FDD’s Air and Missile Defense Program Launch

A livestream of the conversation will begin here at 12:00pm ET on Tuesday, April 22.
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For media inquiries, please contact [email protected].

To help protect the United States and its allies from the rising threat of missile and drone attacks, FDD is excited to inaugurate its new Air and Missile Defense Program, housed within the Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP).

This state-of-the-art program conducts rigorous, timely research regarding the air and missile defense capabilities necessary to protect the United States, its forward-deployed forces, and its allies and partners from adversary missiles, aircraft, and drones. The development, procurement, and fielding of cutting-edge air and missile defense capabilities — in sufficient quantities — by the United States, its NATO allies, Israel, Taiwan, Ukraine, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and others can bolster deterrence and enhance collective defense against evolving threats.

Join FDD for a kickoff discussion of the systems, policies, and infrastructure critical to empowering the United States and its allies to meet these challenges. The panel features program co-leaders Bradley Bowman, senior director of FDD’s CMPP and RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, senior director of FDD’s Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI), as well as Lydia LaFavor, CMPP research fellow. The conversation will be moderated by Gordon Lubold, national security reporter at NBC News.

Gordon Lubold

Gordon Lubold is a reporter for NBC News who has covered the U.S. military, national security, and foreign policy for more than 15 years in Washington, D.C., and around the world. Prior to NBC News, he served as The Wall Street Journal’s White House and national security reporter. He has also launched and authored three different national security newsletters for three distinct media outlets throughout his career. Gordon has covered conflicts across the globe, including in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and throughout the Middle East and Central Asia.

Bradley Bowman

Bradley Bowman serves as senior director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power, where he focuses on U.S. defense strategy and policy. He spent nearly nine years in the U.S. Senate, including six years as the top defense advisor to Senator Kelly Ayotte, then-senior Republican on the Armed Services Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee. Bowman also served as national security advisor to Senator Todd Young and worked as a Council on Foreign Relations international affairs fellow on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He served more than 15 years on active duty as a U.S. Army officer, including time as a company commander, pilot, assistant professor at West Point, congressional affairs officer on the Army staff in the Pentagon, and staff officer in Afghanistan.

Lydia LaFavor

Lydia LaFavor serves as a research fellow at FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power, where she focuses on the U.S. defense industrial base, weapons development, arms sales, and defense policy. Prior to joining FDD, her dissertation research encompassed the origins of the Russian aerospace defense industrial base, infrared-guided tactical missile development, and transnational air defense technopolitics. She served in the United States Air Force for seven years as an intelligence officer. Her time on active duty included deployments to the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan in support of Air Force Special Operations Aviation.

RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery

RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery is the senior director of FDD’s Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation and leads CSC 2.0, an initiative implementing the recommendations of the congressionally mandated Cyberspace Solarium Commission, where he previously served as executive director.  Montgomery also served as policy director for the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he coordinated policy efforts related to national security strategy, capabilities and requirements, and cyber-related issues. Additionally, he spent 32 years in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear-trained surface warfare officer, retiring as a rear admiral in 2017.