U.S. Offers More Cash for Israeli 'Star Wars' Missile-Shield Project

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) intends to award a sole-source award enabling a U.S. think-tank affiliate to continue its systems engineering & integration efforts for Israel's version of the "Star Wars" missile shield concept. Under the three-year, $16 million contract, Wales. Ltd. -- a subcontractor for the National Institute for Public Policy (NIPP) -- will provide "studies and analysis" for what is known as the Israeli Middle-East Theater Defense Architecture Study and Development Program. Specifically, Wales, Ltd. will identify, evaluate, and rank "alternative means of improving the Israeli Missile Defense System architecture," according to a Special Notice dated Feb. 16 that The Peacock Report located via a routine search of the FedBizOpps contractor database.

The contract, which MDA anticipates it will award to Wales, Ltd. on or around Nov. 1, 2007, is a follow-on measure to existing U.S.-funded technical support of the project. For instance, in 2003 MDA had modified an earlier Wales Ltd. contract for the Israeli defense endeavor, extending that contractual arrangement from its initial five and a half "period of performance" to seven years with options, while also elevating the approximate value of a contract award dated July 2001 from $8.5 million to $12.5 million.

The studies and analyses slated to be conducted under that contract were similar to the current "alternative means" of improving Israel's missile defense capabilities, but additionally sought to provide "risk reduction and alternative technologies for U.S. ballistic missile defense programs as well as phenomenology and kill assessment data."

Wales, Ltd. in 2002 separately received a "Forward Launch Missile Threat" assessment contract, which involved:

the preparation of a report and briefing on, but not limited to: ship or submarine launched, forward based or transported ballistic missile threats and defense from the Israeli perspective to MDA, with an estimated period of performance of five months.

Although the 2001 document is the earliest available FedBizOpps notice of Wales' involvement in the project, that document likewise indicates that the new contract is simply a "follow on effort" to then-Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) contract # HQ0006-93-C-0015. BMDO is the predecessor organization to MDA.