The new Naval Support Facility in Redzikowo, Poland, will be home to the Aegis Ashore Ballistic Missile Defense System. Click to see full-size image
The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and Army Corps of Engineers are delaying payment to the British contractor constructing the facility for the Aegis Ashore.
United Kingdom-based John Wood Group PLC is the prime contractor on the construction project.
USNI News reports that the reason is given as the construction delays, which have pushed the site’s operational date back.
MDA Director Vice Adm. Jon Hill told the US Congress on March 12th that the military had stopped paying the contractor in the last two weeks, as the U.S. drives home a serious message that the project needs to get done as soon as possible so the next phase can begin – installing the Aegis Combat System.
If performance improvements aren’t made, the contract could be terminated.
In February, Hill said during a press briefing on the release of the Fiscal Year 2021 budget request that the MDA had to request $96 million in additional funds to complete the project, which was originally supposed to be certified as operational in 2018.
Hill said status updates like “92-percent complete” didn’t reveal the entire picture, and it was such that key activities to get the building operationally ready were struggling. These include heating, cooling, power, and auxiliary controls.
At the time, Hill said that by the end of February he and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Lt. General Todd Semonite would have hashed out a path forward.
The path forward was apparently stopping all payments from March 1st.
During the hearing on March 12th, Hill said “it was a tough meeting” with Semonite, partly because the Army Corps of Engineers awards firm fixed price contracts that don’t allow as much visibility into what work is being done as other contracting schemes.
“We worked very closely with the Army Corps to say, let’s do two things, and we’ve done this within the last two weeks: the Army Corps has refused to offer payment to submittals that are coming in from the company today, the construction contractor. That’s sending a message. In fact, their surety company is on site, so we know their message is being heard,” Hill said.
And second, “we have prioritized some very specific items within the contract; we’re no longer giving them the freedom to just go work on what they want to work on, that’s not predictable. So we’ve said these are the priority areas that support the Aegis Combat System install,” he continued.
“The Aegis system is boxed up in temperature-controlled boxes on site, ready to be installed, and so we’re very impatient and we’re working closely with the Army Corps to really leverage and pressurize the contractor.”
Hill further said that the contract could potentially be terminated with the contractor, if the situation doesn’t improve. The admiral made clear that the MDA and Army Corps of Engineers want to give the company one last chance to prove themselves and get the work done.
In February, Hill said at the budget briefing that the 2022 timeframe was based on current construction schedules and the anticipated timeline for installing the Aegis system and getting the U.S. Navy and U.S. European Command to accept the site and declare technical capability.
This could improve if construction picked up, since 2022 means a 4 year delay.
With just one operational Aegis Ashore site in Europe – in Romania – instead of what should have been two by now, Hill said MDA and EUCOM were compensating by accelerating upgrades to the Romania site.
One simply doesn’t know when the always-expected Russian invasion will come.
“MDA and the Corps are working closely with European Command to minimize the operational impact of the Poland site delay by accelerating the upgrade of the Aegis Ashore Romania site, operational today, to support [Standard Missile]-3 Block IIA operations, which is now complete,” he said at the hearing.
There’s also an incoming live missile test of the capability of the above-mentioned SM-3 Block IIA. The test aims to apply that missile and the Aegis Combat System to an intercontinental ballistic missile threat.
Hill said, “it’s a very important test just so that we can understand what we see in ground testing and modeling and simulation, does that realize itself in an actual flight in the most closely operationally realistic event we can do?”
Explaining the upcoming test, he said, “we’re going to launch that target – we’re calling it a simple ICBM because that was the congressional direction to do a defense of Hawaii scenario. … So we’ll launch the ICBM, it’ll fly through the field of view of the sensor coverage, and then we’ll fly that long range and we’ll have the ship mission planning putting herself in the proper position and shoot the SM-3.”
“It’s going to be very stressful on the front end of the missile because it wasn’t designed to do this, so we’re operating outside of the design space, not just for the SM-3 but also for the Aegis Combat System,” the admiral continued.
“But based on the analysis, we’re very confident we’re going to succeed in that test, which is coming up here soon.”
It should be reminded that the Aegis Ashore system can be easily repurposed to launch Tomahawk nuclear-capable missiles, and they’re just in range of Russia. The U.S. has repeatedly said that the system is purely defensive in nature and servers for deterrence.
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DoD should consider installing Russian systems.
Putin already offered hypersonic missile tech to the U.S. But they are too stubborn to take it :)
Then Iranian!
Love how the Kremlin trolls, with humour.
Russia should also sell the S-400 since the Patriots can even down a kite. The dumbass Americunts are using everything from AK-47, MI-17choppers to Russian space rockets anyway.
how many amerikans r required to install a lightbulb? marijuana and toilet paper amerikans r becoming less and less competent(examined in several books by the sociologist Richard Sennet…the best they can do is sexually assault mobile phones…—apparently few military pilots can perform in combat—they spend huge sums on trash technology then cannot afford the fuel to practice—see anti empire.com
Interesting. Especially the timing.
Isn’t Defender 2020 exercise based on ‘first strike nuclear Assault’? Bearing in mind these exercises run parallel to the main event.
