MEADS Medium Extended Air Defense Missile Systems surveillance radar at AUSA 2012 2610124.

Because it has no blind spots against the evolving threat and offers improved range, interoperability and mobility, MEADS improves capability to defend troops, friends and allies in critical areas around the globe.

MEADS will provide an open architecture for 21st century air and missile defense system-of-system integration capabilities that allow operational mission-tailoring.

MEADS defends up to 8 times the coverage area of other systems but uses far fewer system assets. This allows for a substantial reduction in deployed personnel and equipment, and reduces demand for airlift.

The U.S. Company Lockheed Martin Mission Systems & Sensors is responsible for the new truck-mounted surveillance radar for MEADS. The MEADS uses two radars, an X-Band fire control radar and a UHF- Band surveillance radar.

In May 2005, MEADS International signed a definitized contract valued at $2 billion plus €1.4 billion for MEADS design and development. A multinational joint venture headquartered in Orlando, FL, MI’s participating companies are MBDA Italia, Lenkflugkörpersysteme (LFK) in Germany and Lockheed Martin in the United States. Together, these companies have focused an international engineering team in Orlando to develop systems and technologies for the MEADS program, which is closely watched as a model for collaborative transatlantic development. The United States funds 58 percent of the MEADS program, and European partners Germany and Italy provide 25 percent and 17 percent respectively.