Fort Worth Star-Telegram August 18, 2002
New air-defense missile is better - but far from perfect
By BOB COX
FORT WORTH, Texas - If U.S. troops go to war in Iraq, they'll probably be taking along a new air defense missile developed by Lockheed Martin Corp. to provide protection from enemy missiles.
The Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC 3) missile is supposed to be a big improvement over its predecessor, the old Patriot, which failed to stop many of Saddam Hussein's Scuds during the 1991 Gulf War.
How big of an improvement remains to be seen.
Lockheed officials say they're "extremely confident" the PAC 3 will work well in combat, despite a number of unforeseen problems uncovered in recent field tests.
"It works. The system works," said Mike Trotsky, vice president-air defense programs for Grand Prairie-based Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, the unit that is developing the missile.
The military seems to agree.
"If the need arose, there would be no hesitation on my part" to put the PAC-3 system to use in the field in Iraq, Air Force Lt. Gen Ronald Kadish, who heads the Pentagon's missile defense program, told Bloomberg news last week.
But analysts say the Army was less than satisfied with the missile system's performance in field tests in April and May at the White Sands, N.M., test range.
"As with any other developmental program, it's had its problems, but it's far from the most troubled program they've got," said John Pike, a weapons analyst and director of Global Security.Org.
"About half the time, they missed (the target)," said Philip Coyle, the former head of the Pentagon's weapons testing office during the Clinton administration.
Army officials decided PAC 3 is "not ready for prime time," Coyle said. But if war comes and a defense against Iraqi missiles is needed, "it is better than nothing."
PAC-3 was designed by Lockheed to overcome Patriot shortcomings exposed during the Gulf War. It is smaller, allowing more missiles to be deployed on one launcher. The PAC-3 also has its own onboard target seeking system and is designed to cover a far greater range. It seeks out enemy missiles and aircraft and destroys them through the force of a direct collision.
The key difference between the PAC-3 and the old Patriot is in the hit-to-kill concept.
The original Raytheon Co.-designed and built Patriot was to come close to an enemy missile and explode, damaging or destroying the incoming missile with metal fragments. Experience showed that even if the intercept was successful, the warhead was often not destroyed and could still plunge to earth and possibly spread chemical, biological or nuclear materials.
By physically striking the target with great speed and force, the PAC-3 is designed to destroy the missiles and warheads high in the atmosphere. By annihilating missiles several miles high, the nuclear, chemical or biological weapon payloads will be widely dispersed and exposed to ultraviolet light, posing little danger to troops or civilians in the region.
In a series of developmental tests that Lockheed personnel conducted from March 1999 to March this year, the PAC 3 successfully intercepted and destroyed target missiles and aircraft 10 times in 13 tries.
The Army's operational tests were another story. In situations designed to replicate actual field conditions, a number of targets were missed. Other problems arose with the system: Some missiles didn't fire, electronic tracking systems didn't work as planned.
"As badly as it performed, that was against fairly easy targets," Coyle said.
Lockheed's Trotsky said that's an overly critical view of the test results. "It's a 90-percent-missile. It does what it's supposed to do 90 percent of the time," he said. "This missile will do a lot more to protect our guys than what they had in Desert Storm."
The Army will conduct further testing next year, including firing the missile against multiple targets in more realistic, combat-like situations.
Lockheed has four low-rate production contracts totaling $850 million to produce 164 of the missiles and the associated equipment, which will be retrofitted to the existing Patriot missile batteries. The company expects to receive an additional $250 million contract for another 72 missiles later this year. So far, Lockheed has delivered 36 of the missiles.
A decision was slated for December on whether to go ahead with full production, but Alicia Garges, spokeswoman for the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, said Friday that decision will likely be pushed back pending further test results.
Lockheed engineers in Grand Prairie, Texas, designed the PAC-3 missile system. Missile production takes place at a recently completed plant in Camden, Ark. The company employs about 3,000 engineers and other technical workers in Grand Prairie and about 500 production workers in Camden.
Another Lockheed program got a boost last week when the Army placed the first production order for the company's new line-of-sight antitank missile, or LOSAT.
Mounted on a modified HHMMWV (Humvee) infantry vehicle that can be airlifted on a C-130 transport, the LOSAT is designed to give airborne and other light infantry troops a weapon that can destroy enemy tanks now and well into the future.
The $9.3 million contract is for 108 of the missiles to be delivered by July 2004. The first missiles will be deployed with one of the Army's airborne regiments. LOSAT will also be assembled in Camden.
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