A video from 2014 enjoys an article from the same period.
An Unguided Missile to Nowhere
03/26/2014 12:50 pm ET
Updated May 26, 2014
For four years now, Congressional appropriators, the White House and the Pentagon have been locked in an on-again, off-again battle over funding for the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), a boondoggle that is already at least 10 years behind schedule, $2 billion over budget and that the Pentagon doesn’t want. It’s time to end the insanity and scrap the MEADS program — permanently.
MEADS had its inception in 1995 as a joint project by Germany, Italy and the United States, but in the nearly two decades since, both Germany and Italy have disaffirmed faith in the system.
MEADS was originally conceived as a possible replacement for the famous Patriot missile system, which the U.S. and nations around the world, including in Europe, have relied upon for decades. Unlike MEADS, however, the operational Patriot has undergone constant modifications to keep up with advances in technology; MEADS, by contrast, is very much a “paper” system, one that is primarily theoretical and, worse, that relies on the theories of two decades ago.
MEADS underwent a “proof of concept” demonstration late last year, but the circumstances were such that the process could not fairly be called a “test.” There were no other aerial targets in the area to confuse the system; there were no counter-measures employed, such as jamming. In the parlance any student could understand, this was an open-book, take-home test.
By contrast, the system MEADS was designed to replace, Patriot, has successfully undergone more than 2,500 “search-and-track” tests. More than 150 missiles have been flight-tested, and the newest iterations of the system have already passed the stringent test regimes imposed by the Army’s Test and Evaluation Command.
Almost since its inception, the MEADS system has been riddled with delays and cost overruns that have led Pentagon planners to question its utility.
By 2010, just 15 years after MEADS was conceived, an internal
Pentagon memorandum recommended its cancellation: “The system will not meet U.S. requirements or address the current and emerging threat without extensive and costly modifications,” an Army memo proclaimed.
What happened to MEADS since that memorandum is a case study in how difficult it is to kill any appropriated program, even one that everybody agrees is too expensive, won’t be delivered on time — and won’t work even when delivered.
Within months, the Pentagon decided not to field the MEADS program, and both Germany and Italy announced they would never use it and would abandon MEADS before procurement.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/meads-missile-defense-system_b_5029140