Missile Defense Blimp Closer to Taking Flight

U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin received a $40 million contract yesterday to design a 500-foot-long, unpiloted, radar-carrying blimp for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (see GSN, April 21).

The contractor’s Maritime Systems and Sensors division in Akron, Ohio, made the winning bid in a competition with two other firms to build an airship that would be able to fly for months at a time to detect and track missile launches, aircraft, ships at sea and other objects.

Measuring 500 feet long and 160 feet in diameter, the helium-filled blimp would be 25 times larger in volume than the Goodyear blimp (Associated Press, Sept. 30).  The solar-powered dirigible would be able to fly at 65,000 feet where low turbulence would allow it to loiter over areas of concern for months at a time.

Company officials said airships had several advantages over satellite-based radars, including a lower operating altitude, lower launch costs and the ability to modify the equipment deployed on the craft.

“Once a satellite is up, it’s up,” said Al Barber, Lockheed Martin’s vice president and general manager in Akron.

Following the $40 million design phase, the MDA is expected to decide next summer whether to order the construction of a prototype airship, now estimated to cost $50 million, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.  If ordered, the prototype could fly in 2006 and the agency would then consider whether to begin production (John Russell, Akron Beacon Journal, Sept. 30).

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MDA Ahead of Schedule on Missile Defense Communications

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is ahead of schedule in building the communications support system for the national missile defense system, Space News reported Monday (see GSN, Sept. 24).

Agency officials met Aug. 21 in Los Angeles with executives from Boeing, the lead systems integrator for the U.S. missile defense system, to mark the completion of a 32,000-kilometer fiber-optic network that will connect all command and management aspects of the program.  The fiber-optic project is the largest in the world, according to the agency.

Lockheed Martin is the chief contractor for integrating missile defense information technology.  Officials from both defense contractors are working to have the information system up and running in time for missile defense system’s scheduled 2004 deployment.  The Bush administration hopes to have the first stages of a working missile defense system in Alaska and California by that time.

“We will be ready,” said David Kier, vice president and managing director of missile defense for Lockheed Martin (Randy Barrett, Space News, Sept. 22).

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Japanese Satellites Photographing North Korean WMD Sites

Six months after being launched, Japan’s first two spy satellites are monitoring nuclear activities and missile sites in North Korea, Asahi Shimbun reported today (see GSN, March 28).

The satellites, which were launched in March, are focusing on the Yongbyon nuclear complex and ballistic missile facilities on North Korea’s northeast coast.  The satellites began taking pictures in May, and have also recorded images of WMD sites in Russia, China and the Middle East, according to Asahi Shimbun.

One satellite uses a telescopic optical sensor and the other is equipped to operate at night or in bad weather (Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 25).

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GAO Releases Critical Missile Defense Report

The U.S. General Accounting Office today released a report criticizing the Defense Department for planning to field the national missile defense system with immature and untested technology (see GSN, Sept. 23).

U.S. President George W. Bush wants to field a national missile defense system, based in Alaska and California, by September 2004.

The report said that Bush’s plan is “dependent on 10 critical technologies,” and the Missile Defense Agency “has accepted higher cost and schedule risks by beginning integration … before these technologies have matured.”

The report singled out the missile defense system’s radar as “the least mature.”

In a response to the report, the Pentagon said that it is attempting to test the radar before the missile system is fielded.

“MDA is considering the addition of an integrated flight test prior to September 30, 2004, that would prove-out the upgrades that are underway to the Cobra Dane radar at Shemya, Alaska.  However, the lead time for adding radar tests with dedicated targets is considerable,” the Pentagon response said (General Accounting Office report, Sept. 24).

Senator Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), who requested the report, said the agency must test the radar before it is deployed.  Akaka said that tracking a foreign missile test with U.S. radar equipment will not prove the technology in an intercept situation.

“MDA hopes that it will get advance notice of a foreign missile test — presumably by North Korea or Russia — and then has time to turn on its hopefully installed software.  Even that type of test will not demonstrate Cobra Dane’s capability under stressful, operational conditions.  Relying on North Korea or Russian missile development to test our defense is a new approach to operational testing,” Akaka said (Akaka release, Sept. 23).

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