By B.C. Kessner
After years of development by a tri-national industry team of air defense giants, the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) is on the verge of pre-integration tests, according to a program executive.
“We will start bringing hardware together in integration events at the end of this year,” Steve Barnoske, president of MEADS International, told Defense Daily recently.
“At end of this year and the beginning of next, we’ll be at an Italian air base called Practica de Mare (PDM) south of Rome for a pre-integration event,” Barnoske said. “We will have a fire control radar, a launcher, and a battle manager and we’ll do an integration with those three elements there.”
Chief MEADS system elements include a launcher designed to fire the Lockheed Martin [LMT] PAC-3 MSE (Missile Segment Enhancement) missile, surveillance radar, fire control radars, and a C4I battle manager vehicle.
Under development by Germany, Italy and the United States, MEADS is a mobile system that will replace Patriot in the United States, Patriot and the already retired Hawk system in Germany, and the Nike Hercules in Italy. MEADS International consists of Italy’s MBDA, Germany’s LFK and Lockheed Martin in the United States.
Barnoske also said that later in 2011, the team would do a similar integration with a battle manager, launcher, and surveillance radar in Cazenovia, N.Y.
Following those two event completions, at about the beginning of 2012, the whole system will come together at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., where the team plans to conduct its first flight test in the early summer of 2012.
Every integration test is required to test the capabilities of the system, Barnoske said. “It’s not impossible, but it would be unreasonably risky to go to White Sands with all the elements and start to tie them all together at one time for the first time, so all of these test steps leading up to that are important,” he added.
The program recently completed the critical design review phase that ran for about two years, had 47 events, and included 1,100 exit criteria, Barnoske said. The team completed the CDR hardware elements last year and started building components at that time, enabling them to be ready for the integration and test phase.
Barnoske said the team had one of each MEADS element essentially complete. The surveillance radar is in integration, and the fire control radar is completely assembled and in integration testing, he added.
“We’re having a launcher roll out in December near Munich…that will be at LFK Germany,” he said.
The hardware for the battle manager is essentially complete and it will be ready at the test in Italy. It will have an interim software load because the final is still being developed, he added.
At a recent government board of directors meeting in Germany, a physically complete but “not quite integrated fire control radar” was pulled out and demonstrated, Barnoske said. “Everyone was quite impressed by the maturity of the hardware,” he said.
Each element has content from all three nations.
The lead for the fire control radar is MBDA Italia, with a lot of software and sub-elements provided by Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Sensors, and LFK Germany. The radar is still in Germany for integration and assembly of the transmit array. Next, it is headed to Italy for final integration before the test there.
LFK Germany is the lead on the launcher, with several main components provided by Lockheed Martin that will all come together in Germany for the rollout next month, Barnoske said.
The surveillance radar is led by Lockheed Martin in Syracuse, N.Y. It is one of the most individualized elements, with Lockheed Martin carrying a significant majority of the work share, he said.
Italy provides the battle manager hardware, and all three firms contribute to the software, with Lockheed Martin overseeing overall design and integration from its Huntsville, Ala., operation.
MEADS work share is based on national financial contributions: Lockheed Martin in the United States has 58 percent; Germany with 25 percent; and Italy has a 17 percent share.
The system is designed to 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.
“Key features for this system that really separate us from others are the netted-distributed architecture and wireless communications…that kind of plug and fight flexibility,” Barnoske said. “Plus the 360- degree coverage and the advanced digital radars, because they give you a lot more defended area on the ground than the existing systems with steering radars can give you,” he added.
The launcher elevates almost to vertical so missiles can go in any direction. “We have essentially circular capability against targets and the ability to track and engage a significant number of targets simultaneously. If the bad guys try some kind feint, launching a tactical ballistic missile from one direction, and a cruise missile from another, we can get them all.”
Because of the hemispherical coverage and common data links, platforms such as AWACS and U.S. and allied ships will be able to connect to the system through the battle manager, Barnoske said. “We’ve also designed the system so that if somebody comes along with a different radar or different missile it can be integrated into the system relatively easily.”
The next generation MSE variant of the PAC-3 will allow the missile to fly further and higher to engage targets farther away, which the digital radars can now support, he said. “By the time we get to the field, that missile will be there and it will be the interceptor for MEADS,” Barnoske said.
“We will finish the test program and be in LRIP by 2015,” he added.