Vol. 219 No. 25
Boeing [BA] will spend $111.7 million on ballistic missile defense upgrades on the early warning radar and associated equipment at RAF Fylingdales Air Base in North Yorkshire as part of its $823 million contract modification for the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense Block 2004 Capability Enhancement (CE) Program, a Missile Defense Agency (MDA) spokesman said.
The radar is a large, fixed, phased array surveillance radar that has operated since 1963, providing early warning of ICBM launches.
The site, which also detects and tracks satellites, has been the site of many anti-nuclear protests, including a November 2002 visit by MDA Director, Air Force Lt.Gen. Ronald Kadish, from concerns the site would involve Britain in missile defense projects.
Data from Fylingdales radar is used with data gathered from similar radars in Clear Air Station, Alaska, Thule Air Station in Greenland, Beale AFB, Calif., and Cape Cod Air Station, Mass., to provide an Integrated Tactical Warning and Attack Assessment for both the United Kingdom and United States.
By the end of 2005, the Fylingdales work will be completed, an agency spokesman said. Missile defense upgrades at the Cobra Dane radar at Eareckson Air Force Station on Shemya Island, Alaska and the Beale radar will enable them to become part of the missile defense test bed next year. And the Danish government has received a request from the United States to upgrade the Thule radar--work that would be completed in 2006 (Defense Daily, Aug. 7).
The radars at Clear and Cape Cod will retain their early warning roles, but will not receive missile defense upgrades, he said.
The Fylingdales radar will receive hardware and software upgrades to enable it to track and identify incoming threats more accurately and reliably in addition to its early warning function, sending the data to other ballistic missile defense elements. The work includes communications connections, embedded test capability and subsystem capability.
The work is part of Boeing`s responsibility for the development and integration of the Ground-based Missile Defense system, which consists of the Ground-based Interceptor, Ground-based Radar Prototype, Battle Management, Command, Control and Communication systems, early warning radars and interfaces to the Defense Support Program satellites (Defense Daily, Nov. 3).
The United Kingdom has been cautious about involvement with U.S. ballistic missile defense plans. In February, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Britain would continue to have full access to the radar data, and "the upgrade does not of itself commit the U.K. Government to any greater participation in the U.S. missile defense programme."
The written statement to Parliament continued that the radar upgrades do "Keep open the prospect of acquiring missile defense capabilities for the U.K., should we desire such protection at some point in the future."
Then in June, a framework Memorandum of Understanding between the Pentagon and the British Ministry of Defence was signed to develop bilateral cooperation on missile defense (Defense Daily, June 16).
In July, Northrop Grumman [NOC] and Britain`s BAE SYSTEMS signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on modeling and simulation for missile defense (Defense Daily, July 29). [Copyright 2003 PBI Media, LLC. All rights reserved.]
Copyright © 2003 PBI Media, LLC. All rights reserved.