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Iran increased its presence in space on Wednesday with the successful launch of a new satellite. Israel is concerned that Iran’s space program is cover for the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that could one day carry nuclear warheads. Iran's Arabic language al-Alam television reported that a satellite called Rasad 1 – “Observation” in Farsi – was launched aboard an improved satellite launch vehicle and will be used for transmitting images and weather forecasts. The Rasad 1 is the second satellite Iran has launched into space. In February 2009, Iran launched the Omid – “Hope” in Farsi - satellite...

Reports are swirling around that the People’s Liberation Army Navy has successfully tested Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles. If so, this achievement would represent an important advance in China’s strategic capabilities. Norman Polmar, the respected naval and intelligence author. mentioned this at a presentation Wednesday evening while discussing his new book, Project Azorian. Since then, we’ve been trying to get more details. Polmar says in an email that the missile test submarine is a Soviet-built Project 629/Golf diesel-electric submarine. The only public mention of this so far (in English) comes in a South Korean newspaper, the Chosun Ibo. This is what...

NATO has tweaked and tested its air defense systems to provide coordinated sensor (mainly radar) and control capabilities to support anti-missile missiles. The United States and several other nations have anti-aircraft missile systems that can also knock down ballistic missiles (mainly short range ones.) Now, the NATO air defense system can have additional anti-missile systems added, which the entire system able to coordinate defense against missile attack. The ultimate goal is to install American anti-missile systems capable of stopping longer range ballistic missiles, like those from Iran. This is expected to happen before the end of the decade, or sooner,...

Just a week after President Bashar Assad of Syria assured a top State Department official his government was not sending sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah, the Obama administration lodged a confidential protest accusing Syria of doing precisely what it had denied doing. .“In our meetings last week it was stated that Syria is not transferring any ‘new’ missiles to Lebanese Hizballah,’’ noted a cable sent by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in February, using an alternative spelling for the militant group. “We are aware, however, of current Syrian efforts to supply Hizballah with ballistic missiles. I must stress that this...

Secret American intelligence assessments have concluded that Iran has obtained a cache of advanced missiles, based on a Russian design, that are much more powerful than anything Washington has publicly conceded that Tehran has in its arsenal, diplomatic cables show. Iran obtained 19 of the missiles from North Korea, according to a cable dated Feb. 24 of this year. The cable is a detailed, highly classified account of a meeting between top Russian officials and an American delegation led by Vann H. Van Diepen, an official with the State Department’s nonproliferation division who, as a national intelligence officer several years...

A report by U.N. experts saying North Korea is exporting banned nuclear and missile technology to Iran, Syria and Myanmar has been sent to the Security Council after China dropped its objections, U.N. diplomats said Wednesday. The findings by the seven-member panel monitoring the implementation of sanctions against North Korea were first reported by The Associated Press in May. The panel's report was submitted to the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against Pyongyang in early May but China, a close ally of North Korea, blocked its transmission to the full 15-member council, diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because...

Over the past 15 months, Air Force officials have built from scratch a model new command that will sustain and modernize U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile wings and the nuclear-capable bomber fleet, said the general who leads the new command. "Some people have likened that to trying to build an airplane while actually having to fly it," Lt. Gen. Frank G. Klotz told a group of defense reporters here Nov. 9. "And at times, it has seemed like that to us."

North Korea is trying to develop small nuclear weapons that can be delivered by missiles or aircraft, South Korea's defence minister said Tuesday. Kim Tae-Young told lawmakers the North is "constantly seeking to make its nuclear weapons smaller" for possible future delivery by ballistic missiles or bombers. Kim said the North is also believed to have 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of bomb-making plutonium, slightly less than previous estimates by the United States. He said it is "quite possible" that Pyongyang is also building nuclear weapons through uranium enrichment in addition to its plutonium operation. "The more you test the weapons,...

