IDEX 2009 :UAE buy of THAAD missile seen in 18 months

A $6.9 billion purchase of the Theater High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) system by the United Arab Emirates will probably take around 18 months now that the U.S. Congress has cleared a sale of the antimissile weapon, Lockheed Martin’s Denis Cavin vice president of international air and missile defense said Feb. 23 at the IDEX arms show.The normal process for getting a letter of authorization (LOA) for a sale takes around 18 months, Cavin said on the sidelines of a press conference. It could be quicker or longer but that was the time it generally took, he said.

“We see no obstacle to meeting the timeline the UAE has asked us to meet,” he said.The baseline THAAD system has been largely completed, although tests were still continuing. Cavin said. That meant there would be no scope for the UAE to take part in R&D on the present baseline product.

But a spiral development and prospects of technology insertion opened the possibility of the UAE taking part in future R&D work and to adapt the missile to local requirements, he said. That had happened with the F-16 Block 60 combat aircraft bought by the UAE air force.But for the UAE to participate in any R&D activity, the baseline product had to be on the ground here, he said.

A UAE official said now congressional approval had been granted, there would be detailed negotiations on terms and conditions of the purchase agreement, aimed at allowing the UAE access to the R&D program, required to develop its defense technological capabilities.The U.S. government is extremely cautious on releasing sensitive defense technology, and although some transfer might be granted, it was unlikely all would be released to the UAE, a U.S. executive said.

European company MBDA is keen to develop an extended air defense system based on a planned Block 2 version of the Aster 30 medium range missile, which would be comparable to the THAAD system. Lockheed Martin executives, however, believe an extended range Aster would need to change to a kinetic, hit to kill technology to be able to destroy missile warheads carrying bacterial, chemical or other toxic materials, rather than conventional explosive payloads. The UAE signed a contract in December 2008 with the U.S. government to buy the PAC-3 version of the Patriot air defense missile.

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