STEPHEN TRIMBLE / EL PASO
The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has awarded Lockheed Martin a potentially $4.6 billion programme to develop an increasingly sophisticated series of targets and countermeasures that replicate ballistic missile threats.
The programme strikes at the heart of a recurring criticism that missile defence tests to date have lacked practice targets that resemble the complexity of real-world threats. Critics have argued that balloon decoys are not realistic representations of known countermeasures.
The plan now is to "develop a capabilities-based series of countermeasures that would allow [MDA] to test increasingly difficult countermeasures as the testing moves forward," says Lockheed Martin programme director James Tevepaugh.
Starting with an initial $210 million award for 2004, Lockheed Martin is providing target systems for boost, mid-course and terminal phase missile defense systems.
The Pentagon is on track to deploy a limited mid-course phase missile defence capability next October with ground-based interceptors at Fort Greeley, Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, says MDA deputy programme director for ground-based mid-course defense segment Tom Devanney.
Source: Flight International