In a June 27 interview on ABC's "This Week," CIA Director Leon Panetta warned that it could be a mere two years before Iran is able to threaten other states with nuclear warheads mounted on ballistic missiles. When discussing the new U.S. sanctions against Iran recently signed into law by President Barack Obama, Mr. Panetta said, "Will it deter them from their ambitions with regards to nuclear capability? Probably not." Three months ago the Defense Intelligence Agency reported that by 2015 Iran, with help from North Korea or Russia, could field an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the...

A state investigation commission has recommended the continuation of tests on the troubled Bulava ballistic missile following a probe into the most recent test failure, a first deputy defense minister said on Wednesday. Only 5 of the 12 Bulava launches have been officially reported as successful and late last month the commission sent the government the results of its investigation into the latest failure: a launch from the Dmitry Donskoy cruiser in the White Sea in early December 2009. "The state commission, which had been set up to investigate the failed launches of the Bulava, completed its work in June...

North Korea is continuing its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs in the Middle East, according to a new UN report. The report for the UN Security Council stated that Pyongyang was intensifying exports of goods and technology for weapons of mass destruction programs in at least two Middle East countries. "It has continued to provide missiles, components, and technology to certain countries including Iran and Syria and has provided assistance for a nuclear program in Syria, including the design and construction of a thermal reactor at Dair Alzour," the report by the seven-member panel said. The 47-page report, distributed...

The United Arab Emirates expects to finalize a $7 billion contract to buy Lockheed Martin's high-altitude missile defense system in the next few months, officials of the U.S. defense giant say. The deal would mark the first time that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system has been sold to a foreign state and underlines Washington's efforts to establish a Persian Gulf-wide shield against Iranian ballistic missiles among U.S. allies in the region. These states, including oil-rich Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, are within easy missile range by Iran, lying as they do across the gulf, and...

Japan’s government may have lost a prime minister, but it has gained a stellar reputation for political theater. “Someone had to lose face,” says a veteran U.S. analyst of Japan’s defense programs. “The prime minister had to go against the popular [desire to get the Marines out of Okinawa]. He went with the U.S., [in a reversal of a campaign promise] and then he had to resign.” Part of the reason for Yukio Hatoyama’s about-face was his realization that the U.S. military is building up an air-launched missile defense capability in Okinawa with the introduction of additional F-22s and F-15s...

The United States has agreed to notify other nations before it launches most ballistic missile tests or satellites, in a measure that builds on a landmark arms agreement with Russia and is meant to encourage Moscow to reciprocate. The American decision was contained in a confidential note made available Thursday to The Associated Press and confirmed by three diplomats familiar with the issue. The move is less far-reaching — or binding — than the treaty signed last month by the U.S. and Russian presidents that outlines cuts in both nations' massive nuclear arsenals. But it is significant in reflecting Washington's...

NATO report said Iran's ballistic missile and nuclear programs constituted a major threat to the security of the Western alliance.The report, issued on May 17, warned that Teheran could launch an attack on NATO allies, including those in Europe. "Defending against the threat of a possible ballistic missile attack from Iran has given birth to what has become, for NATO, an essential military mission," the report, authored by a group led by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, said. The report, which outlined NATO strategy, envisioned an Iranian attack on Europe by 2020. NATO contains a principle known as...

The International Institute for Strategic Studies has just published a new study on Iran's missile programme. Here are some of the main conclusions. * The Iranian government has diverted enormous resources to its ballistic missile programme and now surpasses North Korea in its capacity to produce missile components. Iran may soon establish a production line for making liquid-fuel engines, "if it has not done so already". *The solid-fuel Sajjil-2 missiles, with a 2,000 km range, first tested a year ago, may be a "hedge" after engineers realised that any future Iranian nuclear weapon would weigh over 1,000 kg, and any...

Lebanese terror group Hezbollah is reported to have received over a hundred M600 ballistic missiles from Syria. This weapon is a copy of the Iranian Fateh which, in turn, is a copy of the Chinese DF-11A (which had a range of 400 kilometers). The M600 is a 8.86 meter (27.5 foot), 3.5 ton rocket with a half ton warhead. Range is about 250 kilometers. This might account for the reports, late last year, that Syria had provided Hezbollah with SCUD missiles. Both the M600 and SCUD are ballistic missiles, but the M600 is a more modern design. SCUD was developed...

