HUNTSVILLE – With an increased emphasis on space defense due to growing threats, the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Missile and Space Intelligence Center broke ground today on a major expansion at its Redstone Arsenal campus.

The project aims to enhance the facility’s capabilities and infrastructure, supporting MSIC’s mission to provide advanced global space and missile defense capabilities.

The ceremony was attended by DIA senior leaders and elected officials to celebrate a critical milestone in the center’s ongoing development.

DIA/MSIC provides warfighters, weapons developers and policymakers with scientific and technical intelligence assessments of foreign weapons systems.

For 64 years, DIA has met the full range of security challenges faced by the United States. DIA intelligence officers operate around the world, supporting customers from deployed warfighters to national policymakers.

Officials said the facility, when completed in about 2 1/2 years, will deliver a world-class supercomputing modeling and simulation capability to defeat complex future threat systems.