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TESTIMONY OF
LIEUTENANT GENERAL LARRY J. DODGEN
UNITED STATES ARMY
COMMANDING GENERAL
U.S. ARMY SPACE AND MISSILE DEFENSE COMMAND
AND
U.S. ARMY FORCES STRATEGIC COMMAND

BEFORE THE
HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON STRATEGIC FORCES
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

REGARDING
MISSILE DEFENSE PROGRAM AND
FISCAL YEAR 2005 BUDGET

 March 25, 2004 

Introduction

Mr. Chairman, Congressman Reyes, and other attending Members, thank you for the opportunity to appear before this distinguished panel and for your ongoing support of our Army.  This Committee has been a great friend of the Army, particularly of our efforts to field missile defense forces for the Nation.  The Army considers it a privilege to be counted in the ranks with Mr. Christie and Lieutenant General Kadish as advocates for a strong global missile defense system.  Today, I appear before this committee as the Army proponent for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) System.  In a broader context, I am a member of the joint missile defense team as the Army Component Commander in support of the United States Strategic Command, and the joint user representative working closely with the Missile Defense Agency, other services, and combatant commanders to ensure that our national goals of developing, testing and deploying an integrated missile defense system are met.

Mr. Chairman, as we speak, Army men and women are training to operate the GMD System being deployed at Fort Greely, Alaska.  During the past few months, an initial cadre of the GMD Brigade and a subordinate GMD Battalion were activated.  Once Initial Defensive Capabilities are stood up, these Soldiers will stand as part of the joint team in our Nation’s first line of defense against any launch, either accidental or hostile, of an intercontinental ballistic missile toward our shores.  I am proud to represent them.  Meeting their needs, in training and support, is our highest priority.

Air and Missile Defense—an Overview of the Fiscal Year 2005 Army’s Budget Submission

In addition to deploying a GMD System, the Missile Defense Agency, the Army, and other DoD Agencies and Services have focused attention on improving Theater Air and Missile Defense (TAMD) Systems.  Both GMD and TAMD Systems are vital for protecting our homeland, deployed forces, friends and allies.  Air and missile defense is a key component in support of the Army’s core competency of providing relevant and ready land power to Combatant Commanders as part of the Joint Force.

Today, I have been asked about, and I am happy to focus on, the Army’s Fiscal Year 2005 budget submission for air and missile defense (AMD) systems.  The President’s Budget, presented to the Congress last month, includes approximately $1.4 billion that the Army proposes to use to perform current Army AMD responsibilities and focus on further development and enhancement of both terminal phase and short-range AMD systems.  In short, the Army and the ballistic missile defense community are continuing to improve the ability to intercept and destroy air, theater, and cruise missile threats.

Terminal Phase Ballistic Missile Defenses

The Fiscal Year 2005 budget request includes integrating the development and fielding of Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) capabilities into PATRIOT in a cost efficient manner.  The PATRIOT/MEADS capability is designed to counter theater ballistic missile threats in their terminal flight phase as well as cruise missile and other air breathing threats.  These systems along with the planned fielding of the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense System bring an unprecedented umbrella of security for deployed U.S. forces, friends, and allies well into the future.

PATRIOT/PAC 3 Overview

Mr. Chairman, since the debut of the PATRIOT Air and Missile Defense System in combat during OPERATION DESERT STORM, the Army has continued to implement a series of improvements to address the lessons learned.  During OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF), we saw the improved PATRIOT Configuration-3 system, including the effective use of the Guidance Enhanced Missile (GEM) and the PATRIOT Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) missile.  There is no doubt that during OIF, PATRIOT saved lives defending against Iraqi ballistic missile attacks.

The PATRIOT system remains the Army’s premier theater air and missile defense system.  PAC-3 is the latest evolution of the phased material change improvement program to PATRIOT.  Combining developmental testing and operations, this program has allowed for the development and deployment of the PAC-3, thus bringing a new high-velocity, kinetic hit-to-kill, surface-to-air missile with the range, accuracy, and lethality necessary to effectively intercept and destroy more sophisticated ballistic missile threats.  The PATRIOT/PAC-3 research, development, and acquisition budget request for Fiscal Year 2005 is  $687.8 million.  This budget request continues the minimum necessary PATRIOT development to keep the system viable as we pursue acceleration of MEADS capabilities, procures 108 PAC-3 missiles, and purchases spares for the system. 

