The U.S. government is exploring the possibility of having Russia supply radars or targets for use with American missile defenses, a congressman said May 12.

Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and a leading proponent of improved U.S.-Russian ties, said the U.S. Missile Defense Agency is interested in tapping Russia's "very good" expertise in building radars that could track hostile ballistic missiles. Getting access to such radars in Russia would also give the United States another angle from which to monitor Chinese or North Korean missile threats, the lawmaker said at a Capitol Hill breakfast seminar sponsored by the National Defense University Foundation.

MDA also is interested in benefiting from Russia's know-how in producing targets for missile defense tests, but Weldon said Moscow is unlikely to be satisfied with such a role. "I don't think the Russians really want to be in a position of having America constantly shoot down what they put up in space," he said.

Russia has also been mentioned as a potential participant in MDA's new Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) program, which aims to develop interceptors that could shoot down ballistic missiles in their boost phase of flight. MDA recently solicited industry suggestions for possible foreign involvement in KEI. More than 20 responses were submitted to the agency, which is evaluating those ideas (DAILY, April 14).

MDA is looking for ways to continue missile defense cooperation with Russia following the agency's recent decision to cancel the Russian-American Observation Satellite (RAMOS) program, a joint effort between the two countries to provide Russia with new early-warning satellite technology. MDA terminated RAMOS because it was concerned the program would be too expensive to complete, but the agency pledged instead to explore a "broad range" of new joint missile defense projects with Russia. Defense Department officials declined to discuss specifics.

A proposed U.S.-made Supersonic Sea Skimming Target (SSST) missile is rendered below: