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The development schedule for a new U.S.-Israeli missile interceptor system is overly ambitious, and defense authorities likely will have to implement a backup plan if countries like Iran acquire a nuclear-tipped missile before the end of the next decade, according to defense experts. Advanced sensor and propulsion capabilities envisioned for the Arrow-3 interceptor likely will take significantly longer to develop than the five or six years estimated by Boeing Co., particularly given the program’s funding level, the experts said. “Look at any system that is developed — it takes 10 years from concept to deployment and there’s not much [funding]...

Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems was awarded a $46 million contract modification from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to continue development of an infrared sensor intended for a missile warning system that may succeed the over-budget and behind-schedule Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) now in development. The Air Force several years ago began planning for a so-called third-generation missile warning system even as it continued to fall behind on the development of SBIRS, a program dogged by technical troubles. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Sunnyvale, Calif., is the prime contractor for the SBIRS program, which consists of dedicated missile...

The U.S. Air Force has hired Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems to study the possibility of integrating additional Missile Defense Agency (MDA) sensors into the U.S. Space Surveillance Network that tracks orbiting satellites, a Raytheon official said Oct. 28. The Tewksbury, Mass.-based company was awarded a $3 million contract from Air Force Space Command for a program called the Enterprise Sensing Prototype Architecture for Space Situational Awareness (ESP-SSA), Joe Chapa, Raytheon’s technical director for national theater security programs, said in an interview. The Air Force’s Space Surveillance Network employs a host of optical telescopes and radars around the world. The telescopes...

Japanese naval forces successfully shot down a medium-range missile off Hawaii in a test of Tokyo's missile defense weaponry, the US military said on Wednesday. A Japanese destroyer detected, tracked and knocked out the missile in mid-flight with an SM-3 interceptor rocket, the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said in a statement. The missile was launched on Tuesday at 6:00 pm Hawaii time (0400 GMT) at a missile range site off Kauai in Hawaii and at 6:04, an SM-3 interceptor was fired in response, the MDA said. "Approximately three minutes later, the SM-3 successfully intercepted the target approximately 100 miles...

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked Japan last week to export a new type of ship-based missile interceptor under joint development by Tokyo and Washington to third countries, presumably European, sources close to Japan-U.S. relations said. Gates' request could lead to a further relaxation of Japan's decades-long arms embargo and spark a chorus of opposition from pacifist elements in the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and one of its coalition partners, the Social Democratic Party. Gates made the request concerning Standard Missile-3 Block 2A missiles during talks with Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa on Wednesday, the sources said. The SM-3 Block...

The U.S. Army has formed its second THAAD anti-ballistic missile (ABM) battery. The first battery was formed last year, and will be ready for combat next year. Next, the army will form two more THAAD batteries over the next three years. Three years ago, there was a successful test of THAAD (a SCUD type target was destroyed in flight) using a crew of soldiers for the first time, and not manufacturer technicians, to operate the system. Each THAAD battery has 24 missiles, three launchers and a fire control communications system. This includes an X-Band radar. The gear for each battery...

Note: The following text is a quote: American Forces Press Service Gates Finds Broad Support for New Missile Defense Approach By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, Oct. 23, 2009 – NATO defense ministers are expressing broad support for the new U.S. approach to missile defense in Europe and the opportunity it may offer to make Russia a partner in the effort, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today. Speaking to reporters during a NATO defense ministers conference here, Gates said he’s hearing “quite broad support for the new approach,” as well as “interest in extending our hand...

The U.S. Army has activated its second Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery during a ceremony at Fort Bliss, Texas. THAAD is a defensive weapon system developed by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, a joint service organization within the Department of Defense. The ceremony marked the activation of A Battery/2nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command. The battery's equipment will consist of THAAD interceptors, launchers, a fire control and communications unit and radar. The commander of the new unit is Capt. Brendan McShea. Col. Joseph DeAntona of 11th Air Defense...

BERLIN — Poland, smarting after President Obama announced last month that he would scrap Bush-era plans to deploy an antiballistic missile system in Eastern Europe, will accept an offer to host parts of a new, more mobile missile defense system, Polish officials said Tuesday. The plan for so-called SM-3 missiles, first proposed in Washington last month, will be spelled out in more detail on Wednesday when Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. holds talks with leaders in Warsaw. “The elements of this new missile defense system will be based in Poland,” said Mariusz Handzlik, the chief foreign policy adviser to...

