Dickerhoff said Boeing’s work share goals for the program are 15 percent to 20 percent during development and up to 50 percent of production. “Of course, as the program progresses and needs change, the numbers will fluctuate,” he added. ”We started way before we had the full, multiyear funding commitment to find the best U.S. companies that would be part of our manufacturing team and to integrate them as early as possible in
the program,” said Yoav Turgeman, Arrow program director at IAI’s MLM Division. Turgeman, a reserve Israel Navy captain who managed electrical and weapon systems for the Navy’s Materiel Command, noted that Boeing’s work-share goals for Arrow-3 should exceed the approximately 40 percent claimed by the U.S. company during Arrow-2. According to Turgeman, Boeing’s Huntsville, Ala., program office is managing all U.S. subcontractors and ensuring they comply to IAI, IMDO and MDA specifications.” Cooperation with Boeing has been and will undoubtedly remain an excellent example of how international partners working amid budgetary uncertainty and very challenging technical and schedule conditions can make it all work to mutual benefit,” he said. As for the pending government to- government agreement on Arrow- 3, an MDA official said formal documents are “very close” to conclusion. New Block 5 Upgrade In parallel to the escalating Arrow- 3 effort, IMDO recently launched initial definition of a new Block 5 upgrade to the complete Arrow Weapon System (AWS) that will merge the lower-tier Arrow-2 and exoatmospheric Arrow-3 into a single national missile defense system. The planned Block 5 AWS will include new ground- and airborne sensors, a command-and-control system, and a new high-performance target missile to simulate the Iranian Shahab and other potentially nuclear-capable delivery vehicles developed by Tehran, Herzog said. In recent weeks, state-owned IAI and Rafael, along with their respective U.S. partners Boeing and Raytheon, submitted competing proposals for the new Arrow-3 target missile. Defense and industry sources say Rafael’s proposal is based on a third-generation, longer-range version of its air-launched Blue Sparrow and Black Sparrow targets, with significant technology contributed by Raytheon. As for IAI Boeing rivals, the team proposed two options, both sea-based, to simulate maneuvering and other advanced flight characteristics of future Iranian missiles. Additionally, the IMDO is working with IAI’s Elta Systems to develop an S-Band instrumentation radar to support the Block 5 AWS, government and industry sources say. The planned Block 5 will optimize the existing Elta-produced Super Green Pine L-Band early warning and tracking radar to operate with the U.S. AN/TPY- 2 X-Band radar based in Israel as well as with radars commanding SM-3 interceptors aboard U.S. Navy destroyers. Both U.S. radars
will be used to support closed loop operations if Israel and U.S. targets in the region come under attack. “The upper tier is not a new system; we’re just adding [the Arrow- 3] interceptor, and new or improved radars, sensors, and command- and-control elements to the existing system,” Herzog said. He declined to say how much time or funding would be needed to develop, test and deploy the full Block 5 AWS. But just as the Iranian threat has driven spiral development and testing of Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 interceptors, work on the new Block 5 AWS is taking place prior to completion of Israel’s latest Block 4 AWS. Program officials said a critical retest of the Block 4 AWS remains unscheduled, but should occur later this year. This past summer, a so-called Caravan test off the California coast was aborted because of a glitch that occurred when transferring software from the Super Green Pine — a radar previously validated in a successful April 2009 AWS test — to the earlier-model Green Pine used in the U.S.-based demonstration. “Tracking of the target worked well, but tracking trajectory information that the radar transferred to the battle management center erroneously showed we would be out of the prescribed safety range, so the mission was aborted,” a program source said. Herzog said the problem was easily solved and had no effect on Block 4 operational capabilities. “But unfortunately, we lost the [C-17 air-launched LRALT] target, and now MDA is reviewing the reliability of their targets before allowing anybody to test.” Once that test is successfully completed, and “a few other remaining milestones” are achieved, it will be up to the Israel Air Force to declare the new Block 4 AWS operational, Herzog said. E-mail:
bopallrome@defensenews.com.
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20-03-2010, 11:58
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