Testing problems have led the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to shift the focus of next month's ground-based midcourse ballistic missile defense system (GBMDS) test to radar integration rather than an intercept, according to MDA chief U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering.

Obering, who has appeared twice on Capitol Hill in recent days, told separate audiences that the GBMDS program would be back "on track" with intercept tests late this year when the second of two system tests planned for 2008 occurs.

A faulty telemetry card in the GBMDS kill vehicle is to blame, Obering said, and needs to be repaired across the system. Nevertheless, MDA needed to test integrating several radars "in line," including the Sea Based X-Band (SBX) Radar, an upgraded early warning radar at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., and Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Long Range Surveillance and Track capability -- so the July target test will focus on system-wide tracking. The telemetry card is used for system testing purposes, not performance.

GBMDS testing has come under greater Washington scrutiny this year. The last intercept occurred in late September 2007. Boeing and MDA representatives have declared in recent months that the upcoming tests are expected to include more elaborate decoy and countermeasure scenarios.

"The SBX was still gaining maturity and we didn't have the confidence to include it in the fire-control loop," said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems. Meanwhile, Obering said on the Hill that MDA is interested in pursuing a test-bed capability in Europe to provide more convenient testing to European allies.

Obering said he believes Iran will have the ability to reach Europe with a long-range ballistic missile within "one to two years at most." Missile defense capability "takes a while to build," he said. "That's why we're starting now in the European theater, because [the threat] is unpredictable."

MDA runs all its tests at the Pacific Missile Test Range in Hawaii. But participating European nations are forced to do a near-circumnavigation of the globe to reach the Hawaii base. "There are launch facilities in Europe that could be used," Obering said. "There are ranges over the Atlantic that can be used. The U.K. and France and others are positioned to do just that."

Integration between NATO's command and control center at The Hague, Netherlands, and the U.S.'s system in Colorado Springs, Colo., was tested at the beginning of June, Obering said. "We demonstrated we can share information," he said. "As NATO builds out its sensors, we can take their information and put it into our system and vice versa."