If only the world matched President Obama’s rosy image of it. Perhaps then pre-emptive concessions to other nations, in the hope of prompting reciprocation, might make sense. Alas, the world doesn’t work that way. And nothing demonstrates this more than Moscow’s increasingly problematic position on Iran, despite the White House’s “goodwill.” This sorry lesson began last month, when the president unilaterally scrapped plans to deploy an Eastern European missile-defense shield meant to take out incoming Iranian missiles. The decision broke a Bush administration pledge to US allies in Poland and the Czech Republic. But Obama officials spun it as a...

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...

Israel and the US are in talks regarding the possibility that America will leave several Patriot 3 missile defense systems behind, following a joint missile defense exercise that will begin next week, defense officials said Monday. The Juniper Cobra exercise will begin next week in southern Israel, where US and Israeli forces will run simulations on various threat scenarios involving missile attacks against Israel. Ahead of the exercise, some 15 US Navy ships have arrived in Israel, in addition to about a dozen transport planes that brought equipment to air force bases in the Negev. This year's drill is being...

The U.S. government, encouraged by the high success rate (83 percent) of U.S. Navy Aegis equipped ships using SM-3 missiles to shoot down ballistic missiles, has decided to expand the number of SM-3 equipped ships. Just this year, the navy completed equipping 18 ships with the Aegis anti-missile system, and that number may soon more than triple. This is part of a larger trend. Last year, the navy cancelled its expensive new DDG-1000 class of destroyers, partly because these ships were built to support amphibious and coastal operations, and did not have a radar that could easily be converted to...

(10-01) 21:19 PDT Washington -- Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher today defended President Obama's new plan for missile defenses in Europe, saying it provides more protection to the United States and its allies from potential Iranian attacks and does not abandon previous security commitments in the region. Tauscher, a former seven-term Democratic member of the House from Walnut Creek, told the House Armed Services Committee that Obama's plan is better adapted to the current state of the Iranian threat. New intelligence shows that Iran is developing short- and medium-range missiles faster than expected and long-range, intercontinental ballistic missiles more slowly,...

Saudi Arabia is weighing buying an advanced Russian missile system to shore up its defence against a potentially nuclear Iran, Gulf analysts and diplomats said. They said Moscow and Riyadh are close to sealing a deal on a multi-billion-dollar weapons package that could include Russia's advanced S-400 missile defence system. It is the newest version of the S-300 long-range surface to air missile system that Moscow has been in discussion for several years to sell to Iran, which denies Western charges of aiming to become a nuclear power. But heavy Western and Israeli pressure and a possibly more lucrative deal...

A critical space-based capability was added to America's ballistic missile defenses Sept. 25 when two U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) Demonstrator satellites built by Northrop Grumman were launched aboard a Delta II rocket. "This demonstration will show the inherent advantages space sensors bring to persistent missile tracking and engagement," said Gabe Watson, vice president and STSS program manager for Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector. "Space-based sensors will augment existing radar to enable missile tracking through all phases of flight from boost through intercept." The United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket, with the tandem-stacked STSS...

The United States should find a way to collaborate with Russia in establishment of missile defenses, U.S. President Barack Obama said yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 29). "It is important for us to reach out to Russia and explore ways in which the missile defense configurations that we envision could potentially lead to further collaboration," Obama said after meeting with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. "We want to improve generally not only U.S.-Russian relations, but also NATO-Russian relations, while making absolutely clear that our commitments to all of our allies in NATO is sacrosanct," the president added, according to Agence...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Ever since President Ronald Reagan proposed building a ballistic missile shield in 1983 to prevent a doomsday scenario, the idea has been dogged by an unanswered question: Will it work? The prime target during the Reagan era was Russian missiles. A scaled-down defensive system recently proposed by the Obama administration would aim to shoot down warheads from Iran, which has heightened concerns by building a clandestine uranium enrichment plant and test firing missiles this week with a range of up to 1,200 miles. But even as the U.S. prepares to meet on Thursday with Iranian officials in...

2640 16th Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20009 phone: (202) 234 3800 - fax: (202) 328-6271 - telex: 089 480 polmision wsh email: embpol@dgs.dgsys.com Dear Mr. Ambassador: Dzień dobry. The Polish people have been great allies of the United States. We appreciate your sacrifices in the War on Terror and war in Iraq. We wanted to let you know that a great number of Americans oppose our president and his decision to turn his back on what was promised to you in good faith - a missile shield. We are working hard to get him to change his mind as well...

