By Dave Ahearn
Missile defense programs must be able to handle multiple tasks in a cost-saving and efficient manner, because the military can no longer afford the luxury of having each system tackle just one mission, according to Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“We are really good at” procuring a system that “is perfect” for one purpose only, and then later deciding maybe it isn’t perfect and canceling the program, so the armed forces “wind up with nothing,” he said.
Instead of a system that can do one thing well, he wants each system to be flexible so that over years it can do 500 things well.
He also said it is time to move beyond self-contained systems that have internally all the capabilities they require. Rather, weapon systems must learn how to share, such as having many missile defense systems use data from a single radar.
Cartwright spoke Monday at a daylong Missile Defense Agency (MDA) symposium presented by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Reagan Building in Washington, D.C.
For example, he said, the Navy may design a future ship that would have to be enormous if it is to accommodate a giant radar required for missile defense missions. But perhaps the ship could just as well use data from a massive radar located elsewhere.
“We have got to find a way to net our sensors together,” he said.
Parochial interests “cannot stand in the way of solving problems,” he said, decrying those in acquisition efforts who preside over “fiefdoms.”
Further, no armed service will be permitted to design hardware just for itself. Rather, procurement programs must be joint, and each system must use input from other systems in other armed services or from allies, where possible. “Coalition warfare is what we’re going to do,” he said. Weapon systems need to be netted on the fly, at the control center level, he said.
He also said that President Obama isn’t going to wait for some later year to place his imprint on defense spending, but rather will do that in the federal budget for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2010. Obama earlier released an outline of that budget, and will provide the massive detailed line-by-line version next month, or in early May.
The Department of Defense can’t afford gold-plated machines of war, Cartwright said, but rather must arrive at compromises between what is desired and what is sufficient.
A prominent and strident critic of missile defense programs also was invited to speak at the Missile Defense Agency event. Phil Coyle, a former Pentagon testing and evaluation director, was introduced by Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, the MDA director, who graciously lauded Coyle for providing value in his criticisms, causing MDA personnel to think and rethink their decisions.