U.S. Plans:  Scarce Booster Rockets Cause Testing Reductions

A shortage of booster rockets could be behind the cancellation of several missile defense tests this year, Inside Missile Defense reported today (see GSN, April 18).

“You can only produce so many boosters a year … if you want 20 boosters in [Fort] Greely, [Alaska,] you have to give up something,” a source said this week.

The Missile Defense Agency plans to test boosters from Lockheed Martin and Orbital Sciences soon (see GSN, April 29), and production could follow shortly, but the companies are expected to turn the rockets out slowly.

The Missile Defense Agency recently informed Congress that it plans to significantly alter its testing plans for the national missile defense system after Boeing, the lead contractor on the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, suggested the testing changes, according to an agency spokesman (Duffy/Costa, Inside Missile Defense, April 30).

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U.S. Plans:  Orbital Will Test Booster First for Missile Defense Contract

In the competition to provide the kill vehicle booster for the U.S. national missile defense system, Orbital Sciences has developed their rocket faster than Lockheed Martin and will be the first to test launch its complete system this autumn, according to a Missile Defense Agency spokesman (see GSN, Feb. 10).

Lockheed Martin had initially been scheduled to test their offering first.

“Orbital’s booster stack is going to be ready to go sooner than Lockheed’s,” but that does not mean Lockheed Martin is having problems with their development, according to Missile Defense Agency spokesman Richard Lehner.

Boeing is the Ground-based Missile Defense system’s prime contractor and will choose to buy boosters from either one or both of the companies (see GSN, April 18; Ann Roosevelt, Defense Week, April 28).

Further Environmental Review Unnecessary

The United States has the option of add missile interceptors to its Ft. Greely, Alaska site in future years without environmental review, according to documents signed last week by the top U.S. missile defense official (see GSN, May 15, 2002).

Missile defense chief Ronald Kadish approved a future expansion of the Alaskan portion of the national missile defense shield without another environmental review, which can take up to two years, Aerospace Daily reported.  The Missile Defense Agency currently plans to deploy 16 interceptors in Alaska by 2005.  After Kadish’s decision, the agency may now build up to 40 interceptor silos there.

There is currently “no requirement” and “no funding” for more than 16 interceptors in Alaska, according to agency spokesman Rick Lehner.

“At least we’d have that flexibility in the future,” he added.

The agency is currently working on an environmental review of Vandenberg Air Force base in California, where it intends to place four interceptors by 2005 (Marc Selinger, Aerospace Daily, April 28).

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U.S. Plans I:  Army Calls for Accelerated THAAD, MEADS Deployment

A top U.S. Army general called yesterday for the accelerated deployment of two U.S. missile defense systems — the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) (see GSN, May 6, 2002).

The THAAD system should be deployed “as early as possible” to complement the Patriot missile interceptor systems already in use by the Army, said Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Cosumano, head of the Army Space and Missile Defense Command (see related GSN story, today).  The two systems are envisioned to work together, with the Patriot intercepting enemy missiles within the atmosphere and the THAAD system intercepting missiles above the atmosphere, according to Cosumano.

“We need that two-tiered, layered defense in the future,” Cosumano said, “so we would advocate any way to accelerate the fielding of THAAD.”

The Missile Defense Agency has indicated that the THAAD system could be ready to provide an emergency defense capability by the end of 2005, according to Aerospace Daily.

It would also be “very, very useful” to accelerate the MEADS deployment, which has a current fielding date of 2012, Cosumano said (see GSN, April 1; Marc Selinger, Aerospace Daily, April 25).

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U.S. Plans II:  Danish Lawmakers Consider U.S. Radar Upgrade Request

Danish lawmakers Wednesday heard from U.S. officials and nonproliferation analysts on a U.S. request to upgrade the Thule radar facility in Greenland as part of efforts to develop a U.S. national missile defense system (see GSN, March 6).

Assistant Defense Secretary J.D. Crouch urged Danish legislators to allow the United States to improve the radar.

“An upgraded radar plays an important role in the U.S. initial missile defense system in dealing with potential threats emanating from the Middle East,” Crouch said.  “If upgraded, the Thule early warning radar, like other upgraded early warning radars, would detect incoming ballistic missiles, track them and provide info to a missile defense system,” he said.

U.S. nonproliferation analyst Joseph Cirincione argued against approving the U.S. request.  While Denmark might want to approve the request out of a sense of friendship, they should not do so out of concern over the threat of a ballistic missile strike, said Cirincione, director of the Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace.  He argued that the threat of a missile attack is actually decreasing, especially with the U.S. defeat of Iraq.

Danish lawmakers also heard from a representative of Greenland’s home-rule government who argued that the original 1951 agreement authorizing the Thule radar station gave Greenlanders little say in how the facility would be used.

Danish officials have said they would attempt to reach a decision on the U.S. upgrade request before parliament recessed for the summer (Peter Heinlein, VOA News, April 23).

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