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CEC Concept
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Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) is a sensor netting system that allows many ships to pool their radar and sensor information together, creating a very powerful and detailed picture that’s much finer, more wide-ranging, and more consistent than any one ship could generate on its own. The data is then shared among all ships via secure frequencies.

Yet CEC is far more than a mere data-sharing program, or even a sensor fusion effort. Indeed, it may well be the most revolutionary capability available to the modern US Navy. This DID FOCUS Article explains CEC’s mechanics and implications; it will also track ongoing research, updates, and contracts related to CEC capabilities from 2000 forward. The latest item is a an order from the US Navy…

• Co-operative Engagement Capability: How It Works (i.e. Continue reading…)
• CEC: Contracts and Key Events, 2000 – Present [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
  Continue Reading… »

SM-3 seeker: target!
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Aviation Week reports that the US Missile Defense Agency is considering a land-based variant of the SM-3 Standard missile – largely due to specific requests from Israel.

“SM-3 prime contractor Raytheon is examining a range of options—including a moveable, but not highly mobile, system that could fill Israel’s needs. Very few modifications would be needed for the missile and some tweaks would be required in the command and control system. The system would employ the same vertical launch modules, in an eight-pack configuration, used in the Aegis ship-based system.”

Israel currently fields the medium range Arrow-2 land-based ABM system, supplemented by Patriot missiles for point defense. The Arrow has performed well in tests, however, and an order for more was placed as recently as February 2008. What could Israel’s rationale be?...

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Patriot system
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In a September 2005 article, DID covered total awards under a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Patriot anti-air missile system engineering services, along with dates/amounts of each award in FY 2004-2005. We’ve brought that list forward, and we’ll continue to update it as new FY 2008 engineering services contracts roll in. We’ll also use this post as a hub for other Patriot SAM related contracts.

Following are the engineering support contract listings from 2004-present, and other contracts and key events related to the Patriot missile over FY/CY 2007 (DID also has a 2006 article). New material is in green type to make it more visible. The latest additions to our contracts and events coverage? Missile upgrade orders from South Korea, and a contract from Kuwait…

• The Patriot Missile Family
• Patriot Engineering Services Contracts
• The USA’s Patriot Programs
• Other Patriot-Related Contracts & Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
  Continue Reading… »

Patriot PAC-2
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A 2007 US National Intelligence Assessment [redacted NIE summary] believes Iran’s nuclear program has stopped, but others, including the United Nations and Israel are more skeptical. Intelligence is always a very uncertain and ambiguous exercise, and occasionally features assessments like the somewhat infamous NIE whose 1962 judgment was that there were no Soviet missiles in Cuba¹. Uncertainty creates perceptions of risk, and perceptions of risk lead to behaviors aimed at reducing that risk. Iraq is no longer a missile/WMD threat, Iran’s regular and Revolutionary Guards air forces remain relatively weak, and Iran’s ballistic missiles based on North Korean designs lack accuracy. Still, even a lucky conventional missile could create issues in some Gulf states if it hit important oil-related infrastructure, or hit the larger and more nebulous target of business confidence.

Arms spending is an incomplete but very concrete way of tracking a state’s real assessment of threats and priorities. It’s becoming clear that Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, have stepped up their defense spending in recent years. Those expenditures cover a range of equipment, but anti-ballistic missile capabilities appear to be rising to the top of the priority list. Now over $10 billion worth of December 2007 Patriot missile upgrade requests in the UAE and Kuwait are shining a spotlight on the region’s new defense priorities. Some of those reqests are now becoming contracts…

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Northrop Grumman’s E-2C Hawkeye began replacing previous Hawkeye versions in 1973, and serves as the US Navy and French Navy’s carrier-capable “mini-AWACS” aircraft. Its primary role is advance warning of incoming aerial threats; ship-based radars are far larger and more powerful, but cannot scan below the angle of the horizon. Secondary roles include strike command and control, land and maritime surveillance, search and rescue, communications relay, and even civil air traffic control during emergencies. E-2C Hawkeyes also fly from land bases in the militaries of Egypt, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, and Taiwan; and in the US Naval Reserve in a drug interdiction role. Over 200 Hawkeyes have been produced.

The $17.5 billion E-2D Advanced Hawkeye program aims to build 75 new aircraft with significant radar, engine, and electronics upgrades in order to deal with a world of stealthier cruise missiles, saturation attacks, and a growing need for ground surveillance as well as aerial scans. It looks a lot like the last generation E-2C Hawkeye 2000 upgrade on the outside – but inside, and even outside to some extent, it’s a whole new aircraft. This DID FOCUS Article covers the E-2D program, from the new platform and its capabilities to the budgets, contracts, and companies making it all fly. The latest news includes a pair of contracts aimed at getting the first E-2Ds ready, and an associated engine contract…

• From E-2A Hawkeye to the E-2D
• E-2D Advanced Hawkeye: Program
• E-2D Advanced Hawkeye: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
  Continue Reading… »

THAAD: In flight
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The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is a long-range, land-based theater defense weapon that acts as the upper tier of a basic 2-tiered defense against ballistic missiles. It’s designed to intercept missiles during late mid-course or final stage flight, flying at high altitudes within and even outside the atmosphere. This allows it to provide broad area coverage against threats to critical assets such as population centers and industrial resources as well as military forces, hence its previous “theater (of operations) high altitude area defense” designation.

