By Marina Malenic

With the expectation that the Obama administration will reduce the Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) outlays in upcoming budget cycles, some industry officials are advocating increased expenditure on boost-phase missile intercept systems.

“We don’t know exactly where this administration will go with missile defense, but it’s hard to believe they’ll be as supportive as the last president,” said Larry Dodgen, Northrop Grumman‘s [NOC] vice president for the missile defense division of the company’s Mission Systems sector.

“MDA has a lot of programs on their docket,” he added, “and not all those programs can be supported financially.”

Dodgen, the former head of U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, spoke with Defense Daily on Feb. 16.

He explained that, like the Obama administration, his company is taking a “fresh look” at how best to allocate scarce missile defense funds in a difficult economy. He said Northrop Grumman has concluded that the “strategic flexibility” offered by systems such as Northrop Grumman’s Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) and Boeing‘s [BA] Airborne Laser (ABL) make these expenditures valuable at a time when missile proliferation among both state and non-state adversaries is a grave concern.

“We think we ought to invest in the boost-phase, early engagement area and add strategic mobility to the force,” Dodgen said.

While the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system, already in place and activated in Alaska and California, provides stationary, silo-based strategic defenses with fixed-base radars, “we believe that KEI…brings a lot of mobility to that set-up,” said Dodgen.

Dodgen noted that a battery of 10 KEI interceptors can be transported on fewer than 15 C-17 cargo planes anywhere in the world within 24 hours. He said sea-basing KEI would also be a way to capitalize on the system’s mobility and bolster the theater-level Aegis system with strategic capability.

“I think they would complement very well in a theater fight and in a strategic fight,” he said.

Combatant commanders have expressed the need for more Aegis/Standard Missile-3 and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors, and key members of Congress have expressed strong support for those theater-level systems (Defense Daily, Feb. 11).

Dodgen said the addition of KEI and the complementary Space Tracking Surveillance System (STSS), which is expected to come online in 2019 under its current developmental timeline, could support Aegis and THAAD.

Two STSS demonstrator satellites are set for launch this summer.

Still, even if the Obama administration decides to put more dollars toward boost-phase intercept capabilities, Dodgen said officials may still face a choice between pursuing KEI or ABL.

“We don’t like to see that they’re in total competition. They certainly are both boost-phase weapons systems, but even in boost phase we think they complement each other,” he said. “But the fact is that I don’t think there will be the dollars for both of those programs to go forward, so there will have to be a decision.”

Northrop Grumman is a subcontractor to Boeing on the ABL development contract.

Dodgen said a booster and intercept test this summer will prove that KEI is on the right track and could be fielded in relatively short order.

“I think that from a developmental standpoint, you can get a battery of KEIs in a fairly short period of time,” he said. “KEI is not a technology problem right now–we’ve proven the technology. We’ve already proved out the fire control with infrared” in previous tests.

“So it’s just a matter of getting to the requirements and engineering the system,” he added. “And we feel we can do that fairly quickly.”

Asked how soon the system could be fielded, Dodgen said a definitive timeline will depend heavily on the 2010 budget.

Some $500 million was expended on the system last year. It has been on a path to fielding in the 2016-2017 time frame based on a $6.2 billion development contract.

“We can certainly do better than that if there’s robust funding,” Dodgen added.

KEI also provides one potential way to bolster European missile defense at a time when the third GMD site may well stall for “political reasons,” Dodgen said. He noted Northrop Grumman’s nearly five-year collaboration with the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) in the missile defense area.

“We have an arrangement with EADS that we’ve had for almost five years now,” he said. “But we’re waiting to see where the Obama administration goes and where [the North Atlantic Treaty Organization] goes with missile defense.”

Dodgen also said that in looking beyond the “obvious” threats of Iran and North Korea to non-state actors that may be proliferating missile technology, a mobile boost-phase intercept system is a “prudent way to go forward.”

“There are a lot of countries that are pursuing ballistic missiles,” he said. “And a lot of… non-state groups would be interested in having a capability.

“If you stand still in missile defense, you’re going to be losing ground to your adversaries,” he added.