Beyond Patriot? The Multinational MEADS Air Defense Program

MEADS: air view

The Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) program aimed to replace Patriot missiles in the United States, the older Hawk system in Germany, and Italy’s even older Nike Hercules missiles. MEADS will be designed to kill enemy aircraft, cruise missiles and UAVs within its reach, while providing next-generation point defense capabilities against ballistic missiles. MBDA’s SAMP/T project would be its main competitor, but MEADS aims to offer improved mobility and wider compatibility with other air defense systems, in order to create a linchpin for its customers’ next-generation air defense arrays.

The German government finally gave their clearance in April 2005, and in June 2005 MEADS International (MI) formally signed a contract worth approximately $3.4 billion to design and develop the tri-national MEADS system. In February 2011, however, events began to signal the likely end of the program. This DID FOCUS Article covers that program, and has been converted into a free-to-view article.

Rapid Fire April 1, 2013: China Not Investing in Ports Abroad for Mil Purposes

• To “speculation” that China’s recent $10B investment package in Tanzania that includes port infrastructure in Bagamoyo may also have a military purpose, the official Chinese response is: of course not!. The reported claim that the port will handle 20 million containers a year sounds too large by an order of magnitude, even if Tanzania could in theory serve as a hub for many landlocked countries. 20 million TEUs would put Bagamoyo in the top 5 worldwide [PDF] and would make it the biggest container port outside of Asia, way ahead of Rotterdam or Los Angeles. A more reasonable 2M TEUs would match Durban’s volume in South Africa. But they do plan to make the port ready for very large container ships. So will China use these new facilities as a port of call for its naval vessels? Of course they will.

• It is well known that China is putting pressure on its neighbors over territorial disputes. But old claims are resurfacing elsewhere in Southeast Asia as well.