Free Republic

Currently, America's enemies, including China, North Korea, and Iran, are developing ballistic missiles of increasing range and accuracy and deploying them in growing quantities. Some worry that Iran's leaders are not rational and may not be deterrable with nuclear weapons, and that consequently, they will use nuclear weapons first. Some people are worried that nuclear weapons may fall into the hands of similarly intractable terrorists. What is the solution? Is it disarmament? A first strike against Iran? No. The solution is missile defense. Certainly, all possible options (including multilateral negotiations, direct talks, sanctions, cyber-sabotage, economic sabotage, and, as a last...

A pair of low Earth-orbiting demonstration satellites built by Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems for the first time on March 16 detected and tracked a ballistic missile launch through all phases of flight, a Northrop Grumman official said March 22. So-called birth-to-death tracking of a ballistic missile launch had never been done before from space -- and is the most significant achievement to date for the Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) spacecraft, said Doug Young, Northrop Grumman’s vice president of missile defense and warning programs. “It’s the Holy Grail for missile defense,” Young said during a media briefing here. [Top...

Raytheon Company and Aerojet, a GenCorp company, completed a kinetic warhead system integration test for Standard Missile-3 Block IB. The test verified the ability of the warhead to detect, track and intercept a moving ballistic missile target in a zero-gravity environment. During the test, a fully operational, flight-weight kinetic warhead operated on an air-bearing test stand and performed in a high-altitude chamber at Aerojet’s Sacramento, Calif., facility. The kinetic warhead’s seeker tracked a simulated target while the guidance computer sent information to the new Throttleable Divert and Attitude Control System. Once the TDACS received the information, the system fired its...

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,...

On 27 January 2011, NATO’s first ever theatre ballistic missile defence (TBMD) capability has been handed over to NATO’s military commanders. The handover took place at the NATO Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) in Uedem, Germany, in the presence of NATO Deputy Secretary General, Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero, and civil and military authorities from NATO and host nation Germany. The NATO Combined Air Operations Centre demonstrated how this interim capability allows NATO commanders, for the first time ever, to do limited ballistic missile defence planning and exchange information with national ballistic missile defence assets. “The handover of this interim capability marks...

The U.S. Navy has successfully completed a tracking exercise using the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system during Atlantic Trident 2011, which runs through Jan. 25. The guided missile cruiser USS Monterey and destroyers USS Ramage and USS Gonzalez tracked the short-range ballistic missile target launched from NASA’s Wallops (Va.) Flight Facility, the service said Jan. 21. The missile fell harmlessly into the Atlantic Ocean. Monterey and Ramage took turns tracking and simulating engagement of the target while Gonzalez, a guided-missile destroyer, tracked the target, the Navy says. All three ships tracked the missile, and Monterey and Ramage provided simulated...

The IDF’s "Magic Wand" (Sharvit Kesamim) system for intercepting intermediate-range rockets was successfully tested last week, the BaMachane military magazine reports in its latest issue. The tests took place in southern Israel last week and were conducted by the Defense Ministry and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems under the attack conditions that Israel expects. At the end of the experiments it was estimated that the system will become operational within several years. Magic Wand is intended to deal with a wide range of threats, and is essentially designed to fill a gap between the Iron Dome system for short-range missiles, such...

Historically, the Russian Duma acts quickly to ratify international treaties that the country's leaders have signed. In the case of international treaties with the U.S., the process is short and takes place only after U.S. ratification. In an interview with a Soviet ambassador, I was once told that although the process entails several steps, it is pro forma once the treaty is signed by both parties and ratified by the U.S. Congress. The SALT II Treaty, signed by Presidents Carter and Brezhnev in 1979, was never ratified by either party. On Jan. 3, 1980, President Carter requested the Senate majority...

China's Challenge: As tensions elevate on the Korean peninsula, Pyongyang's patron deploys a weapon designed to sink the very ships we are sending to protect an ally. This does not bode well. The prospects that the Korean War, which ended in only an interminable armistice, may resume has become an increasingly real possibility in recent months. That its patron, China, without which North Korea would collapse of its own rot, now has deployed a missile designed to target and sink U.S. carrier battle groups adds a new and disturbing element to any confrontation in the region. Admiral Robert Willard, commander...

Congress wants the U.S. Navy to submit a report by March 31 to show how the service plans to incorporate its ship-based ballistic missile defense requirements with its force structure needs, according to the recently passed defense authorization legislation. The report should include : • An analysis of whether the requirement for sea-based missile defense can be accommodated by upgrading Aegis ships that exist as of the date of the report or by procuring additional combatant surface vessels. • A discussion of whether such sea-based missile defense will require increasing the overall number of combatant surface vessels beyond the requirement...

New generations of enemy missiles, and a willingness to use them, could put air bases under siege like never before. Operating from air bases under threat of missile attack may become one of the most important keys to projecting US airpower in the years ahead. For all its expeditionary experience, it has been decades since the Air Force has so intently focused on this problem. Now, top leadership is again taking it seriously. "The attack against the naval base at Pearl Harbor was recorded in history as a day which will live in infamy," said Air Force Chief of Staff...

