Free Republic

As Polish and American parties have agreed the site for the stationing Patriot missiles in Poland will be Morag in the northeast of the country near the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. As the Minister of National Defence Bogdan Klich said practical reasons stay behind the choice of the site for the temporary stationing of U.S. air defence batteries The location of Warmia-Mazury province was determined by good logistic and lodging conditions, Klich explained. In Morag currently station units of 20th Mechanized Brigade. “The location of missile bases in Morag will not require significant investment that would have to be made...

The Pentagon released its 2010 Ballistic Missile Defense Review Report on Monday. After initiating a shift in missile defense policy by abandoning the ground-based interceptor plan in eastern Europe last year, the Obama administration left unclear the future of its missile defense policy. The transition to a "phased-adaptive" approach in Europe was articulated, to be sure, but there was still much fleshing out to be done. We now have the first comprehensive statement about the future of missile defense policy under the Obama administration. Part 1 of missilethreat's synopsis will treat the change in policy from the Bush administration, the...

This year’s report reflects the naval capabilities projected to meet the challenges the nation faces over the next three decades of the 21st century. The structure requirements articulated in this report are based upon the 313-ship force originally set forth in the FY 2005 Naval Force Structure Assessment that was reported to Congress and referred to by the Chief of Naval Operations in his FY 2009 budget testimony, as amended by decisions made by the Secretary of Defense in the FY 2010 President’s Budget as well as decisions made during the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). As such, the battle...

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...

The Ballistic Missile Defense Review released today aligns U.S. missile defense posture with near-term regional missile threats, and sustains the ability to defend the homeland against limited long-range missile attack, said Michele Flournoy, undersecretary of defense for policy. Flournoy today described six major priorities that will shape U.S. missile defense at a Pentagon news conference. The first goes to the heart of defense and that is to defend the United States from a limited ballistic missile attack. The second is to defend against growing regional threats. A third priority is “to test new systems under realistic conditions before they’re deployed...

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is refining some advanced concepts for the SM-3 interceptor to attack intercontinental ballistic missiles. These include designs for lighter weight kill vehicles, and possibly a new propulsion system for the kill vehicle as well as the missile’s upper stage. MDA is looking at introducing liquid propulsion into the kill vehicle design, partly because the plan to move the SM-3 to land for the Aegis Ashore European defense architecture would allow the use of hypergolic propellants, which are banned for ship-based usage. “We know from past work on the EKV [Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle] that liquid propulsion...

The U.S. government announced on January 6 that it awarded the defense manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, a contract to build the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles for Taiwan. The agreement is part of an arms package that the United States agreed to sell to Taiwan in 2008 (eTaiwan news, January 7). The Indian government also recently declared that it was expanding its anti-ballistic missile system to include an anti-satellite program (ASM) (Space News, January 4). Following these announcements the People's Republic of China (PRC) announced on January 11 that it had successfully tested a "ground-based, midcourse missile interception technology." The Chinese...

Memories in New Delhi run deep about how India's relative tardiness in developing strategic offensive systems [nuclear weapons] redounded in its relegation on 'judgment day' [when the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was signed in 1968] to the formal category of non-nuclear weapons state," said Sourabh Gupta, senior research associate at Samuels International Associates in Washington, DC. "With its early support of the former US president George W Bush's ballistic missile defense program and its current drive to develop anti-ballistic missile/anti-satellite capability, New Delhi is determined not to make the same mistake twice," added Gupta. "If and when globally negotiated restraints are...

The recent Chinese missile defense test is just one of many signs that anti-ballistic missile systems are the “must have” military fashion accessory of 2010. For China the need for such weapons is obvious: the only neighbors they have who lack a real or potential short- to medium-range missile capability are Laos, Burma, and perhaps Mongolia. All of their other neighbors, especially Russia, North Korea. and India, have been building up their rocket forces at a rapid rate. For both Europe and China, any effective BMD requires space-based early warning sensors similar to the US Defense Support Program satellites based...

Days after completing a test of its Iron Dome shield, Israel says it will take years before the Jewish state's new rocket anti-missile system will be fully deployed. The warning was sounded by Defense Minister Ehud Barak who predicted, meantime, that once deployed along his country's borders with Gaza and Lebanon, the Iron Dome system will significantly reduce hostilities from militants. Developed over the last two years at a cost of $200 million by state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., the Iron Dome uses small guided missiles to destroy short-range rockets used by Hezbollah and Hamas militants. The system, which...

