BMD Watch: S. Korea plans BMD exercises

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- South Korea's navy is going to carry out regular ballistic missile defense tracking exercises in anticipation of the dangers the country faces from North Korean missiles such as the Scud and Rodong, the Seoul newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported Friday.

The Chosun Ilbo cited a South Korean military official as saying that the South Korean navy would put on its training courses exercises about tracking ballistic missiles and submarine-launched missiles against ground targets.

The paper noted that the new exercises were being initiated after South Korea shipbuilders had completed their first Aegis destroyer, the King Sejong.

The report said the new exercises had been added on the initiative of South Korea's chief of naval operations, Adm. Song Young-moo.

The newspaper said the King Sejong had the capability to track North Korean-launched ballistic missiles several hundred miles away with its Aegis radar system but that it was still not equipped with U.S. Standard Missile-3s capable of intercepting them. The report said South Korean planners currently expected to equip the destroyer with interceptor missiles by 2015.

However, the report acknowledged that the South Korean navy had not yet prepared any detailed plans for its missile exercises.

The newspaper said South Korea remained dependent on real-time data from U.S. surveillance and early-warning satellites to be able to adequately track North Korean ballistic missile launches. However, it also noted that the South Korean government and armed forces retained their previously stated position that they wanted to develop their own air and missile defense system independently of the U.S. ballistic missile defense program and its already operating systems.

The report also said the South Korean navy hoped to deploy the new Chonryong missile it is currently developing for the submarine-to-surface missile drills. The Chonryong is projected to have a range of 300 miles.

$400M bill to fix SBIRS software glitch

The much-criticized, long-troubled Space Based Infrared System is reeling from a new development problem that will take six months and $400 million to fix. But the good news is it won't cost the billion bucks that analysts at first feared.

Defense News reported Monday that the full bill to fix the latest problem with SBIRS won't be in till the middle of this month, but that U.S. Air Force senior generals now believe it should be less than half the $1 billion that was seriously considered.

Defense News said some 30,000 of SBIRS's 117,000 lines of software code were being checked for problems. The report cited the Pentagon’s Cost Analysis Improvement Group as saying correcting those problems in the software would cost $300 million and another $100 million would be needed to cover the extended operations of the management team on the work.

The report said the U.S. Air Force and its contractor Lockheed Martin will examine options at a Nov. 17 program review.

Defense News noted that on Sept. 26 U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne sent a letter to acting Undersecretary for Acquisition John Young saying resolving the new software issues could cost as much as $1 billion and delay launching a SBIRS satellite into 2009.

The problem was discovered in a January failure when the computer on another classified U.S. military satellite operating with the same "safe hold" system as SBIRS switched to standby mode and never rebooted, leaving it inert and useless, Defense News said.

As if that was not enough, the report said experts also feared that SBIRS could face trouble from its “timing loop,” the synchronized connection between the four on-board computers.

Defense News further noted a Sept. 12 Government Accountability Office report warning that SBIRS also required an extra $900 million to improve its management oversight and boost the satellite's capabilities.

SBIRS is regarded as an essential component for U.S. ballistic missile defense capabilities. The satellite is intended to monitor potentially hostile missile launches around the world. But it is also intended to serve as a platform for other capabilities.

Converted Ohio SSGN sets sail

The U.S. Navy is pushing ahead with its controversial plans to convert four nuclear-powered Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, or SSBNs, into cruise missile submarines, or SSGNs, StrategyPage.com reported Saturday.

The first of the four subs, the USS Ohio, has completed its conversion process and has started its first operational patrol since then in the Pacific Ocean, the report said. Work is continuing on completing conversion of the other three Ohio-class subs, it said.

The enormous submarines will all be equipped with 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles and at least 66 elite commandos, generally expected to be SEALs, each, the report said.

Critics have charged that the conversion program is an enormous white elephant designed to create "make-work" to justify the continued operation of the giant Ohios. They cost $1 billion each to build and still cost $1 million a day to operate, StrategyPage.com noted.

Defenders of the program counter that each of the subs is a highly mobile and formidable system for projecting U.S. power around the world far more cheaply, flexibly and with vastly less risk of vulnerability than an aircraft carrier battle group. Each of them is capable of covering 720 miles a day.

The report said the Ohio would be deployed at U.S. Navy Pacific bases for the next 14 months. It said the Ohio and its sisters were expected at first to focus on classified intelligence gathering operations. The second of the reconfigured Ohio SSGNs is expected to become operational in 2008, the report said.