Inside Defense:
The Missile Defense Agency is proposing what is effectively a new, billion-dollar radar program beginning in fiscal year 2019 to shore up sensor coverage over the Pacific to protect the nation from long-range ballistic missile threats, seeking funds to begin surveying potential sites for what is called Homeland Defense Radar-Pacific.
The HDR-P is one element of two new persistent discrimination radars for the Ballistic Missile Defense System; the other is the Home Defense Radar-Hawaii, which MDA — confusingly — previewed in its FY-18 budget request under a different name: “Pacific Radar.”
The FY-19 budget projects a combined cost for the two programs — both slated to receive initial funding in FY-19 — of $1.7 billion through FY-23.
The Hawaii-based radar was originally projected to need $445 million during the first five years of development; MDA’s FY-19 estimate for the project has climbed to $763 million. The HDR-P would cost $1 billion through FY-23, according to the budget.
