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China is developing sea-based anti-missile systems and plans to deploy them in the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean, according to military experts. The assessment came as Beijing announced it had carried out a successful test of its ground-based mid-course defence system on Monday. Testing of the anti-ballistic missile system that could shield China from a ballistic missile attack is part of efforts to catch up with the top nuclear nations with anti-missile technology, the United States and Russia. China previously carried out tests of the system in 2010 and 2013. Beijing is also working on a sea-based system for the Asia-Pacific...

Recent developments indicate that North Korea is on the verge of fielding a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of striking the continental United States. These recent trends—punctuated by an active test program—make North Korea the most likely ballistic missile threat facing the United States today. Countering Pyongyang’s threat requires a shift in strategy from an exclusive reliance on midcourse intercept for homeland defense to the fielding of boost-phase intercept capabilities as a part of the nation’s layered missile defense. The U.S. Navy is most able to deliver such a capability in the near future. North Korea Ups the Ante...

The Missile Defense Agency yesterday conducted an intercept test of the Standard Missile-3 Block IIA (SM-3 IIA), a relatively new interceptor designed for use in the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) program. Something appears to have gone wrong, however, and the interceptor did not destroy its target. The type or cause of failure is not yet known, nor will it likely be known for some time. The June 21 test was the fourth flight test and the second intercept attempt of the SM-3 IIA configuration. The previous intercept test in February 2017, by contrast, had been successful in intercepting a...

The German military is to buy new, more capable air defence radar systems for three F-124 frigates, paving the way for the ships to become part of NATO's broader missile defence system, a defence ministry spokesman said on Thursday. General Volker Wieker, the top military officer, decided to buy radar systems available on the market instead of opting for a new development programme or a simple replacement of the current radar systems, the spokesman said. Experts have said the new system will cost about 450 million euros and is likely to be built by France's Thales, which built the radars...

SEOUL--South Korea disclosed plans to purchase three Aegis destroyers with Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) interceptor missile capability to counter aggressive moves by rival North Korea. The costly outlay would bring South Korea closer to effectively sharing a missile defense system that is used by Japan and the United States. Its Navy already possesses three Aegis destroyers and three more have been ordered, but none is equipped with SM-3 missiles. The new plan would involve acquiring three other Aegis destroyers with SM-3 capability in the mid-2020s. The government will decide later whether to install SM-3 interceptor missiles on the new Aegis...

Australia's new air warfare destroyers could be equipped to shoot down ballistic missiles threatening the Australian mainland or deployed troops. That would require a government decision to acquire this politically controversial capability, which could then be retro-fitted to the three vessels. The 2016 Defence White Paper says the threat of missile attack on Australia is low. But more nations, such as North Korea, are acquiring ballistic and cruise missiles and that increases the risk of attack on Australian territory or on deployed forces. Most concerning, such missiles could carry nuclear or chemical warheads. The white paper says Australia and the...

As Lockheed Martin Corp. continues to outfit U.S. Navy cruisers and destroyers with its newest combat system suite, the company sees an opportunity to expand to other ships. In particular, the company would like to put its signature Aegis Combat System on the next San Antonio-class landing platform/dock, the LPD-28, currently under contract to be built by Newport News-based Huntington Ingalls Industries. “From where I sit, it just makes a lot of sense,” Jim Sheridan, Lockheed’s director of Aegis U.S. Navy programs, told me. The Aegis Combat System is the collection of radars, sonars, launch systems, and weapon control systems...

Huntington Ingalls Industries is in discussions with defense officials about potentially putting missile defense radars and laser weapons on San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks, a company executive said Jan. 13. “You can put a lot of additional weight on the ship and you can put … some modern technologies like ballistic missile defense radars that are very heavy,” Brian Cuccias, corporate vice president at HII and president of Ingalls Shipbuilding, told reporters on the sidelines of a Surface Navy Association symposium in Arlington, Virginia. “We think it’s a great idea.” The vessels, which are manufactured by the company, have design...

At the Sea-Air-Space 2014 Exposition, Huntington Ingalls Industries has on display its Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) concept ship. Based on the "Flight II" variant of the San Antonio LPD class, the BMD ship is Ingalls Industries vision of a surface platform dedicated to BMD missions. A single BMD ship could replace and accomplish ballistic missile defense missions of several Burke class destroyers allowing them to conduct their "traditional" missions. HII's BMD ship at Sea-Air-Space 2014 Speaking to Navy Recognition during Sea-Air-Space 2014, Mike Duthu (Director of LPD Program at Ingals Shipbuilding) explained the growth potential for a BMD configured LPD...

Iran, Syria, Hezbollah are turning rockets to GPS-guided projectiles with a homing sensor. Israel’s enemies are arming themselves with precision-guided heavy rockets and will inevitably come to possess GPS-guided ballistic missiles, an architect of the Israeli missile defense program warned on Wednesday. Speaking at a conference called Missile Defense: Asset or Liablity for Regional and International Stability, held at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, Dr. Uzi Rubin warned that the growing threat is strategic, not merely tactical. Rubin, who founded and directed the Defense Ministry’s Israel Missile Defense Organization, and ran the Arrow program, said...