As Hezbollah builds up its rocket arsenal, Israel has asked Washington to help pay for more Iron Dome anti-missile batteries to shield the Jewish state. The Jerusalem Post reports that the Israeli Defense Ministry wants to buy more than a dozen batteries of the system designed to counter short-range missiles fired by the Iranian-backed Lebanese guerrillas and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The ministry had allocated $250 million for the development of the system, the bottom layer of a planned three-tier missile defense shield, and the purchase of two batteries. Each Iron Dome battery costs around $25 million,...

Russian long range ballistic missiles for S-400 Triumph surface-to-air missile systems will go into serial production in the autumn, a leading missile manufacturer said on Friday. Earlier media reports said the S-400 missile system was incomplete as long range ballistic missiles, among others, had not been adopted for it. "On December 26, 2009 the preliminary tests were finished and the missile was put forward for state tests," Kommersant daily quoted the general director of Almaz-Antei, Igor Ashurbeili, as saying. "In the third quarter of 2010 we should finish them, along with combat duty launches, and then put it [the missile]...

National Security: An unclassified Defense Department report says an Iranian missile could strike the U.S. by 2015. If only we were working as hard to defend ourselves as they are to destroy us. In any discussion of the Iranian nuclear threat, the assumption is always that Tehran's target is Israel. Iran's quite mad president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has pledged to wipe Israel off the map as part of his grand scheme to usher in the age of the 12th Imam. Tehran may have a bigger fish that it wants to fry, namely us. "With sufficient foreign assistance, Iran could probably develop...

Mideast: Israeli officials charge Syria with transferring ballistic missiles to the control of Iran's puppet militia, Hezbollah. It seems that another attempt to woo and appease a hostile power is not working. Last November we commented on reports in the Arab media in the Persian Gulf that Syria, apparently at the request of Iran, had turned about 300 long-range ballistic missiles over to Hezbollah control in Syrian territory. Hezbollah personnel were being trained to operate the Scuds. On Tuesday, Israeli President Shimon Peres confirmed these reports, publicly charging Syrian President Bashar Assad's government with transferring Scud missiles to the control...

Arms Deal: President Obama signs away U.S. nuclear security and gives the Russians a veto over whether we can defend ourselves. Our nuclear umbrella is in tatters as another piece of paper proclaims peace in our time. Completing a process of disarmament and appeasement that manifested itself in the dismantling and defunding of U.S. military power that began with his inauguration, President Obama signed a new strategic arms limitation treaty with a grinning and very happy Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday in the Czech capital. How fitting this document was signed in Prague, which isn't far from Munich where...

SNIPPET: "President Barack Obama has nominated an anti-missile defense adviser who may soon receive congressional approval — and put Americans in danger. Russia and China, two countries with nuclear weapons and effective long range ballistic missiles, have helped Iran develop its missile program. Other countries that range from the hostile to the unreliable — for example, North Korea, Syria and Pakistan — also have ballistic missile programs. The global picture grows incresingly bleak. The more ballistic missiles change hands between states, the more likely they are to fall — or be placed — into the hands of terrorists. This is...

A new missile was installed in a silo at Fort Greely last month, the 22nd interceptor at the Missile Defense Agency site outside Delta Junction. Ralph Scott, the spokesman for Alaska Missile Defense, said the latest installation is part of an effort to steadily add missiles at the site. The Defense Department has plans to install 26 missiles at Fort Greely, with the process to be completed by October. Fort Greely is one of two sites in the U.S. with deployed interceptor missiles, according to the Missile Defense Agency Web site, joining three missiles at Vandenberg Air Force Base in...

Romania is holding talks with Washington to deploy about 20 interceptor missiles as part of a U.S. missile shield, Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi said on Feb. 25. Earlier this month, the Balkan country's top defence body approved a U.S. proposal to include Romania in a system it said aimed at providing defence against attack by ballistic missile or mid-range rockets. The move angered Russia, eastern Europe's former Cold War master. "The talks will probably take a year and a half. They concern deploying 20 interceptor devices at different locations in Romania," Baconschi told a news conference in Sofia after...

