiting military experts — officers who will become generals and thought leaders in the future, he said. Civilian leaders will also be able to participate.
The program will bring them together with academics at the university to produce capstone projects focused on some of the country’s most pressing national security needs.
Riki Ellison, the founder of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance said solutions are needed to face a range of threats, to know what’s coming and how to defeat it.
One of those challenges is drones, he said.
“Our ability as a nation and as a world to be able to defeat low-flying drones that are cheap, in massive scale is a challenge right now,” Ellison said. He pointed to the recent damage of American bases after Iran launched a wave of drone and missile attacks during Operation Epic Fury.
He also noted how Russia recently hit Ukraine with thousands of missiles and drones, saying it was “the highest number that’s ever been.”
Innovative solutions are needed to defeat similar threats coming across the southern border, Ellison said.
“The Department of War has its ways and culture that takes quite a while,” Ellison said. “We are reaching to the University of Arizona to be faster, to create innovation quicker, and to create prototypes.”
This is not the university’s foray into the field of national defense research.
In January, the university announced it would partner with defense contractor Precise Systems, Inc., to compete for up to $151 billion in Golden Dome contracts. Golden Dome is a proposed missile defense system designed to destroy hypersonic, cruise and ballistic missiles before or just after they launch.
What will the program look like?
The new program will run from July 16 to Feb. 20 and include lectures on a range of topics from space domain awareness, drones and the Golden Dome to optics, and more. It will also include networking opportunities and group projects focused on homeland security issues.
Hahn said the capstone project developed at the end of the program could be a physical prototype or a study meant to better protect the homeland.
The program will be funded by tuition covered by participants. Each student will be agency-sponsored. Tuition will cost $10,000 per student for 12 to 18 students.
“It’s not really a profit-generating program at this point,” Hahn said. “It’s a bridge-building program to really and affect some things to help the country nationally.”