Bundeswehr, cancelled the German sector of Defender 2020 and Poland will not have her ‘first strike missile defence system’ up and running, in time for Russia’s 75th Anniversary.
No doubt Russia is more than aware as to regards what the Atlantic Council led NATO has planned.
Wasn”t it back in 1991, the US Secretary of State, under Bush, was promising Gorbechev? “NATO will not move an inch into Eastern Europe. Now there are at least 13 NATO Easter. European bases and rising, together with multiple bio-weapon labs, with full US diplomatic immunity, on Russia’s borders.
So much for US sweet-talk and promises.
Sure NATO didn’t move an inch without the consent of the countries that wanted to leave the influence of the biggest shithole on this planet.
Without the consent of the nations and Sorass funding?
Weird, how Common Purpose (Integrity Initiative), NED foundations and Sorass, all popped up together.
David Bell, Head of Media Standards Committee in UK and Head of Camrdge University Press, founded Common Purpose, and why are so many UK politicians and Prime Ministers, members of Common Purpose.
His brother, the late Timothy, who was special adviser to Maggie Thatcher and so many Russian oligarchs and double agents, including the polonium tea boy, was it Litvenko and his oligarch friends? Timothy Bell, who received over $500 million, from the Pentagon, under Bush, to spin the Iraq War, via his Bell Pottinger PR Management Company.
John Major, who joined the Bush and Bin Laden family business, the Carlyle Group, together with Dick Chenie, who was the US Secretary of Defence, under Bush Senior, when his mate James Baker was making so many promises to Gorbechev? Didn’t James Baker also end up in the Carlyle Group? Not forgetting how he got the military mercenaries, into high demand positions. Came in handy when he was running Halliburton on US legislation, he devised, was it not?
John Major, who politicalise the Hong Kong Governor position, putting his good friend and Common Purpose colleague, into the job. Just before the CIA were kicked out of Hong Kong and replaced by the NED. In time for the Chinese handover.
Chris Paaten, who left Hong Kong for an EU commission and how many MEPs and Higher are bankrolled by Soros? The same Chris Patten who was Chairman of the BBC Trust, when Mark Thomson, was Director General of the BBC. In the days when Mark Thomson was protecting the reputation of BBC Golden Uncle Jimmy Saville. The reason Mark Thomson got thrown out of the BBC and transferred to run the New York Times.
Soros, made a £billion, betting against the £UK, on Black Wednesday. When the EU kicked the UK out of the ERM.
Soros, then joins Chrystia Freeland’s mother, over in Ukraine, writing up the new Ukraine Constitution. Following the fall of the Soviet Union.
Now, how many Eastern European nations, find their politicians funded by the Nazi collaborator, known as George Soros, with the NED supporting him? How many US Ambassadors, besides the likes of Anne Applebaum and Victoria Nuland, sit on the NED, Board of Directors? The Government funded NGO, that along with the USAID funded, Soros Open Policy Foundation, can be found running the regime change scripts?
Kuchma, Victor Punchuk’s father-in-law, who set up Burisma Holdings, allegedly.
Victor Punchuk, who gave the Clinton Foundation $25 million. His wife, whose Aids Foundation gave the Clinton Foundation around $3 million.
George Soros, who funded both the Rose and Orange Revolutions, in both Georgia and Ukraine.
Hilary and Bill Clinton who turned up in Ukraine in 2004.
Senator Obama, whose financial mentor was Soros. Who turned up in Ukraine in 2006. With suitcase full of $US, to persuade them to give up their domestic weapons.
Burisma Holdings, which together with Sorass Open Society Foundation, support the NATO Think Tank, Atlantic Council.
Why do so many of the babies, provided with safe passage, during Allen Dulles CIA ‘Operation Psperclip’ exercise end up in Allen Dulles created Atlantic Council.
So many kinder fuerher and brats of the Bolsheviks elite, running Allen Dulles Atlantic Council. Wasn’t Dulles assisted with sorting out the Nazi and Bol shevik passenger list for ‘Operation Paperclip’ by SS Officer Reinhard Gehlen and Earl Browder, grandfather of Integrity Initiative’Bill Browder. Persona non grata from Russia. Earl Browder, the leader of the US Communist Party, bCk in the 1930s.
Funny how the same names, all link together, where genocide and ethnic cleansing are concerned?
You really have too much time to writhe this long scrolls, unless you’re a bot
Quick to type up comment, when off the cuff and in chat mode. Hence typo errors.
Ole “Cut & Paste Hants” they use to call you back in the Old Country. LOL
Ole “Neil and Bob-Chan” they use to call you back in the Old Country. LOL
The limey gits are corrupt to the core and the dumb Pollacks could even assemble Italian Fiats properly. I once hired a Polski Fiat 124 clone in Warsaw and it was a total shitbox and made the Russian Moskvitch drive like a Porsche.
It will be aegis yet before they get it right.
Facists will give poland the big stick up de ass,their government are no better than califoricators, all hair style + manicured,no intellect,no emphathy,no true class and retarded economic reforms! See they prefer free hairstyles nice suits and manicure to look good at photos than to be real men, no wonder there are many in poland who cannot respect nocando showoffs,liars and wannabe zio flogs!
And the stupid kweers there in power think it is easy to buy f35 logistics like norway idioits,fkn lol retards!