10 U.S.C. § 5531: Technical authority for integrated air and missile defense activities and programs

Subject to the authority, direction, and control of the Secretary of Defense, the Director of the Missile Defense Agency is the technical authority of the Department of Defense for integrated air and missile defense activities and programs, including joint engineering and integration efforts for such activities and programs, including with respect to defining and controlling the system level architectures, interfaces of such activities and programs, and the allocation of technical requirements for such activities and programs. In carrying out the technical authority under subsection (a), the Director may seek to have staff detailed to the Missile Defense Agency from the Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense and the Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense Organization in a number the Director determines necessary in accordance with paragraph (2). In detailing staff under paragraph (1) to carry out the technical authority under subsection (a), the total number of staff, including detailees, of the Missile Defense Agency who carry out such authority may not exceed the number that is twice the number of such staff carrying out such authority as of January 1, 2016 .