Klaus Riedel Returns to MEADS International in Executive Vice President Role
ORLANDO/MUNICH/ROME, 12/08/2008 --
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Riedel has extensive executive management experience on the MEADS program. He served as the Executive Vice President and then President of MI from 2001 to 2004, and returned to LFK in Munich, Germany, to become Chairman of the Board of Directors in accordance with the MI industrial agreement.
Riedel's military and business experience has been focused on air and missile defense systems, antitank systems and electronic warfare. In the armament office of the German Air Force, he oversaw construction of the main operating base for the NATO AWACS Ground Environment Integration Segment program during his military career. Later, at EADS, he was Program Manager for a number of successful antitank programs, Vice President of Antitank Systems, member of the board of LFK and Vice President of Air Defence Systems.
In returning to MI, he will take on expanded responsibility for the day-to-day program and technical management of the MEADS program. He will focus on execution of the Design and Development program within MEADS International where his experience will be of significant value as MI moves toward a successful Critical Design Review in 2010.
Riedel succeeds Dr. Axel Widera, who became Executive Vice President in 2004 and helped to see the program into the current Design and Development Phase, through a successful Preliminary Design Review in 2007 and into the current Critical Design Review phase. Dr. Widera will retire but retain close ties to MEADS International.
MI President Jim Cravens noted, The cooperation of LFK, MBDA Italia, and Lockheed Martin continues to work at the highest level for the success of the MEADS program. We are especially fortunate to have Klaus Riedel and his proven leadership experience on the MEADS program as we drive toward completion of the next-generation air and missile defense system the nations need to protect our Warfighters from 21st century threats.
MEADS is a mobile Air and Missile Defense System that will incorporate the hit-to-kill PAC-3 MSE Missile in a system that includes 360-degree surveillance and fire control sensors, netted-distributed battle management/communication centers and high-firepower launchers. The system will combine superior battlefield protection with extensive flexibility, allowing it to protect maneuver forces and to provide selected critical assets for homeland defense against tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft.
MEADS will provide capabilities beyond any other fielded or planned air and missile defense system. It will be easily deployed to a theater of operations and once there, will keep pace with fast-moving maneuver forces. When completed, MEADS will provide an open architecture for 21st century air and missile defense system-of-system integration capabilities that allow operational mission-tailoring for homeland defense or defense of maneuver forces. MEADS will also provide greater firepower with less manpower than current systems, producing dramatic operation and support cost savings.
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, MEADS International's participating companies are MBDA in Italy, 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 as partners in the NATO Medium Extended Air Defense System Management Organization (NAMEADSMO). Its program management agency NAMEADSMA is located in Huntsville, Alabama.
