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Subject: MEADS Rises From The Dead
SYSOP    7/1/2015 6:03:00 AM
 
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keffler25       7/1/2015 8:32:35 AM
Thje problems with MEADS was that the Americans outsourced radar and ground controlled telemetry to the GERMANS. Italy, which should have handled this portion of the program, was tasked with missile air-frame improvements and some of the rocket work while the Americans provided money, primary PAC 3 missiles  and ATG seeker help.
 
1. The French withdrew when the Americans caught them trying to steal US seeker tech.
2. The US withdrew when the Germans (MBDA Deutschland GmbH) flubbed up the TVM portion of the radar setup and control. (The German MoD has a big corruption stink going on with the original contractors who proved to be incompetent as to this radar development. Enter LOCKMART[of all corporations] to the rescue with knowhow to fix the German radar's.defects.
 
If we (the US) ever get this turkey to work, it could replace PATRIOT. It would be a good system to navalize for a small surface combatant. Too bad about the radars.   
 
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JFKY    When did the US "cancel/withdraw" from MEADS?   7/1/2015 9:11:04 AM
My US Army Weapons Systems Handbook, I think the latest volume....certainly the 2014 volume, has an entry for "MEADS". Is the author of this blurb certain the US withdrew? Or did they withdraw, prior & re-enter?
 
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keffler25       7/1/2015 10:02:26 AM
Congress nixed the optioned buy in 2014 and the US Army told the Germans that they (MBDA GMBH--> the Germans) screwed up the radar in the White Sands weapon proof tests for US Army validation. Since then, the Germans have been rather much twisting in the wind with LockMart helping them out to fix the AESA radar. (The MFCR us THEIR baby from the US contractor end.). They (LOCKMART) sunk a lot of their own prestige into the MEADS MFCR debacle. They CAN'T walk away from it, even though the US Army (thanks to Raytheon, who are laughing all the way to the procurement office at LockMart. because they see themselves as the future ABM contract winners.) can..     
 
 
My US Army Weapons Systems Handbook, I think the latest volume....certainly the 2014 volume, has an entry for "MEADS".

Is the author of this blurb certain the US withdrew? Or did they withdraw, prior & re-enter?

 
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JFKY    So,...   7/1/2015 10:13:10 AM
for the moment, the US isn't "buying" MEADS? We haven't withdrawn, we simply aren't buying the finished, as of today, product? But, the Germans ARE, buying the MEADS product? So, the MFCR is operational or as operational as this lot can make it? My bottom-line question is, "Will the US Armed Forces be procuring this system, in any numbers in the near-future?"
 
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Crass Spektakel       7/1/2015 12:10:58 PM
Important reason for germany to continue with MEADS:
 
Patriot is sold as a black box with no legal way of tweaking and fiddling. Every feature update must be aquired from
Raytheon, creating a complete dependency on Raytheon.
 
With MEADS local developers can and will try out different features and updates and try for objectives not even thought of today. One example was "uploading an attack pattern into multiple warheads in a matter of seconds between detection and firing".
 
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keffler25       7/1/2015 12:15:52 PM
I don't know. The politics is very complicated. The Germans and the Italians need a missile defense. They don't want to buy ASTER/SAMPT because they know that system doesn't work and WHY, They don't want to be stuck buying American because of EU internal politics (Make it in Europe damnit!), yet MEADS is essentially an American system stuck on with Italian fire control (works) and German radars (that don't work) .     
 
The damned thing doesn't work as it should, but it does work, sort of maybe.. Hard to explain, but it has some [bungled] technical physical limitations designed into it that if an enemy knew about them would make the system irredeemably useless.
 
Can it be fixed? Sure, but the US doesn't want to share some hard won secrets it learned the hard way from Patriot to someone who wants to sell MEADS to Saudi Arabia and other 'trustworthy' states. .    
 
Besides Uncle wants to sell his missiles to Poland. Maybe MEADS will come into US inventory someday after that sale is made. Maybe.    
 


But, the Germans ARE, buying the MEADS product?

So, the MFCR is operational or as operational as this lot can make it?

My bottom-line question is, "Will the US Armed Forces be procuring this system, in any numbers in the near-future?"

 
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Johnny    A crisis multiple crises   7/4/2015 2:51:47 PM
"... had reached a crises" could Strategypage invest in a decent spellchecker?
 
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