This capability makes THAAD different from a Patriot PAC-3 or the future MEADS system, which are point defense options with limited range that are designed to hit a missile or warhead just before impact. The SM-3 Standard missile is a far better comparison, but the SM-3 is a naval counterpart and could offer positioning advantages or disadvantages depending on the area to be defended. A multi-layered anti-ballistic missile system should ideally have both land and naval options, as well as theater-level and point defenses backed by a 3rd tier of longer ranged midcourse-defense missiles (q.v. GBI) and/or space-based weapons that can hit the missile during its boost phase.

This is DID’s FOCUS article covering the THAAD system, and newer items will be indicated in green type as a reader convenience. The latest news includes another successful intercept test…

• The THAAD System: Further Details (i.e. “Continue reading…”)
• The THAAD Program
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources
  
  Continue Reading… »

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Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems of Woburn, MA received a maximum $400 million indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract to support the design, development, and activation of a European-based mid-course radar for ballistic missile defense. Work will be performed at the contractor’s facility and in Europe, and is expected to be complete by February 2013. This is a sole source award by the US Missile Defense Agency in Huntsville, AL is the contracting activity (HQ0147-08-D-0001).

This effort will be accomplished through task orders, each with distinct scope and pricing. Subject to final negotiations, the X-band radar will be located in the Czech Republic. It is related to the $80 million July 2007 award to Boeing for a missile defense complex.

April 15/08: Initial award and task order. The first task order will use FY 2008 research and development funds of $5.3 million, and will be limited to site surveys, studies, analysis, planning, design, and similar activities specifically permitted in section 226(d) of the FY08 National Defense Authorization Act. Additional activities necessary to this deployment will be conducted by or through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. See also Raytheon release.

JLENS Concept
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The proliferation of cruise missiles and associated components, combined with a falling technology curve for biological, chemical, or even nuclear agents, is creating longer-term hazards on a whole new scale. Intelligence agencies and analysts believe the threat of U.S. cities coming under cruise missile attack from ships off the coast is real, sophisticated and evolving. Meanwhile, the July-August 2005 issue of Air Defense Artillery Magazine discusses experiences in Operation Iraqi Freedom which showed that even conventional cruise missiles could have important tactical uses in the hands of a determined enemy.

Aerial sensors are preferred against low-flying cruise missiles, because they lack the range/horizon limitations of ground-based systems. The bad news is that keeping planes in the air all the time is very expensive, and the aircraft themselves aren’t cheap. The primary challenge for theater and national cruise missile defense, therefore, is the development of a reliable, affordable, long-flying look-down platform to detect, track and identify incoming missiles and support over-the-horizon engagements in a timely manner. Hence JLENS.

This is DID’s FOCUS Article covering the JLENS system, from key capabilities to program structure to ongoing procurements. Per DID practice, new materials will be highlighted in green type. The most recent news is a successful review milestone…

• The JLENS System: This is Not Your Grandpa’s Barrage Balloon
• JLENS: The Program
• JLENS: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources

MEADS: air view
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The Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS program aims to replace Patriot missiles in the United States, the older Hawk system in Germany, and Italy’s even older Nike Hercules missiles. MEADS will be designed to kill enemy aircraft, cruise missiles and UAVs within its reach, while providing next-generation point defense capabilities against ballistic missiles. MBDA’s SAMP/T project would be its main competitor, but MEADS aims to offer improved mobility and wider compatibility with other air defense systems, in order to create an linchpin for its customers’ next-generation air defense arrays.

The German government finally gave their clearance in April 2005, and in June 2005 MEADS International (MI) formally signed a contract worth approximately $3.4 billion to design and develop the tri-national MEADS system. This DID FOCUS Article covers that program, which has just progressed to detailed design. The system will use a slightly different main missile than originally forecast, and a minor contract associated with that has been issued…

• MEADS: The System
• MEADS: Mobility and Employment
• MEADS: The Program
• Contracts & Key Events, 2004 – Present [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
  Continue Reading… »

SBX-1, Pearl Harbor
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As rogue state proliferation by North Korea et. al. made missile defense a growing priority for nations like the USA, Japan, Israel, et. al., the USA began to look at the linchpin of any defense: powerful radars that could both track ballistic missiles, and guide interceptors. The USA has its BMEWS tracking system, but that would not serve. America’s Safeguard ABM system, meanwhile, was dismantled long ago – though Russia still maintains its counterpart System A-135 network around Moscow. Something new would be needed.

Raytheon’s giant XBR radar is a distant relative of the X-band radars used by police to detect speeding drivers, but designed to detect and illuminate incoming missiles instead. It floats on a system resembling an oil drilling platform, and will usually provide long-range mid-course guidance for ballistic missile defense systems. It can also provide earlier guidance if positioned correctly. The Sea-Based X-Band radar (SBX) that uses it was originally planned as a land-based system, but a sea-based system became possible when the George W. Bush administration withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Basing the radar at sea offers numerous advantages. One is the obvious ability to move the radar as threats materialize, allowing much greater coverage with fewer radars. Another is the ability to protect allies, without having to invest in expensive systems whose regional capabilities and value to the USA could be put at risk by the decisions of a single foreign government.

In exchange for this freedom from political interference, of course, the designers must contend with nature’s. This is DID’s FOCUS article for the SBX system, which is linked to Boeing’s land-based GMD missile system but can also operate with other naval and land elements. The radar and system have experienced teething problems, which are not unusual for such new technologies, but the program is now entering a make-or-break phase where it will have to perform. The most recent news is a task order under a wide-ranging new support contract for an array of radars that could be worth almost $2 billion dollars…

• The XBR Radar & SBX Platform
• Contracts & Events
• Additional Readings & Sources
  
  Continue Reading… »