Chinese officials were quick to respond to the recent Indian success in getting their Agni III ballistic missile into active service. This came about after the fourth test of the fifty ton, two stage, solid fuel missile. Agni III has a range of 3,500 kilometers and was built to reach targets in China. Chinese officials pointed out that India was, with the Agni III, still at least a decade behind China in the long range ballistic missiles department. The Chinese introduced the DF-21 in 1999. This missile has a range of over 1,800 kilometers and can haul a 300 kiloton...

In an unexpected announcement, the president of Romania said Thursday his country would host missile interceptors as part of a new U.S. defense shield. President Traian Basescu said the Supreme Defense Council, Romania's top military and security body, had agreed to such a plan after a request by Washington. "Terrestrial interceptors will be placed on Romania's territory as part of the anti-missile system," Basescu was quoted as saying by Radio Free Europe. "According to the calendar agreed with the American side, the components located on Romania's territory will become operational in 2015." He said the missile defense system would "protect...

A detailed database of offensive ballistic missiles throughout the world. Does not show number each country has but does show type and status.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) plans to conduct a flight test of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system Jan. 31 and hopes to execute the first-ever intercept attempt by the Airborne Laser soon after. The goal of the GMD test, expected between 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. EDT, will be to achieve an intercept against a new target, the Lockheed Martin LV-2, according to Rick Lehner, an MDA spokesman. This will also be the first flight of this target type, an intermediate-range ballistic missile that will deploy countermeasures during the test. Last fall, program officials said this would be...

The Kuwait Air Defense Forces successfully test fired Raytheon Company's Patriot Air and Missile Defense System against tactical ballistic missiles. The test firings were held last month at the Udairi Range in Kuwait in conjunction with other Kuwait Air Defense and Land Forces elements during a joint exercise. The test firings used a Kuwait Patriot Configuration-2 Plus fire unit with Guidance Enhanced Missiles as the interceptors, which are operated and maintained by Kuwait Air Defense brigade troops. The Patriot system successfully engaged and destroyed two Patriot-as-a-Target missiles, as well as three foreign Multiple Launch Rocket System-type targets, both configurations emulating...

China has followed a different path in developing strategic weapons. It hasn't. Although the technology was available from Russia, China has, instead, concentrated on creating more accurate, and cheaper, shorter range weapons. This appears to be in recognition of the fact that a war involving nuclear armed ICBMs would be a losing proposition, with no winners. This would be especially true against the United States. In effect, China has dropped out that arms race. With only a few dozen ICBMs, none of which can reach all of the United States, China sees most of the long range ballistic missiles it...

The Kuwait Air Defense Forces successfully test fired Raytheon Company's Patriot Air and Missile Defense System against tactical ballistic missiles. The test firings were held last month at the Udairi Range in Kuwait in conjunction with other Kuwait Air Defense and Land Forces elements during a joint exercise. The test firings used a Kuwait Patriot Configuration-2 Plus fire unit with Guidance Enhanced Missiles as the interceptors, which are operated and maintained by Kuwait Air Defense brigade troops. The Patriot system successfully engaged and destroyed two Patriot-as-a-Target missiles, as well as three foreign Multiple Launch Rocket System-type targets, both configurations emulating...

Eight months after the U.S. Missile Defense Agency announced a renewed interest in technologies for “early intercept” of ballistic missiles, plans are beginning to take shape with a focus on the use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for ballistic missile target tracking. Requirements are not yet firm for this capability, but several architecture studies will provide data on how the agency will proceed and where it plans to put its funding in the forthcoming budgets. Early intercept (once called boost-phase or ascent-phase intercept) has been desirable for at least two reasons: •Intercept during the threat missile’s boost allows for it...

Iran recently conducted another successful test of its long range (2,000+ kilometers) solid fuel ballistic missile (the Sejil II). Apparently, Iran plans to build hundreds of Sejil IIs, and even longer range missiles, over the next six years. There are apparently also plans to build up the supply of mobile launchers for many of these, to make them even more difficult for anyone to spot, and destroy. Solid fuel missiles can be launched without preparation. This is critical, as the liquid fueled missiles take hours to prepare for launch, and spy satellites pass over Iran frequently enough to spot this....

