Airborne Laser Test Bed Exercise Conducted

The Missile Defense Agency conducted a planned exercise of the Airborne Laser Test Bed (ALTB) this morning (late evening Pacific Daylight Time) at the Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center-Weapons Division Sea Range off the central California coast. The objective of this mission was for the ALTB to destroy a solid-fuel, short-range ballistic missile while its rocket motors were still thrusting.

Odyssey Systems Awarded ID/IQ Contract by US Missile Defense Agency

Odyssey Systems Consulting Group, Ltd., a leading small business provider of technical and management support services for government clients announced today that it has been awarded an Engineering and Services Support Contract known as MiDAESS in the Acquisition Support Capability Group under full and open competition by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA).

Under this contract, which has a ceiling value of $366 million, Odyssey will provide a broad range of Advisory and Assistance Services (A&AS) to the MDA Business and Financial organization. Odyssey’s support to MDA includes Strategic Planning and Analysis, Business Operation, and Integration Synchronization.  This contract will serve as a vehicle to provide financial management analytical expertise to enable planning and execution of BMDS development, fielding, and sustainment efforts.

The Lame Duck Threat to Missile Defense

All signs point to an effort by the Obama administration to ram their New Start agreement with Russia through the Senate in a lame duck session after the November elections. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) has placed a floor vote on the treaty atop list of lame duck priorities, and the continuing resolution passed in September included $624 million in funding for the National Nuclear Security Administrations. Analysts believe that money could secure the support of some previously skeptical Republicans. But nuclear modernization is just one of many problems with New START. The limits that New START place on missile defense, for example, are also completely unresolved.

Don’t Let Russia Limit U.S. Defense

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insists no secret agreement is being negotiated between this country and Russia to limit U.S. missile defense systems. If not, she should have no trouble in complying with a request by six senators for documents involved in talks on the subject.

U.S. and Russian officials have met to discuss missile defense programs. But the State Department insists the talks have been merely to review missile “challenges” involving Asia and the Middle East – clearly, Iran and North Korea. The six senators want to be certain there will be no agreement – concluded in private – that could limit U.S. development of missile defense systems.

Iran has 30 kg of high level uranium: atomic chief

 Iran said on Wednesday it has produced around 30 kilogrammes of 20 percent-enriched uranium, in defiance of UN sanctions imposed on Tehran to suspend the contentious nuclear work.

“We have produced nearly 30 kilogrammes (66 pounds) of 20 percent enriched uranium so far,” Iran’s atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency.

World powers led by Washington want Tehran to suspend its uranium enrichment activity, which is at the centre of fears that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons.

Enriched uranium can be used as fuel to power nuclear reactors as well as to make the fissile core of an atom bomb.

Iran, trying to skirt sanctions, attempts to set up banks worldwide

Iran is secretly trying to set up banks in Muslim countries around the world, including Iraq and Malaysia, using dummy names and opaque ownership structures to skirt sanctions that have increasingly curtailed the Islamic republic’s global banking activities, U.S. officials say.

The Treasury Department has blacklisted 16 Iranian banks for allegedly supporting Iran’s nuclear program and terrorist activities; other countries have followed suit with their own measures. Tehran’s search for new banking avenues is a sign of the growing effectiveness of the sanctions, U.S. officials said.

Still, they think that Iran has had limited success, if any, in secretly setting up banks.

Activity detected at North Korea nuclear test site: report

A U.S. satellite has detected increased activity at a North Korean nuclear weapons test site, suggesting it could be preparing for a third test, a South Korean government source was quoted as saying on Thursday.

The report comes after satellite images taken last month also showed heightened activity at the North’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex, indicating Pyongyang was pushing ahead with its nuclear plans in defiance of international pressure.

Defense and foreign ministry officials could not confirm the report in the Chosun Ilbo daily about activity at the test site.

Analysis: Turkey hesitates on missile defense

Turkey finds itself once again in an awkward position between fellow NATO members and Iran as it considers a proposal to place a key component of a U.S. missile defense system on its soil.

Depending on how it is resolved, the issue could heighten or quell concerns in Washington that Turkey is drifting away from the West.

The U.S. would like Turkey to host a radar installation for its European missile shield and to back a proposal to make missile defense a core mission for NATO. After initial enthusiasm about the radar, Turkey has hesitated. Its main concern is that it does not want the missile defense system to explicitly target Iran. Turkey also doesn’t want NATO to go on record at its summit in Lisbon, Portugal, Nov. 19-21, identifying Iran as a ballistic missile threat.

US-Saudi arms deal ripples from Iran to Israel

 

As American and Saudi officials spent months quietly hammering out a wish list for a mammoth sale of American warplanes and other weapons to the oil-rich kingdom, leaders in Iran were busy publicly displaying their advances in missiles, naval craft and air power.

In one memorable bit of political theater, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stood under a cascade of glitter in August to unveil a drone bomber — dubbed the “ambassador of death” — that he claimed would keep foes in the region “paralyzed” on their bases.