European Missile Defense Site To Be Competed
Though early work on the first two land-based “Aegis Ashore” missile defense sites was sole-sourced to Lockheed Martin, U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Director Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly says that the prime contractor on a third site will be selected through a competition.
O’Reilly approved a justification for sole-source work based on the need to deploy the system quickly, by 2015. He made his comments in response to a question from an audience member at the 9th Missile Defense conference in Washington March 21.
O’Reilly says that while some capabilities require sole-sourcing, in large part because the combatant commanders are “outgunned” by the proliferation of short- and medium-range missiles, many projects will be competed.
“These [justifications] are not open-ended,” he notes, emphasizing a need to keep competition alive in industry to maintain a technical edge.
The first two Aegis Ashore sites are in Romania and Poland, and they were sole-sourced to Lockheed Martin. For these sites, MDA is planning to mirror the ship-based Aegis Ashore capability – including SM-3 Block IB missiles and the MK41 launcher – on land.
Plans for a third site – as well as its location – have not been decided upon, several industry sources say. They are also not within the current future years defense plan. Meanwhile, work on the European Phased Adaptive Approach program – designed to protect against a launch from Iran – could be applied to the Pacific region.
Likely partners would be Japan and South Korea, says Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), addressing the conference. Discussions in the Pacific region could be more complex because they require bilateral agreements, while those taking place now in Europe allow for negotiations through the existing NATO framework, he says.
Among other competitions for MDA is the ongoing duel to select a contractor to manage the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system. Though Boeing is currently the prime, a Lockheed Martin/Raytheon team is also in the running to take over management of the program (Aerospace DAILY, March 9).
Photo: DoD
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