MEADS Partners Eye Poland as Savior
The program's nine-year development is set to end this year, with no production order from the U.S., Germany or Italy.
The Meads includes Lockheed Martin’s PAC-3 MSE development of the Patriot missile, but the tri-national program has not gained production funding. (Photo: Lockheed Martin)
The Meads includes Lockheed Martin’s PAC-3 MSE development of the Patriot missile, but the tri-national program has not gained production funding. (Photo: Lockheed Martin)

The tri-national Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) remains in limbo, with the $3.4 billion nine-year development program scheduled to conclude this year and no production order in sight from the U.S., Germany or Italy. But at a briefing last week during the ILA Berlin airshow, program officials said that Meads meets Poland’s stated air and missile defense (AMD) requirement. The Meads International industrial consortium, which currently comprises Lockheed Martin and MBDA’s German and Italian companies, is offering to make Poland an equal partner.