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U.S. Plans II: Developers Are Fixing PAC-3 Glitches, Kadish Says The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has been working to fix the “extremely annoying” glitches that caused failures in flight tests earlier this year on the Patriot Advanced Capability 3 missile interceptor, agency director Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish said yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 5). “We got a briefing from the technical teams a couple of weeks ago that gives me great confidence that we found the root cause of those problems,” Kadish told reporters. “There was nothing major in the design that gives me cause for concern at this point, and (the problems) are relatively straightforward to fix and it requires process discipline.” Agency officials have steered clear of any “witch hunt” to punish those who might be responsible, Kadish said. “What we need to and continue to press on is we will fix the processes and we will improve them and make this equipment as good as we can make it, and that’s what we’re doing,” he said. “As far as the mistakes that were made and assigning the blame, that’s not as important as fixing the process.” Kadish also said that, as some other Pentagon officials have also suggested, he supports accelerating PAC-3 production to build an adequate supply of the interceptors in the event of a war with Iraq (see GSN, Oct. 31). The Defense Acquisition Board was expected to review production plans for the interceptor yesterday. “My recommendation has been, and will continue to be, buy Patriot 3 as quickly and as fast that we can afford to buy them,” Kadish said (Stephen Trimble, Aerospace Daily, Nov. 1). Army to Take Over Program Meanwhile, the U.S. Army will soon take control of the PAC-3 program from the Missile Defense Agency, Army Secretary Thomas White said yesterday. The Pentagon has placed funding for the program in the Army’s fiscal 2003 budget submission. The fiscal 2003 defense appropriations bill, however, places the PAC-3 funds in the agency’s budget (see GSN, Oct. 24; Ann Roosevelt, Defense Week, Oct. 31). For further information, see:
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