JLENS SuR radar, CPG pass their CDR reviews

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Raytheon announced Wednesday that its Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System -- JLENS -- had completed the critical design readiness reviews -- CDRR -- on its final two prime items, the surveillance radar -- SuR -- and the communications and processing group -- CPG.

"Both are key milestones in the U.S. Army program that will provide a critical cruise missile defense capability for our nation's war fighters," the company said in a statement.

"JLENS provides the soldier with key performance capabilities," said Lt. Col. Stephen Willhelm, JLENS product manager, U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space.

"The SuR and CPG CDRRs demonstrate the maturity of the design is where we need it to be and reaffirms our continued confidence that this critical cruise missile defense capability is on track to be provided to our war fighters," Willhelm said.

"The JLENS team continues rapid and disciplined progress on schedule and within budget," said Pete Franklin, vice president, National & Theater Security Programs for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. "The success of these final two prime item CDRRs affirms the strength of the team and our confidence in JLENS maturity."

The company said the reviews covered every area of JLENS SuR and CPG design maturity and confidence. It said the next step would be to proceed to the JLENS Orbit CDR, scheduled to be completed before the end of 2008. Raytheon described the JLENS Orbit CDR as "a key milestone in the $1.4 billion system design and demonstration -- SDD -- contract.

Under the terms of the SDD, Raytheon is manufacturing two JLENS Orbits. Their system testing is due to start in 2010, and the SDD program is scheduled to be finished in 2012.

Raytheon said the JLENS system would give "long-duration, wide-area, over-the-horizon detection and tracking of incoming cruise missiles" and that it would boost communications capabilities to increase the ability of air defense systems to meet and intercept incoming attacks.

The company said every JLENS Orbit would have a surveillance system and a fire control system, equipped with an elevated long-range surveillance radar and an elevated high-performance fire control radar. All the radars feed into an aerostat linked by a tether to the system's ground-based mobile mooring station and communications processing group, the company said.

Boeing-backed study lists GMD work benefits for Alaska.

Boeing has cited a new University of Alaska Fairbanks study that concluded the company's Ground-based Midcourse Defense -- GMD -- missile defense operations in the state generated over $246 million for Alaska's economy in 2007 and maintained over 700 direct and indirect jobs.

The study, published Nov. 13, said Boeing's GMD operations also benefited native Alaskan businesses and gave "significant benefits" to their communities.

The study said that in 2007, Boeing's GMD operations in Alaska generated a $52 million payroll, $72 million in Alaskan household earnings and $9.6 million in state and local government tax revenue.

Workers on the program were paid 1.7 times the average salary for an Alaskan worker, the study said.

"Of particular interest is the effect in rural areas of Alaska, where the economic activity stimulated by Boeing has offered stable, high-paying employment for residents whose options are very limited," Hans Geier, an economics professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks said in the report. "This has allowed many families to remain in these local and rural communities, supporting property values, preserving indigenous businesses, local governments and other services."

Boeing said it had requested the School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks to make the report on the company's behalf.

Boeing is the prime contractor for GMD, which remains the central element of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's ballistic missile defense deployment. The company said its GMD operations were carried out in four regions of Alaska: Fort Greely, where more Ground-based Mid-course Interceptors -- GBIs -- are redeployed than anywhere else in the world, Adak, Kodiak and Shemya.

"Since Boeing was awarded the initial contract for the GMD program in 1998, Alaska has led the way in bringing the best workforce and supplier base together on this program," said Boeing Vice President and GMD Program Director Greg Hyslop. "It's gratifying to see that our work has supported the overall growth and health of the state's economy."

--