South Korea:  Lockheed Martin Wins Aegis Contract

South Korea has awarded U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin a deal worth more than $1 billion to supply Aegis radar systems for the South Korean navy, military officials said today (see GSN, March 19).

South Korea chose Lockheed Martin over Dutch competitor Thales, according to Agence France-Presse.  It is the second time South Korea has awarded a military contract to a U.S. company instead of a European one.

“Tests showed Aegis outperformed Thales.  The U.S. company has also met our requirements such as price and a U.S. government guarantee on interceptor missiles,” a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman said.  The contract includes guarantees for the South Korean purchase of missile interceptors that the United States is currently developing, according to the spokesman.

“The Pentagon has promised to complete the development of a new series of SM-II Block 4 missiles by 2005,” he said (see GSN, April 3).

South Korea is expected to build three naval destroyers to equip with Aegis radar, which can track and engage more than 100 aerial targets.  One of the three destroyers is already under construction and is scheduled to be operational by 2008, Agence France-Presse reported.  The Aegis system is expected to provide increased capabilities to defend against North Korean ballistic missiles, South Korean navy officials said (see GSN, May 3).

“Aegis will help our navy boost its strength,” one navy official said (Agence France-Presse, July 24).

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India:  Powell to Tell India He Opposes Arrow Sale

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to tell Indian officials later this week that he opposes Indian efforts to import the Israeli Arrow missile defense system, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, May 16).  Powell has said he plans to visit India and Pakistan to discuss regional tensions (see GSN, July 10).

Israel uses Arrow to defend against short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles.  Because Israel developed the system jointly with the United States, Israeli officials must obtain U.S. approval to sell it to other countries such as India and Turkey, according to the Post.

The Bush administration has not yet decided whether to approve the sale to India, but high-level officials are considering the proposal, a Pentagon official said.  The administration plans to inform Israel of its decision “fairly soon,” a senior State Department official said.

Department officials oppose the proposed sale out of concern that India’s acquisition of the system could increase tensions in South Asia, where Pakistan and India in recent months raised international concern that they might go to war.

“We have concerns about the introduction of more missiles into this area,” the State Department official said.  “It could be destabilizing.”

“Were India to proceed with an investment in missile defense, one thing is certain,” said Karl Inderfurth, former assistant secretary of state.  “Pakistan will respond in some fashion, either by increasing its offensive capability to counter such a defensive shield or by pursuing its own form of missile defense wherever they could obtain it.  That is an iron law of the action-reaction cycle in South Asia.”

State Department officials are also concerned that the sale might harm U.S. efforts to prevent missile proliferation, according to the Post.  They worry that it would send the wrong message to Russia, China and other weapons exporters at the same time that the Bush administration has made nonproliferation a priority.

Another potential concern is that selling the Arrow system might violate the 1987 Missile Technology Control Regime, of which the United States is a member (see GSN, July 10).

“We have some issues we need to sort through, particularly how the sale relates to the MTCR.  That’s an open question,” the Pentagon official said.

Sale Supporters

Several Pentagon officials and others have said they support approval of the sale.  Some said they do so out of general support for Israel, which could make a good profit, and some have argued that allowing the sale would be in line with U.S. President George W. Bush’s advocacy of missile defense and efforts to cooperate on missile defense with other countries, the Post reported.

“We certainly understand India’s interest in missile defense,” the Pentagon official said.

Proponents of the sale to India have also said it could improve U.S.-Indian relations and reward India for backing down from a confrontation with Pakistan (see GSN, June 24).

Requests for U.S. Equipment

Meanwhile, India has asked for information about the U.S.-made Patriot anti-missile system.  A company executive for Raytheon, which produces the Patriot system, said the company plans to brief Indian officials as early as next month.

In addition, the Bush administration told Congress this week that it plans to sell weapons to Pakistan and India in the wake of lifting bans imposed in 1998 on U.S. military assistance to the two countries (see GSN, Oct. 30, 2001).  Pakistan has requested to six C-130 cargo planes, and India has said it wants military equipment including radar systems and warplanes (Slevin/Graham, Washington Post, July 23).

For further information, see:

MDA Terminal Defense Segment

Federation of American Scientists Background on Arrow

PAC 3 Fact Sheet

U.S. State Department MTCR Summary

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U.S. Plans I:  MDA Tests Sensor System

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has conducted tests of a new sensor system that could become a component of a boost-phase missile defense system, agency officials said last week (see GSN, July 19).

The agency tested the Generation I Boost Kill Vehicle seeker (KV seeker) July 17 during an Air Force test-launch of a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, Defense Daily reported (see GSN, June 7).

