MITRE Corporation

MITRE operates federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) that give the U.S. government systems engineering support. It appears here mainly through an Air Force contract and two former intelligence officials who later held posts there.

One of its six FFRDCs, the National Security Engineering Center (NSEC), serves the Department of Defense and the intelligence community. MITRE came out of MIT Lincoln Laboratory's work for the Air Force. Three roles are easy to confuse. The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering sponsors NSEC, MITRE administers it, and the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), at Hanscom AFB, holds the contract. The Electronic Systems Center, a Hanscom center folded into AFLCMC in 2012, is the likely origin of that contracting role, but no source confirms it.

Donald Kerr, a former CIA, NRO and ODNI official, served on MITRE's Board of Trustees after retiring in 2009. Dawn Meyerriecks, CIA Deputy Director for Science and Technology from 2015 to 2021, has served in various capacities at MITRE since retiring.

NSEC is of interest to UAP research as the MITRE center most plausibly connected to classified defense work. For the wider claims in which this contract is cited, see AFLCMC's Information Protection Directorate. No source cited on this site establishes a MITRE role in any UAP program.