Today Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev told students at Pittsburgh University that he did have input on the president's decision. What's important is Barack Obama listened to my position. Perhaps it was part of the basis for his decision. We are learning to listen to each other. This is a change from the previous administration. I think these are bold, courageous decisions, to change decisions of previous administrations concerning foreign policy. This was a complex decision. I tried to put myself in his shoes. It would not have been easy for me.

Several U.S. senators have blasted President Barack Obama's decision to change U.S. missile defense policy in Europe, accusing the president of "abandoning" U.S. allies there. Senior Pentagon officials and some other senators defended the new strategy at an Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday, saying the new plan is the best way to deal directly with the nuclear threat from Iran. President Obama surprised the world last Thursday when he announced plans to cancel a missile defense system in Europe proposed by the Bush administration. The Bush-era program would have placed ground-based interceptors in Poland and a radar station in the...

Czechs are used to betrayal by their Western allies. It was at Munich in 1938 that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sealed their doom in exchange for a piece of paper promising "peace in our time." The fact that this further gutting of missile defense came on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland on Sept. 17, 1939, is an eerie coincidence. "Just after midnight I was informed in a telephone call by President Barack Obama that (his) administration had decided to pull out from the planned missile defense shield installations" in the Czech Republic and Poland, the...

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...

Just when those who live in a fact-based world are ready to decide that Washington is incapable of rational thought, the government comes through with a wise decision. The Obama administration's cancellation of the program to deploy a missile-defense system in Europe is just such an intelligent move. This is in sharp contrast to the current debate on healthcare reform, which has reached a surreal level and is reason for despair. The insurance industry, drug companies and other corporate vultures have teamed up with right-wing extremists who have used their usual mix of xenophobia, racism and paranoia to prevent a...

Iran on Monday welcomed Washington's decision to cancel plans to deploy an anti-ballistic missile system in Eastern Europe. "The Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes any act that causes a reduction in the conventional arms race," Hassan Qashqavi, spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, was quoted as saying by Iranian PressTV news agency. According to the report, Qahqavi rejected the claim that the system was meant to face an Iranian missile threat, calling it a baseless political claim. "Such analyses have no realistic or evidential basis, for, from the beginning, adopting the claim of a missile threat from the Islamic Republic...

It's good news that President Obama has kicked back the Pentagon's "timid" proposals for a new nuclear posture review in favour of a radical rewrite (Barack Obama ready to slash US nuclear arsenal, 21 September). Breaking out of the "more of the same" approach is key to making progress towards abolition. It was disappointing, then, to read David Miliband's comments, pushing attention off on to Iran and North Korea, as usual (New nuclear resolve, 21 September). Perhaps this isn't surprising when you consider that the UK's nuclear policy remains the replacement of Trident – a cold war system with no...

ZURICH - Russia's top general said on Monday that plans to deploy missiles in an enclave next to Poland had not been shelved, despite a decision by the United States to rethink plans for missile defense in Europe. But a former Russian diplomatic negotiator indicated he thought the deployments in Kaliningrad region, bordering Poland, unlikely to go ahead. Alternative U.S. proposals for sea-based defenses appeared less likely to raise Kremlin objections. President Barack Obama's decision to scrap a land-based missile defense system has been welcomed by Russia, which had threatened to deploy short-range Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad if the United...

As President Obama described his new policy on missile defense against Iran in Europe, I felt reassured when he promised that scrapping the Bush plan would actually strengthen America’s security. Then I quickly remembered Obama also promised his health care overhaul wouldn’t add a dime to the deficit. Yikes. Run for your life. The moment captured for me what is the greatest mystery about our young president. Why does he continue to squander the public trust he worked so hard to build and that he will need for the many battles to come? The central problem is his relentless push...

Poland and the Czech Republic, which only shed Moscow's yoke 20 years ago, had hoped that the missile shield would provide tangible, if symbolic, evidence of the United States' commitment to their interests and the defence of the region. Now deprived of that, many in Central Europe fear that Russia's influence in the region will go unchecked. This has rekindled latent fears across Central Europe that its security has been sacrificed at the altar of great power politics.

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.

