Lockheed Martin has created a team of European companies to bid for the NATO Active Layered Theatre Ballistic Missile Defence (TBMD) feasibility study.
NATO's 19 members intend to fund two studies next year aimed at determining the best way of combining air and missile defences to provide protection against theatre ballistic missiles. The system will provide layered air defence for NATO's Rapid Reaction Force and needs to be air transportable in Transall C-160s and Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules.
Boeing and Raytheon/Thomson CSF teams are expected to compete for the 18-month, $15 million contracts. A full TBMD acquisition could be worth between $4-8 billion and last 12 years.
Lockheed Martin's team includes Aerospatiale Matra Missiles, Alenia Marconi Systems (AMS), Astrium, BAE Systems, EADS, Fokker, LFK, Matra BAe Dynamics and TRW, says director regional/national missile defence Hal Holmes.
Canadian and Spanish companies could join the team, he adds. France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK are the nations most committed to TBMD.
Holmes expects the studies to be followed by an unfunded six-month question and clarification process, a two-year competition and then acquisition.
The studies will consider active and passive defence, counter force and counter air operations, early warning, battle management and command, control, communications, computers and intelligence from land, sea and air platforms.
Lockheed Martin's team will look at a range of options from the Medium Extended Air Defence System (MEADS) through the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) for anti-cruise missile defence to Lockheed Martin's Theatre High Altitude Air Defence (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile system.
Holmes says the most likely operational scenario is NATO-level early warning and cueing of national TBMD assets.
MEADS, intended to replace Patriot and use the PAC-3 missile, is likely to form the lower tier of a NATO TBMD system, says Don Lionetti, vice president, air and missile defence systems for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.
Germany, Italy and the US Army plan to co-develop MEADS, but go-ahead has been delayed by US technology transfer issues with development of the system and co-production of the PAC-3 missile. Lionetti says the former have been resolved to the satisfaction of the Europeans but still awaits parliamentary approval, delaying the start of a three-year risk-reduction effort to October.
An agreement is also believed to have been reached allowing German co-production on the PAC-3 missile, initially to upgrade its Patriot batteries and later for MEADS.
Source: Flight International