U.S. antimissile systems have been the gold standard for decades, and American firms have sought to capitalize on that prestige as they court customers in the Pacific Rim and the Middle East. So it came as a shock that Turkey, which hosts a U.S.-made radar as part of a larger NATO missile shield — selected a Chinese company to build a national defense system. The decision, two years in the making, appears to have been based not on technical merits, but on fire sale prices and economic benefits that the Chinese were able to offer to the Turks, said Mike...

On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan delivered a speech that horrified the liberal establishment of the time: his call for a Strategic Defense Initiative. Ronald Reagan was not your typical politician. The only president born and raised in Illinois (yes, Lincoln, Grant, and Obama moved to Illinois as adults, but only Ronald Reagan grew up there), he came to politics with a heartland sensibility: do what makes sense, do what’s right; don’t worry about what the elites from the Ivy League or Foggy Bottom insist upon. Reagan came to party activism late in life, running for public office for...

British Destroyer to Participate in U.S. Missile Defense Trials Royal Navy Type 45 destroyers could join future missile intercept testing conducted by the U.S. missile defense agency (MDA), the British Ministry of Defence announced. MOD have teamed with UK industry-run Missile Defence Centre (MDC) to support the integration of Type 45 destroyers and its primary Sampson radar, as a sensor supporting ballistic missile defense networks. The Sampson radar is part of the vessels’ Sea Viper air and missile defense system. These tests will task the Sampson radar in detecting and tracking ballistic targets but will not include actual intercepts of...

Proposed US Military buildup under a conservative U.S. Administration circa 2012-2024 CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE The following plan is based on a major US economic turnaround based on sound Free Market principles geared to US interests, energy independendece, a balanced budget, stabilization of Social Security & Medicare & eliminating unessary and wasteful entitlements & entire federal agencies. It is also based,under a conservative leadership in Washington, on adopting lower corporate and individual income taxes so the revenue to the treasury expands and increases significantly which will fuel the buildup necessary to remain technologically superior by two generations...

US Wants a Stake in Israel’s Iron Dome Technology Defense lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives are demanding ‘rights to Israel’s Iron Dome Technology’ before releasing the requested $680 million to follow-on production of the Iron Dome anti-rocket weapon systems for Israel, Washington news blog The Hill reports. “The United States has invested nearly $900 million into Iron Dome work, yet it has no rights to the technology involved,” according to the subcommittee’s legislation. The House proposal should share some rights to the weapon’s proprietary technology “as is consistent with prior U.S.-Israeli missile defense cooperation,” according to the subcommittee....

Rota base: Spain readies to participate in US ‘anti-missile shield’ Spain is negotiating the inclusion and participation of its navy F-100 frigates in the US anti ballistic-missile defence system commonly known as the ‘anti-missile shield,’ that is designed to protect Allied and NATO territory. The agreement between Madrid and Washington envisages use of the Rota military base as home port for the deployment of the shield by four US Arleigh Burke class destroyers between 2013- 2015. Defence analysts have stated that Spain would be playing a key role in the naval component of the defence shield, and repositioning its foreign...

The Pentagon has mothballed a laser-equipped jumbo jet after 15 years and $5 billion worth of research to develop an airborne missile defense system. Budget cuts shot down the Airborne Laser Test Bed but some research into anti-missile lasers will continue, according to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. "We didn't have the funding to continue flying the aircraft," agency spokeswoman Debra Christman told the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/xEnw3z ). The plane, a Boeing 747 mounted with a high-energy chemical laser, has been sent into storage at Davis Monthan Air Force Base, the agency said. The base near Tucson, Ariz., serves...

Russia has threatened Norway with unspecified retaliation if Norway goes along with American suggestions that five Norwegian Nansen class frigates, equipped with the Aegis radar system, are upgraded to use the Aegis BMD (Ballistic Missile Defense) system. Norway has gotten this kind of abuse from Russia in the past, which was the main reason Norway joined NATO (as one of the founding members, in 1949). Norway does not like giving in to these threats, especially since they recently concluded 40 years of negotiations to settle a maritime border dispute with Russia. This enables both countries to proceed with oil and...

IAI signs largest ever deal Israel Aerospace Industries' $1.6 billion contract with an Asian country includes the Green Pine radar - part of the Arrow anti-ballistic missile system. 12 January 12 21:31, Yuval Azoulai Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) (TASE: ARSP.B1) has signed the second stage of a huge deal with an Asian country, which makes the deal the largest in the company's history - $1.6 billion. IAI notified the TASE on Sunday about the first stage of the deal for the supply of a range of arms system for $1.1 billion to an Asian country. It did not disclose...

Spain’s Aegis Frigates Could Join Europe’s Missile Defense Shield Lajos F. Szaszdi October 13, 2011 at 12:58 pm A week ago, the Spanish government of Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero agreed to Spain’s participation in NATO’s European missile defense system by allowing four U.S. Navy Aegis guided-missile destroyers of the Arleigh Burke class to be stationed at the naval base of Rota, in southwestern Spain. These destroyers are armed with the Standard SM-3 surface-to-air missile (SAM) designed to intercept short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. The U.S. Navy destroyers will be based in Rota beginning in 2013, along with...