By Marina Malenic
TUCSON, Ariz.–The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has awarded Raytheon [RTN] a $175 million contract for development of the Standard Missile-3 Block IIA, slated for deployment in 2018 under the third phase of the Obama administration’s four-part Phased Adaptive Approach for U.S. and European missile defense.
The contract, signed last month, will provide continued funding for engineering and development efforts for the SM-3 Block IIA missile through preliminary design review, scheduled for early next year.
The contract also includes an option for future studies totaling $9.8 million.
Raytheon and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, under contract to the MDA and Japan’s Ministry of Defense, are developing the next-generation SM-3 Block IIA missile, scheduled to begin flight tests in 2014.
The new missile will include larger second- and third-stage rocket motors and a larger kinetic warhead to provide a greater area of defense against more sophisticated threats, Ed Miyashiro, a Raytheon vice president and deputy general manger of Raytheon Missile Systems, told reporters at Raytheon’s missile facility here. Miyashiro said successful preliminary design reviews of the motors and missile electronics were conducted by Japan and the United States over the summer.
The Block IIA missile “will provide an incremental improvement in capability against a range of ballistic missile threats,” said Miyashiro. He said the propulsion system for the kill vehicle, the sensor and the signals processor will all be improved in the new prototype.
Following flight testing, the missiles are to be deployed on U.S. and Japanese Aegis ships, as well as at various land-based locations in Europe, to defend against short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the ascent and midcourse phases of flight.
Raytheon is also providing various radars, sensors and command and control systems for U.S. ballistic missile defenses.
The fiscal year 2011 president’s budget request for MDA is $8.4 billion, about a half billion increase over FY ’10.
As announced by the president last September, missile defense is shifting focus from ground-based defense against ICBMs to guarding against short- and medium-range missiles, which MDA has said comprises about 99 percent of the missile threat from countries such as Iran. The agency has begun implementing the Phased Adaptive Approach, a four-part effort to field a ballistic missile defense capability in Europe against the existing short-and medium-range ballistic missile threat.
In Phase One, Raytheon is to supply the current SM-3 and the AN/TPY-2 radar part of the sea-based missile defense capability. Phase Two, expected to be fielded in 2015, comprises the sea-based capability move to land. This iteration is expected use SM-3 Block IB. Phase Three in 2018 would introduce the SM-3 Block IIA missile in cooperative development with Japan. It is to be deployed on land and at sea. Phase Four, fielding around 2020, will likely field a higher performance interceptor–Block IIB–and introduce the ability to engage ICBMs for defending the United States.
“We believe we will be well positioned to play a significant role in helping to define the architectures as they go forward, to really be able to maximize the capability of these systems,” Miyashiro said. This includes working with international industrial partners to satisfy the ballistic missile defense needs of allies, he said.