By Marina Malenic
The German government has launched a reevaluation of air defense alternatives ahead of a major design milestone for the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), a next- generation missile defense program it is developing along with Italy and the United States to replace the Patriot and other legacy systems.
European sources close to the German government tell Defense Daily that the Defense Ministry is reevaluating the country’s need for MEADS, studying specifically whether current Patriot batteries–with upgrades–can fulfill the military requirement. An analysis is expected well in advance of a Critical Design Review (CDR) milestone for the MEADS program, scheduled for August. The sources cited cost increases and program schedule slips as justification for the move by Berlin.
As Defense Daily reported last week, the U.S. Army is laying the groundwork for terminating the program, arguing that the system is too costly and no longer appropriate for countering the latest global threats. “Current Army position is: Terminate MEADS,” according to a Feb. 2 internal Army document (Defense Daily, Feb. 25).
The service instead advocates harvesting MEADS technologies and improving the Patriot program, while engaging the international partners through the traditional Foreign Military Sales process instead of a large-scale international development effort.
Army spokesman Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings said that the service “has not made any change regarding MEADS.” He added, however, that the service is “constantly evaluating alternatives on its programs.”
Army and Missile Defense Agency officials are meeting today to address the issue. MDA spokesman Rick Lehner acknowledged on Monday that “senior personnel are expected to be present” at the meeting and that “missile defense program management” is currently on the agenda.
Internal U.S. Army documents state that MEADS could be terminated “unilaterally or trilaterally” at the August CDR. Termination costs, according to the document, would range from as low as $550 million to as high as $1 billion for a unilateral termination. If terminated trilaterally at CDR, the penalty paid to contractors could be less than $500 million (Defense Daily, Feb. 25).
Greg Kee, general manager of the NATO agency that handles development and production of MEADS, told Defense Daily last week that that all lower level design review items have been completed, and the system-level design review is still on schedule for August.
“MEADS brings capabilities that we don’t have today, mainly the ability to interoperate in the coalition environment,” he said during a telephone interview. “I think MEADS makes more sense than ever with the tight fiscal constraints that are out there.”
Asked whether the threat environment has surpassed MEADS requirements, Kee said the system has been modeled against both current and anticipated future threats.
“And we match up well against threats out there today as well as the future threats,” he said.
He noted that some of the cost comparisons between MEADS and Patriot “may be apples to oranges.” Because of the smaller number of soldiers needed to man the system, as well as the higher operational readiness anticipated for MEADS, maintenance and sustainment costs will be lower, according to Kee.
“Bottom line is if you stand back and look at it and compare apples to apples…MEADS will come out to be the lower cost alternative,” Kee said.
MEADS is a mobile system that was designed to replace Patriot in the United States, the Nike Hercules in Italy and both the Hawk and Patriot systems in Germany. It was designed for interoperability among the three allies and to provide 360-degree coverage for troops against tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft.
A multinational joint venture headquartered in Orlando, Fla., MEADS International‘s participating companies are MBDA in Italy, LFK in Germany and Lockheed Martin [LMT] in the United States.