On Target
As this issue of MSMF was going to press, the Obama administration posted on the White House Website its policy intentions for national missile defense and space issues.
National Missile Defense: The Obama-Biden Administration will support missile defense, but ensure that it is developed in a way that is pragmatic and cost-effective; and, most importantly, does not divert resources from other national security priorities until we are positive the technology will protect the American public.
Ensure Freedom of Space: The Obama-Biden Administration will restore American leadership on space issues, seeking a worldwide ban on weapons that interfere with military and commercial satellites. They will thoroughly assess possible threats to U.S. space assets and the best options, military and diplomatic, for countering them, establishing contingency plans to ensure that U.S. forces can maintain or duplicate access to information from space assets and accelerating programs to harden U.S. satellites against attack.
Provisional Air Force Global Strike Command Established
The secretary of the Air Force selected Brigadier General James M. Kowalski as commander, provisional Air Force Global Strike Command.
Air Force officials will propose a three-star general lead the permanent command. The provisional command will be temporarily located at Bolling Air Force Base, D.C. Air Force leaders are currently in the process for determining a permanent location for the Air Force Global Strike Command.
Air Force officials first proposed the activation of the Air Force Global Strike Command as the lead major command for the Air Force nuclear operations in October upon publication of the service’s Nuclear Roadmap.
The provisional command, along with detachments at Air Combat Command and Air Force Space Command, were activated as this issue was going to press.
Raytheon Awarded $77 Million for Patriot Upgrades
Raytheon Co. was awarded a contract to continue upgrading Patriot missiles by adding the capability to engage and destroy cruise and ballistic missiles.
The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., issued the $77.4 million contract to upgrade 166 Patriot Advanced Configuration-2 missiles to Guidance Enhanced Missiles-Tactical (GEM-T).
“The GEM-T upgrade incorporates improvements to the front end of the PAC-2 missile receiver to enhance its effectiveness and lethality against Tactical Ballistic Missiles (TBMs). It also includes a modernized digital fuze design, which eliminates obsolescence and introduces significant performance improvements against TBM targets. This design also increases sensitivity for improved performance against low-altitude targets in clutter,” read a Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems statement provided to MSMF.
Work for this contract will be performed by Raytheon IDS at the Integrated Air Defense Center, Andover, Mass., through August 2011.
Raytheon is the prime contractor for the Patriot system and integration of all variants.
Mike Nason:
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MDA Completes Successful Flight Test and Intercept
A successful MDA-coordinated and sponsored flight test started with the launching of a threat-representative target missile from Kodiak, Alaska. The long-range ballistic missile was tracked by several sea- and land-based radars, which sent targeting information to the intercept missile. A ground-based interceptor’s exoatmospheric kill vehicle was carried into the target’s predicted trajectory in space, maneuvered to the target, performed discrimination and intercepted the threat warhead.
“The primary objective was to show that we could perform tracking discrimination with this network and intercept the target that actually had countermeasures on board. The second test objective was at the same time, using the same target; we used the networks to notify the USS Higgins, which watched the target come down, but the USS Benfold actually went through a simulated intercept also,” Army Lieutenant General Patrick O’Reilly, director, MDA, told a Pentagon news conference. He added, “What is a first-time event for this is that we actually networked it together, all of the different sensors—they’re all different types of radars and different frequencies and sizes and geometries and were able to form one track, very accurate track.” ♦