The U.S. Department of Defense has purchased 253 Patriot anti-aircraft and anti-missile missiles. The U.S. Army has ten Patriot anti-aircraft missile battalions. Each Patriot battalion has 12-24 launchers (3-6 batteries). Each battery is manned by about a hundred troops, and contains a radar, plus four launchers. A battery can fire two types of Patriot missile. The $3.3 million PAC 3 missile is smaller than the cheaper anti-aircraft version (PAC 2), thus a Patriot launcher can hold sixteen PAC 3 missiles, versus four PAC 2s. A PAC 2 missile weighs about a ton, a PAC 3 weighs about a third of...

A new direction for missile defense will continue to evolve in 2010, as what was once regarded as the stuff of fantasy becomes accepted as an essential component of defense and security. One trend will be the fusion of defense against aerodynamic and ballistic targets into a common network. While missiles and other weapons—such as short-range guns and lasers—are tailored for effectiveness against different targets, sensors and sensor platforms gather information on both and pass it through a battle-management system, which activates the shooters that are in the best position to engage. This trend can be seen at work in...

The second generation of Lockheed Martin's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system, BMD 4.0.1, successfully detected, tracked and conducted simulated engagements against a variety of different ballistic missile targets during a series of tracking exercises in the Pacific. The key feature of the new system is a new integrated signal processor designed to improve the system's discrimination capability to defeat sophisticated ballistic missiles and their countermeasures. During a series of four tests, the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie - upgraded with the BMD 4.0.1 Weapon System - successfully detected, tracked and guided simulated Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IBs to...

Raytheon, the world's largest missile maker, has won a $1.1 billion order from Taiwan for new Patriot missile systems. The order covers an initial ground-system hardware contract valued at $965.6 million and a $134 million contract for spares. The order, according to a statement by Raytheon, will include advances in technology, improved man-machine interface and reduced lifecycle costs. The deal has been in the making since October 2008 when the U.S. Defense Department proposed a $6.46 billion arms sale package to Taiwan, including the most advanced Patriot anti-missile system. Raytheon said the new Patriot fire units will be produced in...

Lockheed Martin missile defense systems achieved several key milestones in 2009, including five successful intercepts and numerous other major accomplishments, further solidifying Lockheed Martin as a world leader in air and missile defense. With 20 successful Aegis BMD intercepts, six successful Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) intercepts and 26 successful Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile intercepts since the inception of those programs, Lockheed Martin continues to build on its unmatched legacy as the pioneer of hit-to-kill technologies. "Lockheed Martin is proud to continue to lead ballistic missile defense efforts for the United States and allied nations," said John Holly,...

The second generation of Lockheed Martin’s [NYSE: LMT] Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system, BMD 4.0.1, successfully detected, tracked and conducted simulated engagements against a variety of different ballistic missile targets during a series of tracking exercises in the Pacific. The key feature of the new system is a new integrated signal processor designed to improve the system’s discrimination capability to defeat sophisticated ballistic missiles and their countermeasures. During a series of four tests, the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie – upgraded with the BMD 4.0.1 Weapon System – successfully detected, tracked and guided simulated Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block...

Israel is increasing the production of its Arrow anti-missile missiles. Costing over three million dollars each, and partly constructed in the United States (by Boeing), the Arrow missiles are Israel's principal defense against Syrian and Iranian ballistic missiles. Since Arrow entered service nine years ago, Only about 120 missiles have been built. Currently, Israel has about a hundred Arrows available, and would like to increase that to 150 or 200 in the next few years. More than half the nearly three billion dollar cost of developing and building Arrow has come from the United States. In addition, American firms have...

In conjunction with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), U.S. Pacific Fleet ships and crews successfully completed a series of exercises to test the second generation Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) weapon system, Aegis BMD 4.0.1. This set of four exercises, designated FTX-06 Events 1-4, involved the tracking and simulated engagements of a variety of ballistic missile targets launched over the past several months from the Kauai Test Facility, co-located on the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), Barking Sands, Kauai. The Aegis BMD system is a critical component of the nation’s overall Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). FTX-06 Event 1, conducted...

Defense: A ballistic missile launched from Alaska is shot down by an interceptor launched from California. With threats from North Korea to Iran, it's time to ignore the skeptics and fully fund missile defense.It was the most realistic and most successful missile defense test ever in a Strategic Defense Initiative that could one day save an American city from a rogue missile strike. Yet the "yeah, but" media greeted this triumph with claims the concept is still unproven. It was as if the Wright brothers had announced man's first flight, only to be greeted with cries that they hadn't built...

Vicenza, Italy. President Obama’s decision to cancel our European ground-based missile defense system will prove to be very costly and his public rationale -- changed intelligence and improved technologies -- is far from the whole truth. This is a geopolitical disaster and risks our security as well. Last year, President Bush said “Iran is pursuing technology that could be used to produce nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles of increasing range that could deliver them.” His administration successfully negotiated with Poland and the Czech Republic to install a ground-based anti-missile defense system in those countries to counter the accelerating Iranian threat.