MEADS Overview

MEADS is a tri-National co-development program with Italy, Germany, and the United States.  Once fielded, MEADS will provide linkage to the Army’s fully networked battle command capabilities, serve as a bridge from the current to the future force, enable interdependent network-centric warfare, support interoperability with the Army’s Future Force as well as the BMDS, and fully support Joint operating concepts.

The MEADS system is transformational—it offers a significant improvement in strategic deployability and tactical mobility.  The system uses a netted and distributed architecture with modular and configurable battle elements allowing it to integrate with other Army and Joint sensors and shooters.  These features and capabilities will allow MEADS to achieve a robust 360-degree defense against all airborne threats: theater ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, and manned aircraft.  This year’s budget includes $264.5 million  for continued MEADS design and development.

Combined PATRIOT/MEADS Approach

Recently, the Army, after approval by the Defense Acquisition Executive, embarked on a path to merge the PATRIOT and MEADS programs.  In so doing, the PATRIOT/MEADS Combined Aggregate Program (CAP) was established.  The purpose of the CAP is to achieve the objective MEADS capability through incremental fielding of MEADS major end items into PATRIOT.

Mr. Chairman, by combining the research and development resources available to both the PATRIOT and MEADS programs, the Army is able to accelerate incremental fielding of transformational MEADS capabilities into the force.  This incremental fielding approach reduces sustainment costs while delivering increased anti-missile defense capability across the force earlier.  This approach offers the most efficient use of limited, valuable resources while giving maximum flexibility in regard to funding and changing needs of the warfighter.  The PATRIOT/MEADS CAP is one of the Army’s highest priorities.

The Army and the entire missile defense community continue to strive to improve our Nation’s missile defense capabilities.  The Army’s Fiscal Year 2005 budget request for PATRIOT and MEADS contains approximately $1 billion to address the terminal phase ballistic missile defense threat.  By establishing the CAP, the Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense architecture will become more robust as MEADS enhancements are integrated into the existing system.  Simultaneously, lessons learned from the present missile defense capability will be incorporated into the MEADS follow-on system.  We are confident that this path will provide our service members, our allies, our friends, and our nation with the most capable air and missile defense system possible.

Cruise Missile Defense

As recent events in Iraq illustrate, a real and growing threat from land-attack cruise missiles exists.  Cruise missiles are inherently very difficult targets to detect, engage, and destroy because of their small size, low detection signature, and low altitude flight characteristics.  It is clear that the required systems and capabilities necessary to counter this emerging threat need to be accelerated to field a Cruise Missile Defense (CMD) capability as soon as possible.  The Army's CMD program is an integral piece of the Joint Cruise Missile Defense Architecture.  Critical Army components of the Joint CMD architecture are provided by Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor (JLENS), the Surface Launched Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (SLAMRAAM), and integrated fire control.  The Army, with the concurrence of the Joint Staff, has provided additional funding to these critical CMD programs to support an accelerated CMD capability.

JLENS Overview

 JLENS brings a critically needed capability to meet the growing cruise missile (CM) threat.  As an elevated sensor, JLENS is developing unique lightweight fire control and surveillance radars to detect, track and identify low-flying, hard-to-detect CM threats.  JLENS will support engagements using the SLAMRAAM/CLAWS, Navy Standard Missile, and PATRIOT/MEADS weapon systems.  JLENS uses advanced sensor and networking technologies to provide precision tracking and 360-degree wide-area over-the-horizon surveillance of land attack cruise missiles.  The Fiscal Year 2005 JLENS funding request of $81.5 million supports acceleration of full JLENS capability, with first unit equip (FUE) occurring by Fiscal Year 2010.