US President Barack Obama denied that "paranoid" objections from Russia influenced his decision to abandon plans by the former Bush administration to site a missile defence system in Eastern Europe. "Russia had always been paranoid about this, but George [W] Bush was right, this wasn't a threat to them," Mr Obama said in an interview on CBS show Face the Nation, days before he is set to meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the United Nations. "This program will not be a threat to them. So my task here was not to negotiate with the Russians," Mr Obama said, responding...

Scrapping of U.S. missile defense plans hands big victory to Russia's new czar. Was it only April? There was President Barack Obama, speaking (as is his wont) in Prague, about the Iranian nuclear program and ballistic missile capability, and saluting America's plucky allies: "The Czech Republic and Poland have been courageous in agreeing to host a defense against these missiles," he declared. "As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven." On Thursday, the administration scrapped its missile defense plans for Eastern Europe. The "courageous" Czechs and...

Apparently, even the Poles know what's happening here............I just received this missive (unsolicited) from Michael Wisniewski, director of the Europa 21 Foundation. The English is a bit awkward, but his message is crystal clear. I have not corrected it -- it remains unedited. Did America betray us? Or it was just Obama View from Poland It was the worst what American government was able to do. This decision was announced on 17th September, when Poland was commemorating the 70th anniversary of soviet invasion. Day, when Soviet Union allied with nazis and stabbed our country in the back. This was effect...

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you so much. Thank you for this wonderful welcome. Thank you to the people of Prague. Thank you to the people of the Czech Republic. (Applause.) Today, I'm proud to stand here with you in the middle of this great city, in the center of Europe. (Applause.) And, to paraphrase one of my predecessors, I am also proud to be the man who brought Michelle Obama to Prague. (Applause.) To Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, to all the dignitaries who are here, thank you for your extraordinary hospitality. And to the people of the Czech Republic, thank...

For the Czech prime minister Jan Fischer, the news came in a call hastily placed by President Barack Obama, shortly after midnight on Thursday in Prague. In Warsaw, his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk initially declined to answer the phone from the White House - as he guessed the purpose, from the unusual timing, and wanted to prepare a response. Mr Obama last week unveiled the most dramatic national security reversal of his presidency by scrapping his predecessor George W Bush's planned anti-ballistic missile shield in eastern Europe. With this volte face, the Obama administration has brought the curtain firmly down...

President Obama’s decision to scrap the Bush Administration’s plan to base an anti-ballistic missile shield in Eastern Europe is creating political, diplomatic and financial aftershocks in Congress and the defense industry, among allies and adversaries abroad, and from small towns in Alabama to the Alaskan frontier. Here’s a look at who wins and who loses in the decision to kill the $4.5 billion plan to put land-based missile interceptors in Poland and a radar site in the Czech Republic, and replace the system with smaller, land- and sea-based SM-3 interceptors that would defend against short- and medium-range missiles. This caveat:...

Treason!   USA sold us to Russia.   ( http://www.efakt.pl/Zdrada-USA-sprzedaly-nas-Rosji,artykuly,52626,1.html ) (translation from Polish)[The end of anti-missile shield! Americans break promises. There will be neither a US base in Poland nor a radar in Czech Rep.What about our security now?! We've been left on the thin ice.] The strategic ally? The solid rock of our national security? The end of illusions. United States, which could always rely on us, turned its back to us. The President of USA just threw to the garbage bin  the project of building the Anti-Missile Shield in Poland and Czech Rep. The powerful military fascility could strengthen our...

The gist of the article is this: Obama's line of reasoning may be off but the outcome is still useful from an isolationist perspective. Isolationist do not want USA in Poland or anywhere else for that matter. Then we argue that, if you have to have an ally with someone, may as well make it Russia, because at least they fight. Has a cool picture (from Wikimedia) of a bunch of Russian soldiers at Stalingrad with Poposhovs.

Obama has officially announced that the missile shield plan, which was to place 10 missile interceptors in Poland along with a radar system in the Czech Republic, will be scrapped. Speaking at the White House this morning, the American president said that the decision has come after a thorough review of the proposed missile defence plan, and a unanimous recommendation by his advisors that the plan be dropped. Instead, President Obama is looking into a more extensive system that would “enhance protection of all our NATO allies.” This system is likely to use smaller missiles, and may be located in...

