Free Republic

The first batch of United States Patriot missiles will be deployed in Poland in April, defence ministry spokesman Janusz Sejmej said Saturday, AFP reported. US troops tasked with operating the missiles will arrive at the same time, the PAP news agency quoted Sejmej as saying. The surface-to-air missiles are to be deployed in northern Poland some 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Poland's Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said last month that the choice of the site close to Kaliningrad had "no political or strategic meaning -- its good infrastructure is the only reason." Polish President Lech...

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...

Russia has serious questions over the aims of fresh US missile defence plans for Europe, the foreign ministry said Friday, in Moscow's strongest expression of concern yet over the new initiative. "We still have serious questions regarding the true purpose of the US missile system," a ministry spokesman, Andrei Nesterenko, told reporters in televised remarks. "Therefore we will continue to consistently oppose any dubious unilateral actions in relation to missile defence that can negatively affect international security." His comments were Russia's strongest statement of concern after Romania said it would hold talks with Washington on hosting US missile interceptors and...

Poland is set to host a battery of U.S. Patriot missiles and the American troops to man it from the start of April, PAP news agency said Sunday. The Defense Ministry expects the first stage of the stationing of a Patriot air-defense battery and a 100-man service team to get under way in the (northern) town of Morag at the turn of April," the agency said. The Patriots are part of a Polish-U.S. agreement signed last December to upgrade the NATO member's air defenses, following Washington's decision last September to scrap a Bush-era Missile Shield incorporating installations in Poland and...

South Korea is willing to discuss its participation in the U.S.-led regional ballistic missile defense system to deter a growing threat from North Korea, a senior defense official was quoted as saying. The U.S. Department of Defense said this month that South Korea is an important U.S. BMD partner and the two sides are discussing the missile defense cooperation in a bilateral framework. Yonhap News yesterday cited a Defense Ministry official as saying, "We are wiling to discuss our participation in a regional MD system in response to the North's missile threat." The official said defense research institutes from the...

The Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB) faces an uncertain future as both a research project and an operational system even after its 1MW-class chemical laser successfully - and historically - destroyed a ballistic missile off the California coast on 11 February. The long-awaited intercept test proved that the modified Boeing 747-400F's key technology - a chemical oxygen iodine laser (Coil) invented by US Air Force researchers in 1977 - is a lethal weapon against ballistic missiles. A week before the ballistic intercept, the ALTB shot down a Terrier Black Brant, a two-stage sounding rocket that presents faster and smaller target to...

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov on Wednesday played down Russian protests over Sofia's plans to join a United States missile shield in Europe. "This shield is not directed against threats coming from Russia. On the contrary, the threats that exist for us equally exist for our Russian friends," Mladenov told bTV television. "We have to find a way to protect us all," he added. Bulgaria said last week that it favoured new US plans for a shield in Europe to counter missile threat from Iran and the Middle East. But the announcement angered Russia, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demanding...

NATO members appear ready to approve deployment of a territorial ballistic missile defense (BMD) network in Europe, although the scope of the European contribution is uncertain. At a missile defense conference here last week, experts from both sides of the Atlantic agreed that the Phased Adaptive Approach (PAA) adopted by the Obama administration facilitates a change in the NATO view. (3AF, the French aeronautics and astronautics society, organized the event.) The alliance has studied the feasibility of transforming its Active Layered Theater BMD (ALTBMD) into a system capable of defending European territory, but has so far not embraced the concept...

The U.S. Navy awarded Lockheed Martin a $160 million follow-on contract for technical and engineering support of its land-based test facility for the Aegis Ballistic Defense (BMD) Weapon System. Known locally as the "the Cruiser in the Cornfield" for its ship-like exterior appearance, the Navy's Vice Admiral James H. Doyle Combat Systems Engineering Development Site (CSEDS) develops, integrates and delivers sophisticated computer software that allows the Aegis Weapon System to constantly evolve to meet the world's emerging threats. CSEDS incorporates highly-integrated, classified, real-time networks that connect numerous contractor and U.S. government facilities. In addition to ongoing support for CSEDS, the...

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) Airborne Laser (ABL) has successfully engaged its first ballistic missile with its powerful chemical laser, shooting it down and demonstrating the concept of using high-powered lasers to destroy such threats in their boost phase of flight. A series of flight tests included engagement of a single liquid-fueled ballistic missile and two solid-fueled Terrier Black Brant sounding rockets. Though not ballistic missiles, the rockets closely mimic a solid-fueled ballistic missile in the boost phase, the period in which ABL is expected to engage. And they offer a lower-cost alternative to launching actual short-range ballistic missile...

