The American-European Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) completed its preliminary design review (PDR), and a program contractor Feb. 12 voiced confidence that MEADS will be able to shoot down targets successfully.

“Seven flight tests of increasing…complexity” are scheduled for 2011 through 2013 against “different types of targets in different scenarios,” said Jim Cravens, president of MEADS International, a multi-national contractor team headquartered in Orlando, Fla. It includes MBDA in Italy, LFK in Germany and Lockheed Martin [LMT] in the United States.

Cravens spoke in a teleconference in which he termed the PDR success for the missile defense system “a significant milestone” for the program.

Completion of the PDR means that MEADS now is proceeding into detailed design work and headed for its critical design review next year, Cravens said.

The total program contract for MEADS is worth $3.4 billion, of which about $2 billion goes to work in the United States, $500 million to work in Italy, and other funds to Germany.

The United States funds 58 percent of the MEADS program, and Germany and Italy provide 25 percent and 17 percent respectively as partners in the NATO Medium Extended Air Defense System Management Organization (NAMEADSMO). Its program management agency, NAMEADSMA, is located in Huntsville, Ala.

MEADS is a European system to take out incoming shorter-range tactical enemy missiles and air-breathing threats. The United States also aims to install in Europe a Ground-based Midcourse Defense system to counter longer-range enemy missiles, such as those that might come from Iran.

Using the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, or PAC-3, system, the MEADS program has been years in development. It is mobile, and transportable.

MEADS will replace Patriot systems in the United States and Nike Hercules systems in Italy, and will supplement and eventually replace Patriot systems in Germany.

“We’ve demonstrated to our customer that the basic design of MEADS is ready to move forward into detailed design,” Cravens said.

Each step in the program involves significant work, because MEADS has many components that each must be advanced to reach each milestone, he said.

The level of technical detail of the PDR was unprecedented, reflecting the importance and complexity of this next-generation air and missile defense system, and the expectations of three sponsoring governments.

Over the six-month period leading to the summary event on Dec. 18, transatlantic review teams attended 27 multi-day design reviews.

MEADS will incorporate the hit-to-kill PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) missile in a system that includes 360-degree surveillance and fire control sensors, netted- distributed battle management/communication centers and high-firepower launchers. The system will combine superior battlefield protection with extensive flexibility, allowing it to protect maneuver forces and to provide selected critical assets for homeland defense against tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft.

When completed, MEADS will be the only air and missile defense system able to roll off tactical transports with the troops and begin operations almost immediately, according to Lockheed Martin. It will allow operational mission-tailoring for homeland defense or defense of maneuver forces in various theaters countering air-breathing and tactical missile threats. MEADS is intended to provide significant operation and support cost savings, according to the company.