On Friday in the New York Times, above the fold, right side, a three-deck headline: Obama Reshapes A Missile Shield to Blunt Tehran Bush Plan is Scrapped Shorter-Range Rockets Become Focus of the System in Europe

OBAMA ABANDONS OUR ALLIES This Morning, In “Move Likely To Cheer Moscow And Roil The Security Debate In Europe,” Obama “Told East European States He Is Backing Away From Plans For An Anti-Missile Shield There.” (Peter Spiegel, "U.S. Shelves Nuclear-Missile Shield," The Wall Street Journal, 9/17/09; Jana Mlcochova and Gabriela Baczynska, "U.S. Backs Away From Missile Shield In Europe," Reuters, 9/17/09) Today Is 70th Anniversary Of Soviet Invasion Of Poland. “For Poland, the timing of the announcement is particularly sensitive. Thursday marked the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland following a pact between Moscow and Nazi Germany,...

Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright spoke at a forum in Omsk, Siberia. Pravda reported that her speech "surprised the audience." No wonder. The Russians in attendance must have wondered how they managed to lose the cold war: Madeleine Albright said during the meeting that America no longer had the intention of being the first nation of the world. Ms. Albright started her speech in Russian. "Hello and thank you! It's a pleasure for me to be here," she said in Russian. Albright wrote in her autobiography that she was trying to learn some Russian during the 1960s. The former...

Here is video of GOP Sen. James Inhofe today saying the decision by President Obama to scrap a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic has "pulled the rug" out from under some of our staunchest allies, and argues it leaves the United States "naked" and vulnerable to long-range missile attack from Iran for five years, from 2013-2018. Inhofe said "Iran and Russia are celebrating" Obama's decision. Obama decided to scrap a promised missile shield system already agreed to by the Bush Administration to be placed in Eastern Europe to guard against Iran and to signal determination to...

Was it only April? There was President Obama, speaking (as is his wont) in Prague, about Iran's nuclear program and ballistic missile capability, and saluting America's plucky allies: "The Czech Republic and Poland have been courageous in agreeing to host a defense against these missiles," he declared. "As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven." On Thursday, the administration scrapped its missile defense plans for Eastern Europe. The "courageous" Czechs and Poles will have to take their chances. Did the "threat from Iran" go away? Not...

Security: An Iranian mullah once said "a world without America and Zionism" was a real possibility. Our sellout of Eastern Europe and missile defense brings that dream closer to reality. It would take only one warhead."Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?" Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked at a "World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran in 2005. "But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved." He added that Iran had a strategic "war preparation plan" for what it called "the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization." A...

Strategic Defense: A new report says the United States must develop robust missile and space defenses to counter China. If you think the current economic crisis is something, imagine the effects of a nuke over Iowa.Imagine a world in which you can't get money from your bank or can't get a loan. You can't get money from your ATM even if it's within walking distance. You can't drive to one because your car won't work. No, it's not what would happen if the Congress doesn't pass a bailout bill. This is a small snapshot of what would happen if a...

I am not sure what more needs to be said about the irresponsible, yet predicable, dismantling of American national security priorities by the Obama Administration. What more can be said, really? Yesterday’s announcement that America will abandon its commitment to protect Europe and thereby appease Russian bellicosity through the dismantling of the Eastern European missile defense initiative is patently irresponsible and characteristically feckless. Yet, sadly, this is by no means, surprising. But, as I have already mentioned, what more can be said? Who cares, really? Clearly the Obama Administration could care less. The so-called “mainstream” media even less so. The...

Senator Inhofe was on Savage show tonight. He said the Star Wars missile defense for Poland and the Czech Republic were also for protection of the United States. Inhofe said there are three stages of an ICBM flight. Launch, midflight and terminal phase.

Capitol Hill in Washington continued to be engrossed in the healthcare debate and the uproar over ACORN. But those weren't the most significant news stories of the day, even if they did garner most of the attention of the media. There were two other news stories which are likely to have much more far-reaching implications for America and the Free World. First, the Obama administration announced that it was canceling plans to build missile defense installations and deploy interceptor missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic. The Obama team came prepared with a nice spin on the explanation for this...

The answer seems to be yes, at the moment. News reports out over the last few days — and one in particular that seems to indicate the International Atomic Energy Agency, under head Mohamed ElBaradei, has been withholding concrete evidence of Iranian nuclear weapons development and delivery capabilities – tell a tale of continuing Iranian determination to get a nuclear weapon. Today's reports come on the heels of yesterday's announcement by President Obama that the U.S. was stopping work on developing a land-based missile defense shield aimed at preventing its Eastern European allies (especially Poland and Czechoslovakia) from suffering a...