WASHINGTON — Construction issues that have plagued the Polish Aegis Ashore missile defense site remain unresolved, but the U.S. Missile Defense Agency continues to work toward a resolution, according to the MDA director.

Earlier this year, Gen. Samuel Greaves testified during several congressional hearings that the Aegis Ashore site in Poland would not reach its initial operational capability in 2018, but instead was delayed until calendar year 2020.

He attributed the delay to the contractor in Poland hired to build the site, but also pointed at poor weather on location. Manpower and other resources were also slow to ramp up, according to Greaves.

Poland Eyes Expanded Missile Defense Amid Fear of Russia Poland’s Ministry of Defense has highlighted bolstering missile defense as one of the priorities of its ongoing military modernization in the years 2017 to 2022.

“The current construction contractor has been directed to take action to address the construction delays,” Greaves told Defense News in an emailed statement.

The contractor “remains committed to the project but has failed to meet contractually required schedule milestones for multiple reasons, including insufficient on-site management and tradecraft personnel,” Greaves said.

While some improvements have been observed, “senior Department of Defense leadership, the MDA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are engaging corporate leadership to improve contractor performance,” he added.

The Pentagon is still trying to pursue “all means available to address the contractor’s performance challenges and mitigate as best possible the impacts of construction delays on the overall effort to deliver Aegis Ashore Poland,” Greaves said.

× Fear of missing out? Sign up for the Early Bird Brief, the defense industry's most comprehensive news and information, straight to your inbox. Thanks for signing up. By giving us your email, you are opting in to the Early Bird Brief.

The delays will not impact the cost to the U.S. to build the missile defense radar site, as the project was awarded with “significant incentives” to meet the original completion date and “significant costs” if the original schedule is not met, according to Greaves.

The director added that while the construction phase has suffered, all other aspects of the project, such as the maturity of Aegis Ashore radar software, is on track. Aegis equipment is also on site and ready to go once construction has reached the stage for installation.

Capacity, interoperability still plague European missile defense The United States and its allies in Europe don’t have enough missile defense capability and still have a long way to go to tie all of the varying systems together into one networked web, according to the outgoing U.S. Army Europe commander.

The delay for the site should not be seen as a lack of commitment by the U.S. to complete of the European Phased Adaptive Approach to regional missile defense, according to Greaves.