UN Sanctions Violated: UAE Closes Firms

The United Arab Emirates has closed down 40 international and local firms.  This is part of a crackdown on companies that violate UN sanctions on Iran. 

These companies have been dealing in “dual-use and dangerous materials banned under UN resolutions and the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. “Operations of any company in the UAE proved to have connections with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, other entities or individuals subject to the UN asset freeze will immediately be shut down,” the Gulf News reported quoting an unnamed UAE official.

On June 9, the UN Security Council slapped a fourth round of sanctions on Iran over its controversial nuclear drive, this time tightening the noose on military and financial transactions.  The resolution bans the sale to Iran of eight new types of heavy weapons and applies new restrictions on Iranian investments abroad.

Airborne Laser Gears Up for Next Shoot-down Test

The Pentagon’s Airborne Laser (ABL) is being prepared for a late July test in which it will attempt to shoot down an ascending target missile from twice the distance of the aircraft’s previous intercept tests. Originally conceived as an operational military system that would use a high-power chemical laser to destroy ballistic missiles in the early stages of flight, the ABL platform — only one has been built — has been relegated to the role of technology test-bed.

The program is funded by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) through September, but its future is uncertain beyond that.

Boeing Defense, Space & Security of St Louis is the ABL prime contractor; Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems of Los Angeles developed the high-power chemical laser; and Lockheed Martin developed the beam control/fire control system.

Iran Bands Two IAEA Inspectors from Nuclear Facilities

According to head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Iran has banned two IAEA inspectors from visiting its nuclear facilities because they filed false information on the country’s nuclear program.  

 Ali Akbar Salehi said “two inspectors of the IAEA presented false reports on Iran’s nuclear activities, so based on safeguards agreement, we called for banning their arrival in Iran for inspection, since they have also disclosed information before it had been examined officially and they had provided media with false information on Iran’s nuclear work.” 

“In the last session of the IAEA Board of Governors meeting, we voiced our objection to the incorrect report of the two inspectors. The report was unreal in its entirety,” Salehi was quoted as saying by local satellite Press TV.

Lockheed Martin to Seek Missile Defense Contract

The system is designed to defend against intermediate- and long-range ballistic missiles, and is a main component of the nation’s overall missile defense system.  Defense contractor Lockheed Martin will team with Alaska’s state-owned aerospace corporation to pursue a U.S. Missile Defense Agency contract to maintain and improve the country’s ground-based missile defense system.

Boeing was picked over Lockheed Martin as the original prime contractor for the system. But the Missile Defense Agency on May 14 issued an amended draft request for proposals for a “re-compete.”

Key To Success in Missile Defense?

MISSILE DEFENSE

The answer is interoperability. Terma and Lockheed Martin have jointly developed a Ballistic Missile Defense C4I system called BMD-Flex. The system is based on Terma’s T-Core C4I framework, fielded in several European Army, Navy, and Air Force systems.

Lockheed Martin provides modular Command and Control (C2) products for decision support and battle management as well as system-of-systems expertise to extend BMD-Flex capabilities.

A classic ground-based air defense C2 system built in a modern service-oriented architecture and in an open-architecture framework has the ability to give legacy systems a second life cycle by adding specific content and enabling a growth path for enhancements needed to act in the Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD).