U.S. Plans I:  Pentagon Delays Airborne Laser Tests

The Pentagon plans to delay a  previously planned shoot-down test of the U.S. Airborne Laser system because of weight problems on the Boeing 747 that houses the system, a senior defense official said this week (see GSN, Aug. 12).

“We’re still assessing … the fourth quarter of calendar year 2004 as being the shoot-down time frame,” said Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, head of the Missile Defense Agency.

The test of the system’s lethal capacity was originally scheduled for 2003, but documents submitted to Congress in February by the Defense Department indicate that the test is now planned for the end of 2004.

“Basically, the problem we have with the Airborne Last is not that it’s carrying too much stuff, but in one part of the airplane it has too much weight,” Kadish said, referring to the back of the aircraft, which holds the lasers (Laura Colarusso, Inside the Air Force, Nov. 1).

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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:

MDA Basics of Missile Defense

MDA Missile Defense System

PAC-3 Fact Sheet

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Russia:  Duma Ratifies Radar Agreement

The Russian State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, ratified an agreement Monday to lease the Habala radar facility in Azerbaijan (see GSN, Oct. 10).  Operators believe the facility, which monitors airspace south of Russia, should reach the end of its service life in 2012, which gives Russia enough time to build its own radar station to monitor the region, according to ITAR-Tass (ITAR-Tass, Oct. 30 in FBIS-SOV, Oct. 30).

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U.S. Plans:  Pentagon Considers Accelerating PAC-3 Production

Some senior U.S. Defense Department officials want to accelerate production of the Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) missile interceptor, even though it has suffered test failures, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Aug. 22).

The PAC-3 performed poorly in flight tests conducted between February and May, the Post reported.  The interceptors failed to fire in some tests, and when they did, they had an almost equal hit-to-miss ratio (see GSN, Aug. 5).

Aides to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have indicated, however, that they want to increase PAC-3 production without waiting for results of testing on recent fixes, according to the Post.  Because the Army only has 38 PAC-3s available, with another 15 planned for December, some Pentagon officials are concerned that the military might run out of the interceptors in the event of an attack on Iraq next year (see GSN, Sept. 19).

“Indeed, we are looking at ways to accelerate the production of PAC-3 out of concern for near-term vulnerability,” Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said in a speech last week to the Frontiers of Freedom, a missile defense advocacy group.

There is some dissent within the Pentagon, according to the Post.  Defense officials in charge of testing new weapons systems have said that approving the accelerated production might reduce pressure to continue with planned improvements.

Officials have also questioned whether an increase in PAC-3 production would actually increase the number of interceptors available in the event of a war with Iraq next year.  It usually takes about a year and half to make an interceptor, industry and congressional sources said (Bradley Graham, Washington Post, Oct. 31).

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U.S. Plans:  Missile Defense Agency Focuses on Boosters

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency and lead defense contractor Boeing are reviewing the national missile defense system’s test schedule and hope to improve the program’s boosters — historically plagued by problems — over the next fiscal year, Inside Missile Defense reported today (see GSN, Oct. 15).

“At this point the booster program is the least mature of all the elements, so we plan to concentrate on that part of the program over the next year in order to have that booster design ready to begin operationally realistic testing of the system,” a Missile Defense Agency official said.  “At this point in time, the integration of a new booster into the system is a priority for the program.”

In tests in 2003, the agency plans to power interceptors with a booster rocket developed by defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Orbital Sciences.  Surrogate boosters from Minuteman 2 missiles have been powering intercept tests to date, but the last scheduled test with a surrogate booster is scheduled for December or January, an agency official said.  The United States wants to conduct four flight tests each year, according to Inside Missile Defense (see GSN, Oct. 15).

Meanwhile, the agency plans to house five interceptor missiles in a Ft. Greely, Alaska, test bed to serve as a contingency defense capability (see GSN, Feb. 28).  Officials plan to use an April 2004 test to rehearse that capability, which could be in place for emergency deployment by October 2004, missile defense chief Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish told Congress in February (see GSN, July 19; Thomas Duffy, Inside Missile Defense, Oct. 30).

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U.S. Plans:  Boost-Phase Defenses Gain Priority

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has begun examining a number of boost-phase defenses for use in a U.S. missile defense system, Defense News reported this week (see GSN, Sept. 3).

There is expected to be funding in the fiscal 2004 Pentagon budget for several industry proposals on boost-phase defenses received in response to an agency request issued in December, U.S. defense industry executives said.  The agency requested proposals on ways to destroy enemy ballistic missiles as they leave the launch pad, in order to defeat possible missile defense countermeasures (see GSN, Sept. 25).

The boost phase is “the most desirable phase in which to engage a missile, since the missile cannot release its warhead and other countermeasures until powered flight is complete,” the MDA request said.

During the past few months, several U.S. defense contractors have submitted proposals for research experiments on kinetic energy boost-phase defenses.  Several firms have submitted proposals that use a common missile interceptor that could be launched from land, air or sea, industry executives said.

The agency’s long-term goal is to develop such a common interceptor, but the agency is not ready to choose a design, said agency spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Lehner (Gopal Ratnam, Defense News, Oct. 28).

For further information, see:

MDA Basics of Missile Defense

MDA Missile Defense System

MDA Boost Defense Segment

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U.S. Plans:  Lockheed Martin to Propose Airship

Lockheed Martin is ready to propose designing an airship that could be equipped with an early warning radar for U.S. missile defense systems, Defense Week reported today (see GSN, Aug. 9).

The Missile Defense Agency, the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the Office of the Secretary of Defense held an “industry day” last week on requirements for an unmanned airship that could carry a payload of up to 4,000 pounds at an altitude of 70,000 feet for more than a month, according to Defense Week.  The airship is the subject of a proposed three-year Defense Department Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration, worth between $50 million and $100 million, Defense Week reported. 

A request for airship proposals is expected to be issued in mid-January, with the proposals due in early February and the contract awarded by mid-March, according to sources.  The MDA has planned three demonstrations of the airship — in August 2004, November 2004 and April 2005, Defense Week reported

The Lockheed Martin airship would be 482 feet long, 180 feet tall and 153 feet in diameter, Defense Week reported.  The airship is expected to be able to scan a 1,200-kilometer area, said Ronald Browning, director of business development for surveillance systems at Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics and Surveillance Systems in Akron, Ohio.  The airship would contain about 5 million cubic feet of gas with no internal structure, Browning said.  It would also have four moveable propeller engines, but no rudders or fins.

At 70,000 feet, there exists an area of low wind — a good environment for airships, Browning said.

“It’s a very benign environment,” he said.  “You get up here through the jet stream and basically just park at that level” (Ann Roosevelt, Defense Week, Oct. 28).

For further information, see:

MDA Basics of Missile Defense

MDA Missile Defense System

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French Plans:  Defense Ministry Plans Upgrade to Air Defense Missile

France announced last week it would begin to upgrade its Aster 30 air defense missile to make it capable of intercepting theater ballistic missiles, Aviation Week and Space Technology reported today (see GSN, July 31).

The new Block 2 Aster 30 is expected to have more than twice the range of the original, from 600 kilometers to 1,500 kilometers.  During a Euronaval exhibition in Le Bourget, France, the French armaments agency announced it would begin preliminary design on the new Aster.

Some analysts said France could be seeking to take advantage of the cancellation of the U.S. Navy Area Wide missile defense system (see GSN, March 28).  Several European countries had considered the U.S. system — developed by U.S. defense contractor Raytheon — and might now turn to France, Aviation Week reported (Aviation Week and Space Technology, Oct. 28)

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