The U.S. Air Force is asking industry to explore options for quick delivery of a space-based missile warning system, a move which is likely connected to reports that the service's newest ballistic missile warning satellite is failing in orbit. A broad sources sought notice was issued Nov. 24, and a more specific and classified request for information is expected Dec. 1. This flurry of activity is likely a response to concerns of a space-based missile warning gap, according to industry officials. The 23rd Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite, launched into orbit last November, has drifted from its original position in...

Iran is preparing to launch its second indigenous communications satellite aboard a Safir-2 (Ambassador) booster rocket, an event that will test the country's ballistic missile capabilities. And, if it's successful, it could impact significantly on U.S.-led negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions by demonstrating the Iranians' growing mastery of missile technology. Satellite launch vehicles such as the two-stage Safir-2, believed to be a modified Shehab-3 intermediate-range ballistic missile, are generally considered to have a potential application as an intercontinental ballistic missile. Ten months ago Iran successfully launched the Omid 1 (Hope) satellite into orbit atop a 72-foot Safir from...

The Pentagon has missed the deadline set by the 2001 Nuclear Posture Review for the retirement of the W62 nuclear warhead. Retirement of the warhead, which arms a portion of the 450 U.S. Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, was scheduled for completion in Fiscal Year 2009, which ended on September 30th. But the Department of Defense has been unable to confirm the warhead has been retired, saying instead earlier today: “The retirement of the W62 is progressing toward completion.” The 2001 Nuclear Posture Review decided that, “the W62 will be retired by the end of Fiscal Year 2009.” The schedule...

National Security: On the eve of a visit by China's No. 2 ranking military officer, the Obama administration loosens export controls on technology that will benefit Chinese missile development. It's deja vu all over again. The Pentagon has announced that Chinese Gen. Xu Caihou will visit the United States and meet with Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Oct. 26. Xu is vice chairman of the People's Liberation Army Central Military Commission. While here, Xu will visit American military installations around the U.S., including the U.S. Pacific Command. Perhaps Xu will bring with him a note of thanks for the administration's...

•Iran is vigorously pursuing several missile and space programs at an almost feverish pace with impressive achievements. The Iranians have upgraded their ballistic missiles to become satellite launchers. To orbit a satellite is a highly sophisticated endeavor. It requires proficiency in stage separation and advanced guidance and control systems to insert the satellite into a stable, desired trajectory. They took the Shahab, extended it a bit, added a new lightweight second stage, and now they have the Safir space launch vehicle. The very capability to build a two-stage satellite launcher, rather than the usual three-stage rockets for space-lift vehicles, is...

SNIPPET: "Baker Spring, a national security research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, specializes in assessing the threat of ballistic missile strikes from Third-World countries and other U.S. national-security issues. On Thursday, Feb. 19, I called him at his office in Washington, D.C., to talk about general defense issues and the status of the ballistic missile defense installations that the United States wants to place in Poland and the Czech Republic to protect Western Europe from missile strikes from countries like Iran:" SNIPPET: "I’m at least as much concerned about the configuration of Congress regarding defense and national security issues as...

North Korean missile engineers during a secret visit to Syria in mid-November discussed loading chemical warheads on ballistic missiles, the Sankei Shimbun reports from Washington. Quoting an unnamed source familiar with the political situation in the Middle East, the Japanese daily said cooperation in chemical weapons was evidence of close collaboration in the development of weapons of mass destruction between the two countries. The source claimed North Korean ground-to-ground missile engineers are helping Syria install chemical warheads on missiles. He added the North Korea-Syria discussions were apparently aimed at resuming missile tests after an explosion occurred during a test on...

The spread of long-range ballistic missiles took a step forward on May 7 with India's successful flight test of its Agni-III missile that can carry a nuclear warhead as far as Beijing. But the difference between this and other missile developments is that India's missiles — like those of the United States, Britain, France and Israel — are not used to threaten others and instead help deter potential aggressors. With nuclear missile-armed neighbors like China, Russia and Pakistan, India needs an effective deterrent. But for years New Delhi concentrated on developing tactical missiles to deter Pakistan, which India fought three...

