Two flight tests are potentially planned for the tri-national Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), as the first program elements enter integration test, a Lockheed Martin [LMT] official said yesterday.
Though the United States has said it plans to let its participation in the program “run out,” a recent board meeting plans for flight tests as part of the design and development (D&D) phase of the program the United States will continue to participate in, providing funds up to the agreed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) cost ceiling of the equivalent of $4 billion in 2004 dollars (Defense Daily, Feb. 15).
As the D&D phase moves forward, U.S., German and Italian MEADS board members met earlier this month.
“They outlined the path forward, which is to go to a program that will have two flight tests, one against an air-breathing threat and one against a tactical ballistic missile,” Mike Trotsky, vice president, air and missile defense systems for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said recently at a lunch with reporters. The tests will take place over the next three years.
Lockheed Martin, MBDA and LFK are members of the multinational joint venture MEADS International, which is the MEADS prime contractor.
The decision to move to two flight tests was due to the United States’ decision to continue with MEADS at the level they had originally agreed in the MoU, Trotsky said.
“That allowed us to do two flight tests and it allowed us to do what we call launcher characterization flight test this year,” he said. That test would involve the launch of a PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) to investigate launcher dynamics before the White Sands Missile Range, N.M., tests. The MSE is the MEADS program missile, designated in 2006.
In the first half of April, Trotsky said Armaments Directors of the U.S., Germany and Italy are expected to meet to review the board’s plan. “I expect they’ll ratify the agreement that was struck in the board meeting,” Trotsky said.
Trotsky said both Germany and Italy are committed to MEADS “and fully intend to pursue this as their air-missile defense system” moving forward into production.
“What we’re hoping after the next few years is that we can convince the United States to come back into the program, either at the time of production of shortly thereafter,” Trotsky said.
Trotsky said there has been other international interest in the program, which might “lower the bill” and make it more attractive for the United States to return.
Meanwhile, the MEADS International focus this year is on getting major end items such as the launcher, TOC and radar into integration and preparing White Sands Missile Range for the flight tests.
In Italy, MEADS International yesterday said that for the first time a launcher and the BMC4I Tactical Operations Center (TOC) are in integration tests. The tests will demonstrate launcher and TOC functions, including the system attachment/detachment in the first demonstration of the MEADS plug-and-fight operation.