More training is needed for soldiers who operate and maintain the ballistic missile defense Patriot and THAAD forces, but operational needs and a lack of resources are not keeping up with the demand, Defense Department officials told a Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) panel.
“We have a lot of stress on the Patriot force and we have more demand from the COCOMs (combatant commanders) for Patriot battalions than we have in the Army,” Brian McKeon, principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy, told the SASC Strategic Forces panel March 25.
Michael Gilmore, DoD director of Operational Test & Evaluation, said, “It all comes down to resources. There are a finite number of resources and in terms of training capabilities, training aids, simulators and the Army has a plan to improve those training aids and training systems for THAAD and Patriots over the long run.”
Photo: Raytheon
However, the high demand for Patriot and THAAD and large number of ongoing deployments means, “the pace of training in what we’ve seen in tests isn’t keeping up with demand and isn’t keeping up with the increasing complexity of the capabilities of the systems as they’re modernizing. That’s true in particular with Patriot.”
Lockheed Martin [LMT] is the prime contractor of the THAAD system. Raytheon [RTN] is the prime contractor on the Patriot system, while Lockheed Martin is the prime on the Patriot PAC-3 Missile Segment upgrade.
Gilmore said in a resource-constrained environment, MDA Director Vice Adm. James Syring and the services have to make hard judgments.
Lt. Gen David Mann, commander of Army Space and Missile Defense Command/ Army Forces Strategic Command and Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense, reassured the panel, “Our soldiers are properly prepared to execute operations. Naturally, it would be great to have a test battalion capability that we had in the past, but because of the demand for this capability we’ve had to use this test capability to meet operational requirements.
The Army deactivated the test battalion in fiscal year 2013.
In his prepared remarks, Gilmore said deactivating the test battalion would lengthen operational testing and “delay the fielding decision for the Patriot Missile Segment Enhancement and Post-Deployment Build-8 software.” Additionally, the loss of that battalion has “reduced the Army’s ability to ensure Patriot unit soldiers are trained to operate the system safely and effectively in combat when U.S. and coalition aircraft and other ballistic missile defense systems will share Patriot’s battlespace.”
Mann said, “We are looking at training aids and devices that we can use to help with the training and we continue to raise the level of difficulty with testing and exercises, and continue to push the envelope in terms of presenting challenging scenarios for soldiers to get after.”
Patriot modernization also includes work over the next few years that would effectively allow the units to deploy without the headquarters unit, which means, “We’ll be able to significantly increase the number of deployable battalions.”
Mann said the holistic missile-defense review under way now, with a lot of Joint Staff-led studies, is examining how to address the evolving threat.
“Quite frankly it goes beyond the number of active defense platforms, whether it’s Aegis ships, or Patriot or THAAD,” he said. This effort is examining how to leverage other areas such as cyber or electronic attack ahead of launch rather than waiting until after the missile is shot.
There also is non-kinetic work in areas such as directed energy, and evaluating the indirect fire protection capability to address the cruise missile threat.
“There are a lot of modernization efforts, but also we need to look holistically versus just the number of platforms you put out there,” Mann said.
These concerns all go back to sequestration, he said.
“Not only does it have an impact on the readiness, which we’re talking about, but how we’re able to address some of these evolving threats that are out there with new technologies. That’s the reason we’ve very, very concerned, ” Mann said.