The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) says the cost of the SM-3 Block IIA interceptor development program will increase due to the loss of some common work with the now terminated Multiple Kill Vehicle program.

Cost for the U.S./Japanese joint development program is estimated now to be about $3.1 billion for the 21-inch diameter interceptor, says Rear Adm. Alan “Brad” Hicks, Aegis/SM-3 program manager for MDA.

Estimates earlier in the program were around $2.4 billion. The program was originally established as a 50/50 cost sharing between the two nations, but additional cost would be handled individually by the countries depending upon the cause of the increase.

In this case, some work originally planned for the Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV) program would have fed into the new unitary kill vehicle for the SM-3 Block IIA. Defense Secretary Robert Gates terminated MKV in the fiscal 2010 budget proposal that went to Congress this spring.

Part of the cost increase is owing to work that the unitary kill vehicle program must now address, Hicks told a small audience Aug. 3 at the Army & Navy Club during a luncheon hosted by the George C. Marshall Institute. Also, since the earlier estimate was formed, the U.S. and Japan ironed out the workshare, which accounts for some of the cost adjustment.

The United States is leading the kill vehicle design, so that additional cost will be provided by Washington, Hicks says.

The SM-3 Block IIA is designed to provide more velocity and range, allowing more defended area per Aegis ship (which carries the missiles) and a better chance to intercept targets early in their ascent phase.

Hicks also said that a November failure of an SM-3 Block IA (the 13.5-inch diameter version fielded Aug. 3) during a flight-test was attributable to poor adherence to processes on Raytheon’s assembly line in Tucson, Ariz.

This was isolated to that missile, and it was the result of perturbations to the build process encountered when shifting from development to production operations.

During the November test, a Japanese Aegis-equipped ship fired the interceptor and it flew “perfectly,” Hicks said. In the endgame, a failure of the divert and attitude control system on the unitary kill vehicle led to a miss.

The July 30 demonstration using a U.S. ship “restored confidence” for the Japanese that the miss last fall was an isolated incident, he says (Aerospace DAILY, Aug. 3).

Photo: DoD