U.S. senators are aiming to eliminate funding for a missile defense program being developed by Lockheed Martin Corp. in collaboration with Italy and Germany. Senator Mark Begich, Democrat of Alaska, and at least six other Democratic and Republican members of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, will try to strike the Pentagon’s funding request for the Medium Extended Air Defense System, or Meads.
“We proposed to eliminate Meads funding,” as part of the internal panel negotiations for the 2012 defense authorization bill, which sets military policy and spending targets for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, Begich said in a short interview. The full Senate Armed Services Committee will consider his provision during deliberations this week, he said.
The $4.2 billion development program is managed from Orlando, Florida, by Meads International LLC, a joint venture of Lockheed, Lfk-Lenkflugkorpersysteme Gmbh of Germany and MBDA of Italy. MBDA, the world’s second-largest missile maker, is jointly owned by BAE Systems Plc, European Aeronautic, Defence and Space Co. and Finmeccanica SpA.
The Pentagon in February said it would terminate Meads when the current contract ends in 2013. The Pentagon requested $406.6 million for Meads in 2012.
The Senate Armed Services panel on readiness led by Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill, the only subcommittee to deliberate in open forum, has proposed about $3.5 billion in savings by freezing Defense Department spending on service contracts at 2010 levels, eliminating military construction projects, and reducing operations and maintenance funding for the Air Force.
