Meads Prepares For Critical November Test

 

Photo: Lockheed Martin

Oct 12, 2011 By Andy Nativi - aerospace daily and defense report

GENOA, Italy — The fate of Lockheed Martin’s Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) is far from assured, but the chances it will at least persist through its development phase are increasing.

One decisive event is the upcoming flight test, the first of a planned series of three. After integration and testing at Pratica di Mare in Italy, and then at Lockheed Martin facilities in Dallas, the Meads battery was moved to White Sands, N.M., in preparation for the Nov. 17 test.

The goal is to demonstrate the system’s unique ability to fire a missile to address threats from any direction (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 17). But the demonstration actually could be a pass/fail test for the whole program.

Further flight tests are scheduled in 2012 and 2013. Although the original program called for seven tests in this phase, the effort was cut to keep it within the $3.4 billion ceiling of the restructured development program.

The missile defense effort was a hot target on Capitol Hill this year. Both House defense committees made cuts to the program, while the Senate Armed Services Committee sought to eliminate all funding for the trinational effort.

While supporters and enemies of Meads are still battling in Congress, in Europe the two international partners — Germany and Italy — are pledging support not only to complete system development, but also to proceed into the production phase in 2014.

In Italy, the defense ministry’s procurement chief took the unusual step of issuing a public statement confirming his country’s commitment to the program, arguing that Meads “is a latest-generation system which [will have no] rival for the next decades and will provide complete anti-ballistic [missile] defense for deployed forces as well as for civilian targets during major events” (Aerospace DAILY, July 20).

On Oct. 12, the so-called “5 power” meeting in Brussels is expected to see the formal approval of an updated Meads program schedule and goals that were defined in February at the level of the partners’ national armament directors. The Italian statement also refers to letters of support for Meads written by the U.S. Army’s deputy chief of staff and the head of U.S. European Command.

It also points out that there are other nations interested in being involved in Meads as partners. Indeed, Italy want Meads as the cornerstone of its anti-air/anti-ballistic missile capabilities. At least three batteries are planned by the Italian air force (the initial requirement was for nine batteries, which was repeatedly cut down to its current level of three).

The Italian defense ministry also is considering backup plans in case the program is torpedoed by the U.S. either before it completes development or just prior to a production decision. At a minimum, Italy wants to preserve as much as possible of the technologies developed for Meads. A European variant of the system is one of the alternatives being evaluated.

But for the time being, every effort is being made to assure Meads’ survival. The Italian undersecretary of defense, Guido Crosetto, wrote a strongly worded letter to his U.S. counterparts pointing out that if the U.S. decides unilaterally to end the development, it will have to pay the full termination costs alone.

Some military sources say it seems incongruous that the U.S. is asking its European partners to spend money on missile defense, while at the same time it plans to kill the most advanced trans-Atlantic missile defense cooperation program.