U.S. to reinstate sea-based missile defense system
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SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Thursday, January 10, 2002
WASHINGTON Ñ The United States does not plan to forget about its
naval-based missile defense system.
The Bush administration cancelled the Navy Area Theater Ballistic
Missile Defense System last month amid huge cost overruns and technical
failures. The Pentagon said the system was as much as 65 percent over
budget.
U.S. officials said the Pentagon will return to the Aegis system after a
review of the cancelled program. The officials said the administration
regards sea-based missile defense as an important component of a layered
missile defense.
"What you had was a program that was simply out of control," a
congressional staffer who monitored the project said. "There was no handle
on spending and the system simply didn't work."
Officials said the key difficulties found with the Aegis was in the
software design. They said mishaps in the software affected the Aegis radar.
Defense Undersecretary Edward Aldridge said Raytheon encountered
difficulties in the missile interceptor, the Standard 4-B. The interceptor
was meant to destroy Scud B and Scud C missiles.
"They have some problems in some areas and they're trying to address
those," Aldridge said. "And we hope that they are successful in achieving
that."
The review of the naval missile defense system will be conducted by both
the U.S. Navy and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. Officials said
the studies could be launched over the next two months and will explore the
prospect of using hit-to-kill technology used in the Theater High Altitude
Area Defense system being developed by Lockheed Martin.
On Thursday, President George Bush signs the fiscal 2002 Defense
Appropriations Bill into law. The bill provides the Pentagon with $317.4
billion in new discretionary spending as well as $7.8 billion for missile
defense programs.
Earlier, the Pentagon awarded Raytheon a $95 million contract for
three shipsets of Aegis weapon system. These include transmitter groups,
fire control system and related equipment.
These three shipsets will be installed aboard the DDG 102, DDG 103 and
DDG 104 Arleigh Burke DDG 51 class destroyers.
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