Advertisement

BMD Watch: Euro-BMD takes budget hit

By MARTIN SIEFF, UPI Senior News Analyst

WASHINGTON, July 25 (UPI) -- The House Appropriations Committee Wednesday dealt a major blow to President George W. Bush's plans to deploy U.S. anti-ballistic missile interceptors in Central Europe. But it stopped short of scrapping the program.

The full Appropriations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives approved a $460 billion bill that included in all $298 million in cuts to the Bush administration's proposed missile defense programs. While large, they were not as massive as previously recommended by subcommittees.

Advertisement

The proposed legislation eliminates funding for a BMD interceptor base Bush wants to build in Poland over the next three years. The base would deploy 10 anti-ballistic missile interceptors to guard the United States and Western Europe against the threat of intercontinental or intermediate-range ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads that could be fired by Iran.

However, the HAC legislation stopped well short of scrapping the entire program because it preserved the funding to build an advanced early-warning radar installation in the Czech Republic to detect the missiles and guide the interceptors to destroy them.

Advertisement

The proposed legislation looks certain to infuriate both President Bush, who may veto it, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has made clear he is an implacable foe of building the BMD facilities, believing they are meant to encircle and threaten Russia.

The legislation may well go through further radical changes before it becomes law. Even if Bush does not veto it, it would then have to be reconciled at a conference with parallel but different legislation passed by the U.S. Senate and cut funds could then be reintroduced into it, or the cuts agreed upon could be increased.

Republicans and Democrats in the House are deeply split on the issue of funding the BMD facilities in Central Europe. Minority Republicans see them as an essential defense, but majority Democrats are skeptical and many of them believe that infuriating Russia is a dangerously high price to pay for building them.


SBIRS passes thermal vacuuming tests

Lockheed Martin said Monday that it had successfully concluded thermal vacuuming testing on the payload for the first Space-Based Infrared System geosynchronous orbit spacecraft.

The company called the successful tests "a key milestone in preparation for launch of this first-of-its-kind satellite."

"SBIRS will provide early warning of ballistic missile launches and support other missions simultaneously, including missile defense, technical intelligence and battle space characterization," the company said in a statement.

Advertisement

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Sunnyvale, Calif., is the prime contractor for the SBIRS program, and Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems in Azusa, Calif., is the payload subcontractor.

Lockheed Martin said the testing was carried out at Northrop Grumman's Azusa complex from March 11 to June 15. The tests "demonstrated the function and performance of the fully integrated GEO-1 payload in vacuum conditions at temperatures bounding the environments expected when the SBIRS satellite is on orbit," it said.

"Key aspects of the test included radiometric performance, simultaneous tasking of both sensors against moving IR targets, on-board target processing against cluttered backgrounds, data downlink formatting and spacecraft interface verification. Test evaluation shows the GEO sensor will perform in family with the SBIRS HEO payload sensor now on orbit," the statement said.

Lockheed Martin said the GEO payloads will carry "a scanning sensor that will provide for short revisit times over its full field of view and a staring sensor that can be tasked for step-stare or dedicated stare operations over smaller areas."

"The GEO scanner and other payload components such as the focal plane assembly, and processing algorithms are identical to those used on SBIRS highly elliptical orbit (HEO) payloads, the first of which has completed initial on-orbit deployment and checkout and demonstrated that its performance meets or exceeds specifications," the company said.

Advertisement

"This test, performed over a three-month period, is testimony to the team's drive to attain operational excellence and mission success on this vital national security program," said Mark Crowley, Lockheed Martin's SBIRS vice president. "Our team has completed a series of major milestones and is poised to begin final assembly, integration and test following delivery of the critical payload."

The statement said Northrop Grumman "will now prepare the payload for delivery to Lockheed Martin's facilities in Sunnyvale, Calif., facilities in early August where it will be integrated with the GEO-1 spacecraft."

Lockheed Martin said it was "under contract to provide two HEO payloads and two GEO satellites, as well as the ground-based assets to receive and process the infrared data."


Boeing wins $7M laser projectile defense contract

The Boeing Co. announced Monday it had won a $7 million U.S. Army contract "to begin developing the initial phase for a truck-mounted laser weapon system that destroys rockets, artillery shells and mortar rounds."

"Under the High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator (HEL TD) Phase I contract, awarded Friday, Boeing will develop and complete a preliminary design of a rugged beam control system (BCS) on a Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck," Boeing said in a statement.

Advertisement

The contract could grow in value to more than seven times its original value, Boeing said.

"The contract contains options that, if exercised, will call for Boeing to build and test a significant component of the HEL TD system, comprised of the BCS integrated on a vehicle platform, and refine requirements for the entire HEL TD system. The options would increase the total program contract cost to approximately $50 million," the company said.

"The objective of the HEL TD program is to demonstrate that a mobile, solid-state laser weapon system can effectively counter rocket, artillery and mortar projectiles. The program will support the transition to a full-fledged Army acquisition program," it said.

"We consider this program an important win for Boeing because it supports a cornerstone of the Army's high-energy laser program," said Pat Shanahan, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems. "We believe this is the next step for developing a weapon system that can change the face of the battlefield."

Latest Headlines