# 99069. DoD Speeds Navy Theater Missile Defense Project

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By Douglas J. Gillert
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON -- To defend against the growing threat of missile 
attacks on foreign-based U.S. forces, DoD will accelerate 
development of a sea-based theater missile defense system. 

A perceived medium-range missile threat and past test failures 
of the Army ground-based Theater High Altitude Area Defense 
system provoked DoD into moving up the scheduled fielding of the 
Navy system from 2010 to 2007, according to Air Force Lt. Gen. 
Lester Lyles, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization director.

DoD will continue funding the Army's THAAD system despite its 
repeated flight test failures. However, the Pentagon will pit it 
against the Navy Theater Wide system to determine which of the 
upper-tier defenses can be deployed first. 

"Tier" refers to a strategy of layered U.S. defenses. "Upper-
tier" systems would intercept incoming long- and medium-range 
missiles during their flight in or above the outer atmosphere. 
"Lower-tier" systems defend at short to medium ranges against 
missiles in their late or final flight stages.

"Because of the urgency in fielding an upper-tier system, we are 
going to continue flight-testing the THAAD interceptor missile 
and other elements of the system such as the radar," Defense 
Secretary William S. Cohen said at a Pentagon press conference 
Jan. 20. "Continued flight tests are going to provide data 
important for the upper-tier systems beyond the THAAD program."

DoD will increase program funding of the Navy Theater Wide 
system by more than $500 million from fiscal 1999 to fiscal 
2001, including funds added to the program by Congress last 
fall. 

The Pentagon will review both systems in late 2000 to assess 
costs, schedule, technical performance and risk, the secretary 
said. DoD then will determine the lead program. 

"Our goal is to have the lead system postured to deploy in the 
year 2007. Depending upon the results of the review, the other 
system might continue to be developed but at a much slower 
pace," Cohen said.

The BMDO also will continue developing lower-tier defenses, 
including the Patriot Advanced Capability 3 and Navy Area 
missile systems. PAC-3 and Navy Area should be fielded by early 
fiscal 2001 and 2003, respectively, Lyles said. 

Both upper- and lower-tier systems work in conjunction with 
space-based sensors -- the same sensors that will be used for 
surveillance and early warning against missiles targeted at the 
United States, Lyles said. An airborne laser program, funded by 
the Air Force, adds to the array of defenses DoD wants to field. 
Battle management command, control and communications provides 
"the critical glue that holds all this together," Lyles said.

"These lower-tier systems will provide effective defense 
capabilities against the shorter-range missile threats," Cohen 
said. "The threat to our forces is already extensive and 
growing, making it imperative that we field these important 
upgrades as soon as possible."

The Pentagon also will reallocate $150 million originally slated 
for the Medium Extended Air Defense System, or MEADS.

"We needed to focus initially on technologies that are relevant 
to the maneuver force protection that MEADS would have 
provided," Lyles said. That could be the PAC III or some other 
system already in the defense inventory, he said.

The restructured MEADS money also could fund development of a 
mobile, 360-degree fire control radar and a mobile launcher, 
Lyles said. "We'll also make sure that we have the right kind of 
capability to address advanced threats like cruise missiles that 
the MEADS program was intended to address," Lyles said.

"We need to have lower-tier systems, we need to have upper-tier 
systems, and we need to have multiplatforms on the land, from 
the sea and also from air," Lyles said. "We need to make sure 
that all of these systems work together and can be 
interoperable. That's formed the heart of our program for 
theater missile defense.

"What has changed over the last year, however, is the growing 
urgency of making sure that we have an upper-tier capability to 
counter the growing medium-range threat," he said. Lyles said 
this threat comes from offensive missiles like the North Korean 
No Dong, Iranian Shihab III and Pakistani Ghari. "We need to 
make sure that we have the capability to negate those threats." 

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