The U.S. and Israel have started development of an upper-stage component to Israel’s Arrow-3 missile defense architecture. Arieh Herzog, director of Israel’s missile defense program, says the main element will be a highly maneuverable exoatmospheric interceptor that zeros in on an incoming missile. The decision to add the component, which will be jointly developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Boeing, stems from a study conducted in that identified a need for it in Israel’s ballistic missile defense system. Meanwhile, given the urgent need to meet the growing ballistic missile threat from Iran, IAI is pressing ahead with the Arrow-3...

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said Friday he favoured taking part in a new US missile defence system in Europe and a US ambassador indicated that talks have already started. Neighbouring Romania has angered Russia by announcing it wants to host medium-range ballistic missile interceptors as part of a US missile defence system expected to be operational by 2015. Asked about Bulgaria's stance on the system, Borisov said: "As a NATO member, we take into consideration everything that concerns Europe's security and will undertake the respective measures." "In my view, we have to show solidarity (with US plans) but Bulgaria's...

A high-energy laser mounted on a US military aircraft has shot down a ballistic missile in the first successful test of the weapon, the US Missile Defense Agency said on Friday. The experiment -- evoking a scene out of a science fiction film -- was carried out off the central California coast at Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center at 8:44 pm Thursday Pacific time (0444 GMT), the agency said in a statement. "The Missile Defense Agency demonstrated the potential use of directed energy to defend against ballistic missiles when the Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB) successfully destroyed a boosting ballistic...

A high-level defense policy expert with ties to Washington, D.C. said the Czech Republic is in discussions with the Obama administration to host a command center for the United States' altered missile-defense plan. The official, who requested anonymity because discussions are ongoing, said, "The Czech Republic is not out of the picture." "There are strategic dialogues going on between the United States and the Czech Republic," said Jiří Beneš, a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman. "No concrete proposal has been mentioned yet." In recent days, the Obama administration's altered missile-defense plans have begun to take shape as Romanian President Traian Basescu...

The Obama administration’s proposed 2011 spending plan includes some changes to major missile defense and space programs that emphasize a focus on space situational awareness and ballistic missile tracking capabilities. The proposal also underpins the aging nuclear weapons infrastructure, while adhering to the aim of eventually scrapping nuclear forces altogether and securing so-called nuclear loose material worldwide. Few new expensive programs are being started in Fiscal 2011, and the most dramatic shift in the funding request is the termination of the joint Defense-Commerce Dept. National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (see p. 14). By contrast, the Air Force is setting...

The final installment of Missilethreat's synopsis of the 2010 BMDR will focus on the last sections of the report—dealing with international cooperation and the missile defense bureaucratic organizational structure. International Cooperation As a broad statement of intent, the report reiterates a U.S. commitment to the fielding of "robust, pragmatic, and cost-effective" regional missile defenses as well as a commitment to "international cooperation." Regional deterrence and a re-tooling of export controls will be key aspects of the future U.S. approach to deployed missile defense abroad. In Europe, NATO will dominate any missile defense processes. The expansion of missile defenses from the...

Romanian President Traian Basescu announced last week that his country would accept an US offer to base medium-range interceptor missiles (the proposed land-based version of the SM3 system) as part of the revamped missile defence plans formulated by the Obama Administration in 2009. "Romania has been officially invited by US President Barack Obama to be part of the [new] missile defence system," Basescu said after a meeting of the country's Supreme Defence Council. He stated that talks between Washington and Bucharest on the issue should start in the near future and any agreement will be submitted to Romanian parliament for...

Development and operation of an effective missile defense system depends on a sound understanding of the threat—i.e., reliable models of how foreign missile systems look and operate. The most effective threat models are derived through close interaction between defense system designers and intelligence community experts. This interaction improves the designer's understanding of the intelligence driving the system requirements and the intelligence producer's understanding of which aspects of the missile threat are most important. The utility of a threat model may not depend on more degrees of freedom or decimals of precision, but rather, on a solid grasp of general target...

Romania has agreed to base American anti-missile systems on its territory. These will probably be land based Aegis systems. So far, Aegis has achieved an 83 percent success rate during live test firings. So now everyone wants an Aegis ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) ship for protection. The Aegis system was designed to operate aboard warships (cruisers and destroyers that have been equipped with the special software that enables the AEGIS radar system to detect and track incoming ballistic missiles). However, there is also a land based version that Israel is interested in buying. The development version of AEGIS was land based,...

Homeland The report discusses in some detail the current and planned deployments of U.S. missile defense, both at home and abroad. At home, the U.S. will field a total of 30 ground-based interceptors, with 26 in Alaska at Fort Greely and four in California at Vandenberg Air Force Base. (This is a reduction from Defense's original goal of 44.) As a matter of strategy, the position from earlier in the report is reinforced: the U.S. will maintain its slight advantage over the possibility of a yet-to-materialize long-range threat from North Korea or Iran, but will not seek to address missile...