Admiral wants bigger anti-missile upgrade

[unhappycamper]

Admiral wants bigger anti-missile upgrade
By Ben Iannotta - Special to the Times
Posted : Monday Nov 5, 2007 12:31:48 EST

North Korea was hot on everyone’s minds when the Navy decided to rush missile-defense software and interceptors onto 18 of its 84 ships equipped with the Aegis computerized weapon systems. But now, with Iran increasingly on the minds of U.S. strategists, the admiral who runs the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense program for the Missile Defense Agency is asking to expand the upgrade effort — even before the large-scale Aegis upgrade planned to start in 2012.

“The question right now is: With 18 ships, is that an adequate number? I’m not sure it is,” said Rear Adm. Alan Hicks, who noted that Navy plans call for basing all but two of the BMD ships in the Pacific. “One of the concerns I have today is that if we had to surge for both a North Korean and Iranian scenario, you would end up taking ships defense against North Korea. You have to augment the two Atlantic fleet ships to do anything in either the Gulf or Mediterranean if there was an Iranian threat.”

Hicks approached Adm. Mike Mullen when Mullen was the chief of naval operations about adding more BMD ships to handle simultaneous missile threats from North Korea and Iran. Mullen agreed to a series of discussions as the Navy builds its portion of the 2009 White House budget request.

Fifteen of the 18 ships in the current Aegis BMD plan are destroyers, and so the obvious option is to add more cruisers. “Right now, we have three BMD cruisers,” Hicks said. “Will make a decision to upgrade any more of the cruisers? That’s what they’ll be discussing.”

So far, Lockheed Martin reports it has completed 16 Aegis BMD ships, with the final two scheduled to be ready by mid-2008. Hicks said the full contingent must be ready for fielding by early 2009.

These ships are a stopgap, or “pre-modernization,” measure until Navy and Pentagon officials decide how to incorporate ballistic missile defense into the massive Aegis modernization program scheduled to start in 2012. At that time, all 62 destroyers and 22 cruisers in the Aegis fleet will begin rotating into port for 40-week computer modernization programs. How many of those modernized ships will be equipped to fire missile interceptors is another topic for talks, Hicks said.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/navy_ballisticdefense_071104w/