11/17/2009 - Home on the Range
Dear Members and Friends,
President Obama's new
missile defense plan to protect our troops and European as well as Middle Eastern
allies from the significant and growing threat of short and medium range
ballistic missiles from Iran and other potential threatening states resides and
is dependent on the successful development, demonstration and deployment of
remote forward sensors and the Aegis SM3 Block 1A and 1B defensive missiles on
ships at sea and ashore in Europe and the Middle East by 2015. The President's
missile defense plan further promises a development and deployment of upgrading
these same systems with SM3 Block 2A and 2B defensive missiles that would
protect Europe and the United States from intermediate and long range ballistic
missiles respectively by 2018 and 2020.
The baseline technologies that have to be developed with urgency in order for
success are twofold: 1) Integration, development, testing and deployment
of forward based remote sensors such as the UAVs/raptors, the STSS satellites
and the X band forward based radars, which can allow earlier decisions to
shoot. 2) Development, testing and deployment of a more capable SM3
missile with a longer range that can discriminate and target with more
confidence. In the case of the SM3 which is limited to a 21 inch diameter by
approximately 18 feet solid fuel mixture due to the restraints and existing
systems on U.S. Navy Aegis ships, there is only so much physical capability in
terms of range and speed even with a yet to be developed lighter kill vehicle.
As to the remote sensing, switching the Aegis system to be able to allow
X band coordination for the missiles and to forward base X band
radars in a countries such as Turkey and the Balkan States is a necessity to
increase the range and discrimination of the system to adequately protect
regions of Europe and the Middle East. Proving, developing, deploying and
expanding both the STSS and the raptors in which two or more of each system are
needed to effectively triangulate a launch and correlating that information
back to the Aegis systems is also a necessity for a early decision to shoot the
Aegis system and thus increase the effectiveness and defended regions.
These are challenging technologies that have short time frames to test, develop
and deploy. Considering the development of the SM3 Block 1B which
needs three successful intercept tests before a deployment decision is made and
the system has to prove out new design of divert and altitude rocket engines on
the kill vehicle as well as adding a additional infrared sensor . The first of
three scheduled tests of the SM3 Block B is currently scheduled for 2011.
It is of great importance and urgency for success in the President's missile
defense plan to enable and construct a test bed for the Aegis Ashore and the
testing of the SM3 Block 1B to be located at the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile
Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. The PMRF range has been the sole test range
for the successful SM3 Block 1A missile development using the expanse of the
Pacific Ocean for its realistic testing. To this end, the chairman of the
Senate Appropriations, Senator Daniel Inouye, has submitted an amendment
requested 2009 unspent tax dollars of the amount of 68.5 million dollars
allocated for the non -existent third missile defense sites in Poland and the
Czech Republic to be used for the development and construction of the Aegis
Ashore system at PMRF in Kauai, Hawaii. The test bed would offer testing of the
SM3 development as well as providing a permanent missile defense system that
would protect Hawaii and its islands from ballistic missiles. In opposition to
this amendment, Senator John McCain the co-chairman of the Senate Armed
Services Committee has put forward an amendment to delay this decision for
another year. Discussions on military construction within Congress are in place
this week.
We at MDAA fully support Senator Inouye's amendment as it gives President
Obama's new missile defense plan the best chance of success and more
importantly prove a capability to defend our troops and allies against the
proliferation of short and medium range missiles that would threaten the European
and Middle Eastern regions by 2015.
We would encourage your active support for Senator Inouye's amendment.