Its been an entire fiscal year since the Groundbased Midcourse [missile] Defense system underwent a flight test, a congressional aide told me this morning. That failure of the Missile Defense Agency to perform tests for an entire fiscal year has got both Republican and Democratic staff and lawmakers pretty warm under the collar. The congressional aide told me this morning that we are troubled because this appears to be a sign of problems with management at MDA.
The proximate cause of this unhappiness is the latest cancellation of a GMD test known as FTG-04, scheduled for July. The congressional aide says that a third tier supplier supplied a telemetry unit with an improperly soldered motherboard. Since MDA would not have been able to gather any data about the scheduled test even if everything else worked as planned the agency decided to cancel the scheduled test.
The Center for Defense Informations Victoria Samson, who watches MDA like a hawk, sent me an analysis this morning saying that this latest goof is alarming because it appears to raise questions about the GMD interceptors reliability not true, according to the congressional aide and because it has become one of many missile defense tests that have been called off That is absolutely true, said the congressional aide, who ticked off a list of GMD tests since 2001 six hits; one miss; one no-test, two tests without interceptors.
Army Lt. Gen. Kevin Campbell, head of the Army Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, Ala., said this morning that it is true that there has not been enough realistic testing of GMD in terms of countermeasures and interceptors, but he added that he feels they are now on the right track. The congressional aide did not disagree with Campbells statement, but said MDA has not done enough testing of the basic system, let alone countermeasures and interceptors.
Campbell also mentioned at the breakfast sponsored by the National Defense University that there is increasing recognition that much more ammunition needs to be bought for the THAAD and Aegis systems. The congressional aide said this came out of the Future Capabilities Mix study recently completed by the Joint Staff. Look for an amendment to be introduced in the Senate to restore some of the $400 million cut from MDA when the defense authorization bill is considered by the whole Senate, probably next week. The amendment will argue this money should be used to buy more missiles for these two systems.
– Colin Clark
Whaddyamean “missile defense is on the skids”?
I gotta tell ya that its alive and well and wears a lovely coat of haze gray, buddy. But, eh, maybe you missed all that… just like the weenies in the Army who keep trying to reinvent the wheel.
If some folks with some authority would reach down and figure out that they had a pair, they’d kill the Army’s program deader than dirt. In its place they’d field an sandcrab version Aegis TBM and declare victory. Hell, it worked with CIWS on a damned trailer didn’t it? And don’t we have “Aegis in the Cornfield” down there in New Jersey?
How damned hard is this????
Thanks, Colin, now I’m pissed off again.…
All I can say is what my Dad used to say to my brother and I when we were screwing around: “Keep it up, keep it up…” There was an asswhipping in the offing. The same thing is afoot for Congress and the rest of the folks who are doing their level best to run the whole damned DoD into the ditch.
And just like two adolescent boys who won’t share toys these boys won’t share weapons systems… unless there’s an asswhipping.
So, keep it up, keep it up.… maybe we’ll get someone in the White House who knows how to take his belt to the Pentagon.
Cheers,
Chief B.
Exactly.…you got it right, grow a pair and hand out an asswhoppin
Well, it would appear that Sen.Obama is not a big supporter of missile defense… Maybe the MDA is just bracing for impact.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kRGru2CPC4E
“Second, I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending. I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future combat systems.“
“The Pentagon Gets Ready For President Obama“
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htlead/articles/20080609.aspx
I think we will beat this screwball O’bhama, but mcCain’s “Coattails” are so short, I fear we are going to loose a lot of very important ground in BOTH houses, not to mention loose the chance to appoint another Judge to the Court.
McCain MUST find a good running mate and show more of us that he is not the liberal Manchurian Candidate I fear he is.
JD
WTF BS is DC doing now (aside the JCA contract) with Missile defense.
IE Rogue Missile defense aside to deter Incoming missiles from China.
PRC China.
Get the System UP & Running.
Purge the Old Blood, Hire New blood for project.
Hire vets & non vets.
Get the System UP.
We should worry about Baraq Hussein “the Handsome One By Whom Islam Will Fill the Earth(the actual meaning of “Baraq Hussein”,“Hussein” meaning “Handsome One” & “Baraq”,also spelled “Barack”,being the name of the winged horse of Muhammad by which Islam is to fill the world and overcome it)” Obama.But,I also have my doubts about John McChurian Candidate being a good president.
Question,are the Pentagon & Congress really,seriously trying to get our missile defense system to work?
Well I’m sitting in an airport for the 4th time in 2 days, PO’d already about missing a flight… and then I read this. I better check my BP.
Let’s get the ‘not testing’ problem straight shall we? Is the problem the fact that there are things being found before the scheduled testing that could cause a problem, and therefore the test is being prevented from failure and more alarmingly to foes: not providing free fodder for complaint and second-guessing. What rational person would think the test should have gone forward without the ability to collect the data? Can Ms. Sampson explain why she thinks a problem with a test-specific piece of hardware that is not central to the core functionality of the system, and will not be part of an operational missile, reflects in any way shape or form to the quality of the system under test? How does catching this problem before a test reflect poorly on the test organization?
Fine, ‘test’ is behind schedule. Complain about that. But don’t challenge the technical merits of the system based upon a piece of test hardware. I smell liberal arts grads with zero technical expertise. Or worse yet: former ‘operators’ without a clue as to how things work behind the “magic” buttons.
Lunacy…and a prime example of why I never cite CDI for ANY reason.
McCain: Change the country can survive
Not to get off track here, however I have researched various mishaps over the decades.
It seems SON can invoke by way of lawful
estoppel, non disclosure via common law.
What I find interesting is so far I only see
the president (explicitly) being the decision
maker in this area and have not yet found lawful
authority to delegate? However I’m not working
in this area now.
Any sort of professional that uses the word “alarming” and “appears” and especially “raises questions” is suspect.
Where’s the danger?
This is what happens when your funding is guaranteed. Who cares how long it takes to field the thing? People are making big bucks dragging their feet while it’s in dvelopment. What’s the hurry?