Interceptor work should see most hiring by year 2007
12/20/03
Huntsville's experience in missile defense systems and engineering will bring North Alabama more than 500 defense jobs by 2007 through a Northrop Grumman program that will build a new missile interceptor, company officials and U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Huntsville, said Friday.
Northrop Grumman announced this month the company would do part of the work on the eight-year, $4.5 billion Kinetic Energy Interceptor, or KEI, missile defense system in Huntsville.
The area's expertise in engineering, simulation and systems integration will be used heavily, Northrop Grumman officials said during a news conference Friday at Cramer's Huntsville office.
About 60 people will be hired in 2004, another 200 should be hired during 2005 and by 2007 jobs could grow past the 500 mark, said Dan Montgomery, Northrop Grumman's vice president and program manager for the KEI system. Those positions will be with Northrop Grumman and local subcontractors, including Davidson Technologies, 3D Research Corp., Schafer Corp. and Orbital Sciences Corp.
For the moment, Northrop Grumman will be seeking a facility to lease but, Montgomery said, as the program continues, the defense contractor may build facilities here "if the program warrants it."
The KEI system is designed to intercept enemy missiles in the boost phase, he said.
"It's based on the Patriot missile system design, but it will be all new equipment," said Montgomery, a retired Army brigadier general and former head of the Program Executive Office for Air and Missile Defense here.
Northrop Grumman's requirement for the missile system is to fly it anywhere in the world within 48 hours using an Air Force C-17 cargo plane, Montgomery said.
"We can place this and have it up and running within that two-day time frame," he said.
Montgomery said the KEI system would have a series of launchers and ground vehicles tied to a satellite observation system. "These will tell the KEI crews when a missile has launched and track it," he said.
There is a possibility of a Navy contract in 2006, Montgomery said, to modify the KEI system for use on ships.
Similar to the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, or PAC-3, missile, the KEI missile uses kinetic energy built up from the launch to smash into the warhead. It carries no explosives, Montgomery said.
The system should be in the field by 2011. It will complement the Ground-Based Mid-Course Missile Defense, or GMD, program being developed by the Missile Defense Agency, Cramer said.
GMD is a ground-based missile defense system that uses interceptors launched from a fixed site and then strike the incoming missiles almost at the end of their flight trajectory. The initial site is Fort Greely, Alaska.
"That will be up and running soon," Cramer said. "It should be noted, however, the KEI system will not replace that. It is only one more layer in the missile defense shield."
Cramer said nations like North Korea and Iran have been developing a first-strike capability enabling them to launch nuclear, biological or chemical warheads.
"There are nations with the economies now where they can afford to invest in a strike capability that could harm America and our allies," said Cramer, who sits on the House Select Committee on Intelligence. "We can't wait until they develop this and then work on a way to stop it. ... We have to develop a way to counter this now. This (Kinetic Energy Interceptor) will help us in that arena."