LockMart Awarded Contract For Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense

The U.S. Department of Defense’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) awarded Lockheed Martin a $1 billion contract for continued development and evolution of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Weapon System.

Under the contract, Lockheed Martin’s Surface-Sea Based Missile Defense line of business, in Moorestown, N.J., will design, develop, integrate, test, deliver and install further Aegis BMD capability for the U.S. and allied navies.

“This contract will both continue the spiral development of Aegis BMD capability to meet expanding global security threats and increase the number of BMD-capable ships at sea by integrating Aegis BMD into the Aegis Modernization program,” explained Orlando Carvalho, vice president and general manager of the Lockheed Martin business completing the work.

“This further supports the increasing demand for Aegis BMD capability worldwide, especially in light of the Administration’s recent shift in policy in European Missile Defense.”

Currently, a total of 21 Aegis BMD-equipped warships – 19 in the U.S. Navy and two in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force – have the certified capability to engage ballistic missiles and perform long-range surveillance and tracking missions. The U.S. Navy is modifying two additional U.S. East Coast-based Aegis-equipped ships to perform ballistic missile defense.

The Aegis Weapon System is the world’s premier naval defense system and the sea-based element of the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). Its precision SPY-1 radar and integrated command and control system seamlessly guides the interceptor and uplinks target track information to the missile for terminal homing.

Its ability to detect, track and engage targets ranging from sea-skimming cruise missiles to ballistic missiles in space is proven. The Aegis BMD Weapon System also integrates with the BMDS, receiving track data from and providing track information to other BMDS elements.

The 92 Aegis-equipped ships currently in service around the globe have more than 950 years of at-sea operational experience and have launched more than 3,500 missiles in tests and real-world operations. In addition to the U.S., Aegis is the maritime weapon system of choice for Australia, Japan, Norway, South Korea and Spain.

Lockheed Martin is a world leader in systems integration and the development of air and missile defense systems and technologies, including the first operational hit-to-kill missile defense system, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3). It also has considerable experience in interceptor systems, kill vehicles, battle management command, control and communications, precision pointing and tracking optics, as well as radar and other sensors that enable signal processing and data fusion.

The company makes significant contributions to nearly all major U.S. Missile Defense Systems and participates in several global missile defense partnerships.

Source:

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/LockMart_Awarded_Contract_For_Aegis_Ballistic_Missile_Defense_999.html

US-Japanese SM3-Block 1A Missile Test

 

Additional Pictures of the Test:

‘David Gets Some High-Tech Help in His Battle with Goliath’

Raytheon recieved 2 contracts from Rafael worth more than $100 million to build DSWS components to develop a missile defense system called David’s Sling Weapon System (DSWS) which will be  designed to defeat short-range ballistic missiles, large-caliber rockets and cruise missiles in their terminal phase of flight. It will be a  joint program between the US Missile Defense Agency and the Israel Missile Defense Organization.

For more information: http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/

What has North Korea been up to?

With the focus on Iran and their LEU brokering, have we been keeping an eye on North Korea?  Here’s a headline from 10/26/09:

“NKorea completes launch site for larger missiles“

 FYI- Officials from South Korea have stated that this new WEST COAST site is capable of launching ICBMs and is ‘as good as finished’.   This new base, called ’Dongchang-ri’ is bigger than the Musudan-ri site on the EAST COAST where the North launched long-range missiles in 1998, 2006 and April this year.

 This is one step closer in the WRONG direction. Need I say more…..

 

For more information:

http://www.spacewar.com

Israel & U.S start ‘Juniper Cobra’ air defense tests

Israel and the United States kicked off Wednesday a major air defense exercise that will simulate a missile attack on Israel.

Code-named Juniper Cobra, the two-week exercise is the largest drill ever between the two countries.

Israeli public radio said the U.S. personnel were set to mesh ground- and ship-based missile interceptors like the Aegis, THAAD and Patriot with Israel’s Arrow II ballistic shield. Both nations have denied any connection between the air defense drill and heightened tensions over Iran’s nuclear program.

Still, Israel radio quoted an unnamed commander as saying that the exercise “served to prepare for a nuclear Iran.”

During the two-week exercise, U.S. forces will be deployed to a number of locations in Israel, within the vicinity of civilian areas. The joint exercise will simulate long-range missile attacks on Israel from Iran, Syria and Lebanon. The war drill will test the two countries’ missile defense systems, testing technology that could be used to shield Israel from a potential Iran attack.

In all, a total of 17 U.S. warships have been deployed, equipped with special radar systems capable of detecting surface-to-surface missiles for the exercise.

Israeli media reported that the drill will also include the use of X-band radar technology used to spot incoming missiles from miles away.

For more information:

http://www.spacewar.com

THAAD Activation

Israel joins US for defence drill

Israel and the US are due to begin a two-week military defence exercise, thought to be the largest of its kind in Israel’s history.

The exercise will focus on providing a joint defence against a simulated co-ordinated missile attack on Israel. Up to 2,000 joint military personnel are believed to be taking part, along with at least 15 American ships. The Israeli army said the exercise was not a “response to any world events” but had been planned for a while. It is thought that a highly sophisticated new American radar, based in the Israeli desert, will be central to the exercise.

Two-fold significance

The simulation will involve elements such as barrage of missiles fired on Israel from all points south, east and north. The BBC’s Middle East correspondent Tim Franks said many observers inside Israel believed the exercise carried a two-fold significance. This included sending a message of deterrence to any would-be attackers of Israel – whether they were in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria or Iran.