/begin my translation N. Korea: Indication of another missile test (Kyodo News) U.S. "spotted training activities at a base near Pyongyang" According to Apr. 13 dispatch of Kyodo News, U.S. military intelligence has picked up lots of movements in a recent few days near a missile launch base at Shinori located to the N. West of Pyongyang. It reported that U.S. spy satellite has been watching over the N. Korean movements, which also spotted their training activities at the base. U.S. military has not determined what these activities are for, but some suspect that N. Korea is preparing for...

WASHINGTON - Borrowing a theme from the presidential contest, Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday that the possibility of a 3 a.m. emergency call to the White House is all the more reason for the next commander in chief to follow through on President Bush's plans for a national missile defense. "It's plain to see that the world around us gives ample reason to continue working on missile defense," Cheney told the conservative Heritage Foundation at a dinner recognizing the 25th anniversary of President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, a proposed network of rockets capable of shooting down incoming intercontinental ballistic...

China Accelerating Ballistic Missile Tests By Craig Covault/AviationWeek.com Secret new U. S. intelligence about China proves the Chinese are accelerating the test of new medium and long range ballistic missiles, Aviation Week & Space Technology will report in its April 9 issue. China is also demonstrating a wide range of new tactics with those missiles, Aviation Week will report. The new Chinese missile development could affect Taiwan and U. S. strategy toward China, especially if it were ever to attack Taiwan, the magazine reports. The Chinese tests indicate that China is gaining a much more powerful ability to militarily deter...

Emerging powers such as Iran, North Korea, and their neighbors who don’t want to be left out, will possess weapons that are less sophisticated, less accurate, less adaptable to different delivery systems than ours. Yet theirs will be many times more powerful. Why? Because the world believes the new nuclear powers have no qualms about employing their weapons, while the world knows that we won’t. A weapon that will be used is always more powerful than one that won’t. The United States employed two nuclear weapons to end the war against Japan–6 August 1945 at Hiroshima and 9 August 1945...

Military operations: Iran carries out shootings of ballistic missiles TEHERAN (Iran) - Iran carried out its first shootings of ballistic missiles Shahab-3 with a load with fragmentation at the beginning of the started operations of scale Thursday morning, brought back Iranian television Al-Alam. "Of the Shahab missiles, with a load with fragmentation, able to have a range of 2.000 km, were drawn from the desert located in approximately of Qom", city located at 120 km in the south of Teheran, brought back television Al-Alam. the General Yahya Rahim Safavi, the commander of the guards of the revolution, the ideological...

On the Fourth of July, North Korea's Kim Jong Il tested a series of ballistic missiles. Two days later, when questioned about the test, President Bush acknowledged that America's missile defenses were "modest and new." That they are new is understandable, since only in the last year has America begun to field missile defenses. The modest part, however, is of greater concern, since they are likely to remain modest by design throughout the administration's tenure.

the problem is not confined to the worrying implications of North Korea's spasm of seven ballistic missile test launches (six successful, one a dud) on July Fourth. Neither should it be obscured by the relatively unsophisticated, but still lethal, missile volleys Hezbollah has rained down on population centers in Israel, and their repercussions, that have temporarily driven the North Korean danger from our front pages. http://peace-and-freedom.blogspot.com/

WASHINGTON (AP) - A convicted British smuggler has been charged with illegally attempting to ship an experimental aircraft and electrical equipment to Iran, according to a federal indictment unsealed Friday. The five-count indictment accuses Ali Asghar Manzarpour, 43, of exporting the single-engine Berkut Model 360 plane, filters, coil strip metal and electrical parts from the United States to Iran between 2000 and 2004. Trade with Iran - either direct or indirect - is prohibited without obtaining proper U.S. licenses or permission. Manzarpour, of Brighton, England, was sentenced in 1998 to nine months in a British prison for illegally trying to...