Taiwan:  Taipei Developing Missile Defense System

Taiwan is increasing the pace of its missile defense program in response to new cruise missiles that China plans to deploy in 2005, the South China Morning Post reported today (see GSN, May 9).

The missile defense system is reportedly a combination of antiaircraft artillery, aircraft and sea-based defenses, according to officials in Taipei.

Taiwan is also developing cruise missiles to launch against China, the newspaper reported.

“The government-funded Chinese Institute of Science and Technology has succeeded in developing a prototype which is capable of making land strikes,” according to a Taiwanese military source (Joe Tang, South China Morning Post, July 8).

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U.S. Plans I:  Alaska Test Bed Construction Is on Schedule

Construction of a missile defense test bed at Fort Greely, Alaska — a planned component in the U.S. Ground-based Missile Defense System — is proceeding on schedule for a planned fiscal 2004 deployment, U.S. Missile Defense Agency officials said this week (see GSN, April 18).

The MDA began work at the site in mid-June 2002, and since then 80,000 square feet have been under construction, including 11 new buildings and renovations of an additional 25 buildings, agency spokesman Rick Lehner said.  All of the building construction is expected to be completed by spring of next year, according to Defense Daily.

“All of the construction activities are on schedule and making good progress,” Lehner said.

The current plans for the GMD system call for the MDA to initially place six missile interceptors at the Fort Greely site, Defense Daily reported.  The agency is also asking for funding to field up to 10 additional interceptors at the site in 2005. 

Construction of the first missile interceptor silo at Fort Greely is expected to be completed by the end of this month, with all six planned silos set to be constructed by February 2004, Lehner said (Kerry Gildea, Defense Daily, July 3).

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U.S. Plans II:  Pentagon Slows Space-Based Interceptor Development

Financial and technical constraints have led the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to delay the space-based component of its boost-phase interceptor program, Aerospace Daily reported today (see GSN, Jan. 22).

That program, the Kinetic Energy Interceptor Program, has pursued two parallel tracks to develop technologies to shoot down enemy missiles in their boost phase.  Technical difficulties, however, have caused the agency to slow the space-based track while maintaining the ground- and sea-based effort.

“There are some major technology challenges that we need to deal with before we can begin developing a space-based capability that we could affordably deploy in operationally meaningful numbers,” Defense Department officials said.

In addition to the technical problems, the program is suffering budgetary cuts as House and Senate authorizers have cut $150 million and $70 million respectively from the agency’s $301 million request for the program for fiscal 2004 (see GSN, May 8).

Agency officials had hoped to begin the development phase of the space-based test bed in fiscal 2005 but now estimate that the phase will be delayed for two years.

The Pentagon originally planned to prevent a single contractor from receiving both the space- and ground-based development contracts, but now that the two tracks are no longer proceeding in parallel, the ban has been lifted.

Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman received eight-month, $10 million concept design contracts in March for the ground-based component, and the agency expects to select a single contractor in the beginning of fiscal 2004 to develop the system (Marc Selinger, Aerospace Daily, July 3).

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