SLAMRAAM Overview

Surface Launched Advanced Medium Range Air-To-Air Missile (SLAMRAAM) will provide CMD to maneuver forces with an extended battlespace, beyond line-of-sight, non-line-of-sight engagement capability critical to countering the CM threat as well as unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) threats.  SLAMRAAM utilizes the existing Joint AMRAAM missile currently in use by the Air Force and Navy, thereby exploiting the jointness DoD is striving to achieve.  The Army and Marine Corps are also executing a joint cooperative development for SLAMRAAM/CLAWS to meet the needs of Soldiers and Marines for roles in Homeland Defense as well as overseas deployments.  The Fiscal Year 2005 funding request of $68.3 million supports the goal of having an Initial Operational Capability (IOC) by Fiscal Year 2008.

Sentinel Radar Overview

The Sentinel Radar is an advanced, three dimensional, phased array air defense radar that is a critical component in the Army’s ability to conduct air surveillance of the maneuver force.  Sentinel Enhanced Target Range and Classification (ETRAC) Radar upgrades will enable the system to support engagements at extended ranges, reduce time required to perform target classification, support next generation combat identification for friendly air, reducing possibility of fratricide, and provide an enhanced positive friendly and civil aviation identification capability.  Sentinel is a small, mobile battlefield radar that supports the joint air defense sensor network in detecting cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, and helicopter threats contributing directly  to the overall Single Integrated Air Picture (SIAP) and supporting multiple Homeland Defense missions.  The Fiscal Year 2005 funding request of $13.6 million provides  for joint identification and composite sensor netting development efforts, four ETRAC system upgrade kits, and continues development and integration of improvements to support joint interoperability.  

Air, Space & Missile Defense Command and Control

The Army is increasing the command and control capabilities on the battlefield.  The Army’s Air and Missile Defense Command (AAMDC) will integrate TAMD operations, coordinating and synchronizing joint attack operations, active defense, passive defense and C4 operations in the theater.  The Joint Tactical Ground Station (JTAGS) Multi-Mission Mobile Processor (M3P) is a key component in the Army’s transformation strategy.  It will provide assured missile warning to theater combatant commanders using existing theater communication systems to disseminate processed information through a direct downlink from space-based infrared assets into the joint theater communications architecture.  The JTAGS M3P program will deliver cost-effective joint and common systems for both the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force (USAF) to support their respective Theater and National Strategic early warning and cueing missions.  The Fiscal Year 2005 funding request of $10.0 million continues development and integration of this joint capability in synchronization with the USAF Space Based Infrared System space programs and provides sustainment of the forward deployed JTAGS units supporting the warfighter in EUCOM, CENTCOM, and PACOM.

Directed Energy Initiatives

The Army continues to explore directed energy capabilities for weapon system development and integration into Army Transformation applications in particular against the rocket and artillery threats.  The Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) development and integration effort is a follow-on program to downsize the product of the successful US/Israel Tactical High Energy Laser Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (THEL ACTD).  The Fiscal Year 2005 funding request of $38.6 million continues development and fabrication of a mobile prototype for future testing.

Conclusion

Mr. Chairman, the Army is Relevant and Ready, fighting the war on terrorism, deployed in Southwest Asia and elsewhere, and deterring aggression throughout the world while transforming to meet future threats.  With its responsibilities for GMD and PATRIOT/MEADS, the Army is an integral part of the Joint Team to develop and field the Ballistic Missile Defense System.  The Army has stepped up to the land-attack cruise missile defense challenge, aggressively developing the joint, integrated and networked sensor, command and control shooter system-of-systems architecture necessary to defeat the emerging threat.  We are taking full advantage of integrated fire control to exploit to full advantage the kinematics range of joint missiles.  The Fiscal Year 2005 budget proposal continues the transformation of the Army’s Missile Defense Force to support the Army’s Future Force, the Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense System, and the BMDS.  We continue to  build on the recent success of our theater air and missile defense force in OIF.  Transformation will continue to define the characteristics of the emerging Missile Defense Force and determine how it can best support the Future Force operating in a joint, interagency, and multinational environment.  I appreciate having the opportunity to speak on these important matters and look forward to addressing any questions you or the other members of the Committee may have.