The seeker tracked the missile’s flight, gathering data on its rocket plume and other aspects of the flight, Missile Defense Agency officials said.  Researchers plan to examine the data to evaluate how well KV sensors tracked the target and how those data were transmitted, Lehner said.  The test also evaluated the seeker’s ability to differentiate between the missile’s body and its rocket plume, according to the agency.

“The technology we are looking [at] has applications for boost phase kinetic energy intercepts,” said MDA spokesman Lt.-Col. Richard Lehner.

In June, the agency conducted a similar test during a Titan II ICBM test-launch, according to Defense Daily.  Through coordination with Air Force launch tests, the agency has been able to obtain data that be can used in the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system without incurring the high costs of additional separate tests, Defense Daily reported.

“Any time we can use our sensors on an Air Force operational tests, we don’t have to conduct a separate test, Lehner said (Kerry Gildea, Defense Daily, July 22).

For further information, see:

MDA Basics of Missile Defense

MDA Missile Defense System

MDA Boost Defense Segment

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U.S. Plans II:  Officials Recruit Allies to Join Defense System

A high-level Pentagon team met with British defense officials yesterday in the first step of a U.S. campaign to persuade NATO allies to cooperate in developing a broad missile defense system (see GSN, July 1).

The meeting at the British Defense Ministry was the first stop on a tour in which the United States plans to visit every NATO capital, the London Times reported.  The team is traveling next to Oslo, Copenhagen, Berlin and Prague, and another U.S. delegation plans to visit Warsaw, Budapest, Rome and Paris, according to the Times.  U.S. officials are also discussing missile defense cooperation with Russia (see GSN, July 8).

Under the U.S. plan, its allies would place anti-missile systems on warships or agree to allow ground-based missile interceptors on their territory (see GSN, July 8).  The Bush administration’s vision of a missile defense system would be different from the “Star Wars” concept during the Reagan presidency because the Bush plan involves limited global missile defense that would protect against small numbers of long-range missiles, a senior member of the U.S. Pentagon team said.

The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty prohibited the United States and Russia from providing allies with technology related to defending against long-range ballistic missiles, but because the United States withdrew from the treaty this year, missile defense cooperation with other countries is now possible, the official said (Michael Evans, London Times, July 23).

Meanwhile, the United States is also working to provide missile defense contracts to European defense companies in an effort to persuade European governments to support the missile defense project, the London Daily Telegraph reported today.

Boeing, one of the two primary contractors for U.S. missile defense, is expected to announce today that it has reached a partnership deal with the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company — a consortium of German, French and Spanish companies — and to announce a new agreement with the British company BAE Systems tomorrow (Michael Smith, London Daily Telegraph, July 23).

For further information, see:

MDA Basics of Missile Defense

MDA Missile Defense System

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U.S. Plans I:  Lockheed Martin Reactivates Boost Vehicle Plant

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin said Thursday that it plans to reactivate its Courtland, Ala., facility to work on boost vehicles for the Missile Defense Agency’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, Defense Daily reported Friday (see GSN, Dec. 14, 2001).  The missiles are to be used in developmental tests for the system.

Employees at the Courtland facility are scheduled to begin assembling three-stage solid-fuel missiles in October, the company said.  The first missile will probably be launched in the spring of 2003, company officials estimated, and developers will probably able to conduct the first intercept test six months later, Defense Daily reported.

Lockheed Martin is building the boost vehicles for Boeing, which is the primary contractor for the GMD program.  Lockheed Martin said it would assemble and test a modification of the Boeing design known as “boost vehicle plus,” Defense Daily reported.

“This facility was designed to accommodate a range of missile defense interceptor programs, and we’re pleased to be resuming work in Courtland,” said Doug Graham, vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Defensive Systems.  “The proximity to our customer, GMD prime contractor Boeing, made this site the logical choice.”

Orbital Sciences is working on an alternative booster vehicle for the program under another Boeing contract (see GSN, March 5; Defense Daily, July 19).

For further information, see:

MDA Basics of Missile Defense

MDA Missile Defense System

MDA Midcourse Defense Segment

U.S. Missile Defense 2002 Budget

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U.S. Plans II:  Washington Rejects Kwajalein Test Range Proposal

The United States has rejected a proposal from Marshall Islands landowners to receive $2 billion in exchange for continued U.S. use of the Kwajalein missile defense test range, Radio New Zealand International reported today (see GSN, May 29).  The United States does not regard the request as a suitable basis for negotiations, according to a U.S. State Department negotiator (Radio New Zealand International/BBC Monitoring, July 22).

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