Eurosam, the consortium producing SAMP-T is currently competing against U.S, Russian and Chinese bidders for a Turkish national missile defense project expected to be worth $2 billion. Turkey is seeking to establish a national missile defense that will be separate from the NATO missile defense shield launched by the European alliance in Lisbon last week. Apart from SAMP/T from Eurosam, Turkey is also considering the Patriot PAC-3 from Lockheed Martin, the Russia’s S-400 built by the Russian missile consortium Almaz, and Chinese FD-2000. Turkey considers fielding four sites, the first to be established in Istanbul and Ankara, with two other...

Turkey said it would seek a leading role in a North Atlantic Treaty Organization missile-defense shield if it is to agree to host the system's radars, ratcheting up its conditions days before a key alliance meeting. Turkey would demand that NATO assign a Turkish commander to oversee the shield, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday. "Especially if this is to be placed on our soil, [command] definitely should be given to us—otherwise it is not possible to accept," Mr. Erdogan told journalists at Istanbul's Ataturk airport on Monday, according to Anadolu Ajansi, Turkey's state-funded news agency

late October, a Japanese Kongo class destroyer shot down a ballistic missile off Hawaii, using its Aegis anti-missile system. That makes three successful Aegis tests for Japan's Aegis equipped destroyers, out of four attempts. Overall, Aegis has been successful in 85 percent of its test firings. Currently, the U.S. Navy has 20 ships with the Aegis anti-missile system. Within three years, the navy will have 27 such ships. But in the meantime, the Aegis ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile)s are in high demand by U.S. commanders, seeking some protection from hostile missiles in their area of operation. Japan has six Aegis ABM...

Northrop Grumman is highlighting its deep experience on early intercept of ballistic missile threats to compete for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's (MDA) next-generation ballistic missile interceptor currently planned for fielding in 2020. The company announced that it has submitted a proposal for the Next Generation Aegis Missile's (NGAM) concept definition and program planning phase set to get underway in 2011. The new interceptor will be designed to provide early intercept capability against some short range ballistic missiles, all medium range ballistic missiles, all intermediate range ballistic missiles and non-advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles.

After months of deliberations, the IDF has decided to store the Iron Dome anti-rocket system at an air force base in the center of the country and to deploy it only in cases of extreme rocket fire from either the Gaza Strip or southern Lebanon, senior military sources said on Sunday. The decision was made ahead of the planned announcement that Iron Dome had reached “initial operational capability,” initially scheduled for this month. On Sunday, top IDF officers told The Jerusalem Post that the initial operational capability would be postponed until the first quarter of 2011. The delay, the officers...

A Nato missile shield project that singles out Iran as a threat will be unacceptable to Turkey, President Abdullah Gul said in an interview broadcast Monday. “Nato is a defence organisation. A defence system is being developed against anyone in the world who has ballistic missiles and does not belong to Nato,” Gul said. “Mentioning one country, Iran… is wrong and will not happen. A particular country will not be targeted…We will definitely not accept that,” he said in an interview with the BBC’s Turkish service, aired on Turkish television. Nato and the United States want to set up a...

You read the story back in September, that Northrop Grumman's AAQ-47 distributed aperture system (DAS) for the F-35 tracked SpaceX's first Falcon 9 booster launch during a test flight on the company's BAC One-Eleven testbed. The feat was hailed as showing the 360-deg, multi-camera IR sensor's potential for use in missile defense. Now you can judge for yourself, as Northrop has released video from the June flight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZrvAFRhQZc The blurb with the release says: "The video generated by DAS during the flight test has been magnified 10 times to allow clearer viewing of the rocket. Unlike other sensors, DAS detects...

Israel's military has begun constructing a third battery of long-range, high-altitude Arrow anti-missile interceptors near Tel Aviv to boost defenses against Iranian ballistic missiles. The planned deployment, and a scramble to develop and install other systems to counter short- and medium-range missiles and rockets, underlines the Jewish state's growing fears that its cities and towns face a missile bombardment of unprecedented scale and ferocity. The existing batteries of Arrow-2 interceptors, jointly produced by state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries and the Boeing Co., are deployed at an air force base in southern Israel and another near the city of Hadera in the...

As space becomes more important to military operations, the flimsiness of the laws and conventions that govern space operations is more apparent. It’s not so much that the structure has become weaker as that technological and industrial developments have exposed its failings. Recent years have seen a satellite shoot-down demonstration by China in January 2007, followed a year later by the U.S. shoot-down of the malfunctioning USA 193 spacecraft. There have also been reported incidents of deliberate non-kinetic interference with U.S. spacecraft. Analyst Dean Cheng of the Heritage Foundation, speaking at a symposium on deterrence in Omaha, Neb., noted that...