The President of Romania, Mr. Traian Basescu, announced his willingness to negotiate terms with the United States to host a U.S. Land-based Aegis Ashore Missile Defense system last week. Basescu stated that the proposed system could be in place by 2015. The formal invitation for cooperation came directly from President Barack Obama and was initiated by Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Romania in October 2009. The potential addition of another international partner in missile defense is a welcome movement towards a global missile defense community. There are now 40 countries participating, including Romania, with the United States on missile defense.
This Romanian proposal does have serious challenges, both politically and technically, to be a sound investment of United States tax dollars and in its alignment with the President’s Missile Defense plan.
In Russia’s strongest statement yet on the deployment of U.S missile defense systems in Romania, their top military official, Gen. Nikolai Makarov, has said that plans are at threat to Russian national security. They want to include the extended missile shield in nuclear disarmament talks between the US and Russia. This could complicate negotiations that had look to be reaching a close in recent weeks.
MOSCOW — U.S. missile defense plans are a threat to Russian national security and have slowed down progress on a new arms control treaty with Washington, Russia’s top military officer said Tuesday.
Gen. Nikolai Makarov said that a revised U.S. plan to place missiles in Central Europe undermines Russia’s national defense, rejecting Obama administration promises that the plan is not directed at his country.
“We view it very negatively, because it could weaken our missile forces,” Makarov, who is the chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, said in televised remarks.
Natanz - Iran's Underground Uranium Development Site
Iran continues to enrich uranium in blatant defiance of the U.N. Security Council. The Iranian government has said that they will be stepping up their uranium enrichment levels from 3.5% to 20%. This is worrisome because although it takes 90% purity to make a nuclear bomb, the low-level enrichment of nuclear materials is the most time-consuming and difficult step in the process. 20% enrichment would mean that the Iranians are that much closer to possessing weapons grade nuclear material.
The Pentagon said on Tuesday that the United States wanted a U.N. Security Council resolution “within weeks” to tackle Iran’s nuclear program as Iran said it had begun making higher-grade nuclear fuel.
The Islamic Republic, which denies its program has military aims, announced on Sunday it would produce uranium enriched to a level of 20 percent for a Tehran research reactor making medical isotopes for cancer patients.
This followed a failure to agree terms for a proposed nuclear swap with major powers, under which Iran would send most of its low-enriched uranium abroad in return for such fuel.
A short clip from India Defense News about the Agni-III launch over the weekend. India claims to have an ICBM that rivals some of China’s weapon systems. Notice the contrast between US missile test announcements an India’s.
Iran has begun production on two lines of unmanned aircraft with attack and surveillance capabilities. More importantly they announced that they would soon deploy a missile defense system that would rival the Russian S-300. The system would be capable of taking out aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles at a range of approximately 90 miles. While on the surface this is a startling development, none of these systems are operational at this time, nor will the be in the near future. This seems to be more of the conjecture and speculative posturing by the Iranian Defense ministry.
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has launched two production lines to build unmanned aircraft with surveillance and attack capabilities, the defense minister announced Monday.
It also announced that Iran would soon deploy a missile air defense system more powerful than the advanced Russian S-300 system Tehran has ordered from Moscow in 2007 but has yet to receive.
The state television quoted Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi as saying the unmanned aircraft would be able to carry out surveillance as well as offensive tasks with high precision and a long range.
NEW DELHI — India again successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable missile Sunday that can hit targets across much of Asia and the Middle East, a defense ministry press release said.
It was the fourth test of the Agni III missile, the statement added. The first attempt in 2006 failed, but the last two tests were successful.
“The Agni III missile tested for the full range, hit the target with pinpoint accuracy and met all the mission objectives,” the press release added.
TEHRAN — Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi opened two new missile production plants on Saturday, just three days after Iran fired a rocket carrying live animals into space, state television reported.
The plants will produce a ground-to-air missile dubbed the Qaem (Rising) and a surface-to-surface missile dubbed Toofan 5 (Storm), the broadcaster said. Read the rest of this entry »
MOSCOW — Russian officials reacted coolly on Friday to the news that Romania had agreed to host American missile interceptors starting in 2015, with a top envoy saying that the announcement could directly affect Moscow’s position as negotiations to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or Start, reach their conclusion.
Dmitri O. Rogozin, Russia’s permanent representative to NATO, said the United States had not fulfilled its promise to consult Russia on developments in the missile defense system. He suggested that the interceptors could pose a threat to Russia’s security, while noting that both Romanian and American officials went out of their way to assure Moscow otherwise.
Riki Ellison, Chairman and Founder of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA), www.missiledefenseadvocacy.org has reviewed the FY2011 Missile Defense Budget released on February 1st by the Department of Defense which offers a substantial increase to the total budget for missile defense. This increase recovers close to half the amount that was cut by the President and Secretary Robert Gates a year ago. Ellison is one of the top lay experts in the world on the topic of missile defense. His comments and observations include the following:
“Early this week, President Barack Obama’s administration and the Department of Defense announced a substantial increase to the 2011 Missile Defense Budget. The amount, $9.42 billion, equals a 6.13 percent increase from the 2010 budget. This increase, $577 million, recovers close to half the amount that was cut by the President and Secretary Robert Gates a year ago. “
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