It was also possibly an attempt to reassure Israel’s people that the US took the country’s security seriously – especially at a time when the US has expressed increasing concern about Iran’s nuclear programme, although Tehran insists it is purely peaceful. Analysts say use the manoeuvres could also serve to make Israel feel more secure, and therefore encourage a return to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Last week, Turkey, one of the few Muslim countries with whom Israel has had good contacts, cancelled a joint air force exercise with Israel. Israel, Turkey and the US countries took part in a joint exercise in the Mediterranean Sea, off Haifa last year. Tim Franks said Turkish-Israeli relations have become strained this year, since Turkey heavily criticised Israel’s war in Gaza.

The exercise, which is entitled Juniper Cobra, is due to finish on 5 November.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8317919.stm

Behind Iran’s Diplomatic Snub of France

Authors: Bruce Crumley and Tony Karon

It should come as no surprise that Iran wants to shunt France out of a deal to enrich its nuclear fuel abroad. Dividing its enemies and isolating the more hawkish among them has been a hallmark of Tehran’s diplomacy, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy routinely plays the tough cop with Iran, threatening and goading its leaders and urging U.S. President Barack Obama to take a tougher line. On Tuesday, Iran struck back with a humiliating slap-down, insisting that France butt out of the deal because Tehran could not trust the nation to honor its commitments. Iranian diplomats even delayed the start of the day’s talks in Vienna on the agreement, insisting that it was unnecessary for the French to be in the room. Eventually the talks went ahead with French delegates present, but Iranian officials insisted that they would not accept France as a supplier. The New York Times reported that a face-saving compromise was being developed that would see Iran make a deal with Russia, which could separately subcontract work out to France.

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“We do not need a lot of fuel, and we do not need the presence of many countries,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said, stressing Tehran’s desire to work on the deal with the U.S. and Russia. “There is no need for France to be present,” he said, adding that Iran believes that France “is not a trustworthy party to provide fuel for Iran.”

Snubbing France while offering an agreement with the U.S. and Russia is vintage Iranian divide-and-conquer diplomacy — although this time there may be incentives for all sides to play the game. The Vienna talks are on the details of an agreement, announced at the Geneva talks on Oct. 1, under which Iran would ship much of its enriched-uranium stockpile abroad for reprocessing to fuel a medical research reactor in Tehran. Together with Iran’s agreement to submit its hitherto secret enrichment site at Qum to inspection, the deal offered an important opportunity to strengthen safeguards against Iran’s turning its growing stockpile of low-enriched uranium into bomb material. Iran also liked the deal, seeing it as tacit recognition of uranium-enrichment in Iran as an intractable fact — Tehran reiterated on Tuesday that it has no intention of halting uranium enrichment, as Western powers continue to demand, in line with U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The Vienna move may be read as Iran flexing its muscle with respect to a deal that the Obama Administration badly needs — international support for harsher sanctions remains limited as long as Iran is ready to offer some form of cooperation. But in doing so while isolating the most hard-line among the Western powers, Tehran may be offering concessions that it’s willing to give, while enjoying a personal poke at Sarkozy.

Since his election in May 2007, the French President has taken positions on Iran worthy of the most hawkish members of the Bush Administration. In July 2007, he warned that the world would have to force Tehran to abandon its nuclear program, or face a “catastrophic alternative: the Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran.” And that was just his warm-up.

Last month, while attending the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, Sarkozy appeared to mock Obama’s more temperate and generalized remarks on nuclear proliferation. Nostrils flaring, Sarkozy responded to the U.S. President’s remarks by calling Iran’s nuclear program the leading threat to international security, which three years of U.N. efforts had not diminished. “What are we going to do about it?” Sarkozy petulantly asked his American counterpart.

And in contrast to Obama’s cautious comments on Iran’s disputed election last June, Sarkozy took a lead in denouncing the regime, declaring that “the people of Iran deserve better than their current leaders.” Little wonder, then, that when the opportunity arose, Iranian officials moved to throw France off the diplomatic bus.

“Dramatically effective though it may seem at times, Sarkozy’s aggressive behavior — indeed, his very personality — ensures certain things will inevitably come back to bite him,” notes John Kent, professor in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics. “He’s a bit like [former British Prime Minister] Margaret Thatcher in the way he’ll stake out strong, antagonistic positions that over time undermine his credibility to calmly seek consensus solutions because the atmospheres he creates are more favorable to histrionics.”

Sarkozy’s trash-talking of Iran has in fact allowed Tehran to use him as a useful whipping boy, projecting toughness and defiance for a domestic audience, while at the same time keep lines of dialogue open with the U.S. And Tuesday’s diplomatic slap was more symbolic than substantial. After all, France remains a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, which gives it a seat at the main nuclear talks with Iran. (Those talks began in Geneva on Oct. 1; the Vienna session was a technical meeting on the terms of a processing deal.) Iran isn’t refusing to negotiate with France in the room but simply declining to accept it as a supplier of processed uranium.

“Despite the [Iranian] demands, our experts continue to participate in talks as they always have,” a French diplomat told TIME on Tuesday. “Tomorrow may be another story — or it might not. Who can tell with Iran?”

The Vienna talks ended inconclusively, and a further session is reportedly scheduled. But they served as a reminder that the search for a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear standoff will be protracted and perilous, and their outcome will probably be less than what the Western powers had hoped for. Even then, it may be the only game in town.

Source: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1931276,00.html

Point taken…1,500 of them

 

China now has about 1,500 short-range and cruise missiles pointed at Taiwan, with no signs that the build-up is about to stop anytime soon. 

“The number of missiles has been rising. We don’t know when it will stop increasing,” said a spokesman speaking under the condition of anonymity.

This comes just ahead of the release Tuesday of the ministry’s annual report, which will include an updated estimate of China’s military capabilities.

For more information;

http://www.spacewar.com

Welcome to the family

The U.S. Army has activated its second Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery during a ceremony at Fort Bliss, Texas

For more information;

http://www.defencetalk.com/second-thaad-battery-activated-22651/