Army ready to begin construction of Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense site in Poland
WIESBADEN, Germany, 11 Feb. 2016. U.S. Army missile-defense experts are taking another step toward installing ballistic missile defense capability in Poland with announcement Wednesday of a $182.8 million contract to Amec Foster Wheeler in Alpharetta, Ga.
Officials of the European District of the Army Corps of Engineers in Wiesbaden, Germany, are asking Amec to perform site-preparation and construction work related to the European Phased Adaptive Approach Phase III Aegis Ashore land-based missile defense system to be built in Poland.
Aegis Ashore is the land-based component of the Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) system developed originally for deployment at sea aboard specially equipped U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers.
The land-based system is designed to be removable to support worldwide deployment. In addition to Aegis BMD at sea, Aegis Ashore is part of Phased Adaptive Approach (PAA) Phases II and III, according to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency in Huntsville, Ala.
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Aegis Ashore uses the same AN/SPY-1 radar; command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) systems; Vertical Launch System; computer processors; display system; power supplies; and water coolers that are used onboard the Navy's new construction Aegis BMD destroyers.
The Aegis ballistic missile defense system uses the Lockheed Martin Aegis weapon system and the Raytheon RIM-161 Standard Missile 3. Subcontractors include Boeing Defense, Space & Security; Alliant Techsystems (ATK); Honeywell; Naval Surface Warfare Center; SPAWAR Systems Center; Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL); and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory.
Amec Foster Wheeler specializes in consultancy, engineering, project management, operations and construction services, project delivery, and specialized power equipment services to the oil and gas, clean energy, environment and infrastructure, and mining industries.
Aegis Ashore is designed to defeat short-to-intermediate-range ballistic missile threats. The European Phased Adaptive Approach is designed to deal with Iranian short- and intermediate-range ballistic missile threats to U.S. assets, personnel, and allies in Europe.
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In 2018 Aegis Ashore will be installed in Poland as part of the Phased Adaptive Approach Phase III project. This deployed capability will use Aegis ballistic missile defense system 5.1 and SM-3 Block IB and IIA missiles to help defend Northern Europe from ballistic missile attacks.
Aegis Ashore also is being installed in Romania, as part of the Phased Adaptive Approach Phase II project to help defend Southern Europe. On this contract Amec Foster Wheeler will do the work in Poland and should be finished by April 2018.
For more information contact Amec Foster Wheeler online at www.amecfw.com, or the Army Corps of Engineers European District at www.nau.usace.army.mil.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
