Japan Effects

Recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor disasters in Japan have had a variable amount of impact on that country's ability to cooperate with the United States on missile defense, the head of the Missile Defense Agency told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee this morning.

When asked by subcommittee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI) regarding the effects of recent events in Japan, MDA Director Lt. Gen. Partick O'Reilly responded:

They have been outstanding partners to work with, meet every commitment and are very meticulous in their planning and it's made it very helpful for us to work together in the fashion which we have.

Regarding the tsunami and earthquake, it did not interrupt the operations of our major activity in Nagoya with MHI -- Mitsubishi Heavy Industry. Some of their subcontractors were affected. They were not stopped; it slowed down some deliveries. We do not anticipate nor does the Japanese government that this will effect the ultimate delivery of the program.

But in that regard, we do rely outside that program on some of the foundries in Japan that develop our focal plane arrays. And they have been affected by their proximity to their nuclear power plant. And we are concerned about that and we work closely with them, but that is an ongoing concern of our reliance on only one or two foundries around the world to produce these focal plane arrays that have wide application beyond just missile defense.