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MEADS: ground view
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As the ongoing development of nuclear weapons by unstable rogue regimes continue to make missile defense more of a global issue, Japan’s cooperation with the USA has been obvious, including a recently successful joint test of a modified SM-3 naval missile. Meanwhile, support for the idea of missile defense may be on the rise in Europe as well [PDF format].

Europe’s moves in this area have been much quieter and less overt than Japan’s or America’s, but they have not been idle. Spain and Norway have bought AEGIS-equipped ships that can be equipped with SM-3 missiles and related ABM upgrades if required. Britain, France and Italy are investing in and buying creating a naval PAAMS radar and missile system that will have some ballistic missile defense capabilities, as well as a derivative ground based system with point-defense ABM capabilities in the Aster 30 SAMP/T. The USA, Italy, and Germany are also engaged in a land-based venture to modernize their air defense missile systems (Patriot, Hawk, and even Nike Hercules) via a joint venture called MEADS. Similar to the MBDA SAMP/T but representing next-generation technology and deployability, MEADS will be designed to kill enemy aircraft, cruise missiles, UAVs, and ballistic missiles within its reach. A $3.4 billion contract was formally issued back in June 2005, and risk-reduction design & development work is ongoing.

With MEADS-related work appearing in Raytheon’s FY 2006 Patriot Engineering Support contract, DID has made considerable updates to our MEADS anchor article, in order to improve our coverage of this important program.