Lockheed Delay on New Interceptor Missile Slows Mideast Defense
July 29, 2010, 10:10 AM EDTBy Tony Capaccio
July 29 (Bloomberg) -- Lockheed Martin Corp., the world’s largest defense contractor, is at least a year behind schedule delivering the first 24 of the Pentagon’s newest interceptor missile.
A safety switch intended to prevent accidental launches failed testing and these interceptors and 24 more can’t be assembled until it’s fixed, said Rick Lehner, a Missile Defense Agency spokesman. The switch is made by Moog Inc., a Lockheed subcontractor.
The interceptors are the centerpiece of the new regional missile defense that the Obama administration plans to deploy in the Middle East against Iran’s medium- and long-range ballistic missiles. Batteries of the land-based interceptors would be linked by sensors and radar to the U.S. Navy’s existing sea- based systems on Aegis-class destroyers and cruisers.
Without the missiles, the Army can’t deploy its first unit trained on this system: an air defense artillery battery at Fort Bliss, Texas. Other components of the system have been delivered on time, allowing the battery to train, Lehner said. But without the missiles, it’s not ready.
The delay comes as the U.S. is negotiating a deal worth as much as $6.9 billion with the United Arab Emirates, a Persian Gulf nation that is seeking to be the first international buyer of the so-called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense.
‘Onus Is on Them’
Lockheed’s Dallas-based Missiles and Fire Control plant is under contract to complete delivery of the first interceptors before Sept. 30. The Defense Department now projects delivery by around Sept. 30, 2011, Lehner said. The next lot of 24 is due by June 2011 and may be as much as 10 months late, he said.
Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed “is on contract to deliver,” Lehner said. “The onus is on them to figure out what they need to do to manage the program.”
The Pentagon accelerated its planned purchases of the interceptor for the new regional defense system before learning of the delay.
Congress has already approved $420 million this year for 26 interceptors, and the Pentagon is requesting $858 million in fiscal 2011 to buy 32 more, 67 in 2012 and 72 each in 2013-2015 for about $4.5 billion.
Ann Luhr, a spokeswoman for East Aurora, New York-based Moog, said the company’s contract with Lockheed prohibits it from commenting.
‘Longer Than Anticipated’
Lockheed spokeswoman Cheryl Amerine said the requirement for a safety switch was added after the interceptor began flight testing. “The design, testing and qualification” of the switch’s manufacturing process “took longer than we anticipated,” she said.
Lehner said Moog had to shut down its production line for two months to fix flaws. The line restarted in May, and the company delivered the first improved switch for testing this month, he said. Test models have scored successful intercepts in each of seven tests through June 29, he said.
Lockheed engineers were assigned to oversee “all design and manufacturing process improvements at Moog,” Lehner said.
Cristina Chaplain, a director in the U.S. Government Accountability Office, said she’s “seen similar production issues” in other Missile Defense Agency programs, “where officials approve production before all necessary systems engineering is successfully completed.”
“Now a growing number of interceptors are mostly complete, but all still await this critical part,” said Chaplain, who analyzes missile defense programs for the congressional watchdog agency.
--Editors: Bill Schmick, Brigitte Greenberg.
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#<610526.2915987.2.1.46.17993.25># -0- Jul/29/2010 12:24 GMT
To contact the reporters on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
