GAO Questions U.S. Plans for Missile Defense System in Europe

The Government Accountability Office has called into question President Obama’s Phased Adapitive Approach to missile defense in Europe. Lack of oversight and  poor management could cause cost overruns and uncertainty about the EPAA’s effectiveness against missile threats from the Middle East. “DOD has initiated multiple simultaneous efforts to implement [the European Phased Adaptive Approach missile defense plan], but faces three key management challenges—the lack of clear guidance, life-cycle costs and a fully integrated schedule,” the GAO reported

NATO Achieves First Step on Theatre Ballistic Missile Defence Capability

On 27 January 2011, NATO’s first ever theatre ballistic missile defence (TBMD) capability has been handed over to NATO’s military commanders. The handover took place at the NATO Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) in Uedem, Germany, in the presence of NATO Deputy Secretary General, Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero, and civil and military authorities from NATO and host nation Germany. The NATO Combined Air Operations Centre demonstrated how this interim capability allows NATO commanders, for the first time ever, to do limited ballistic missile defence planning and exchange information with national ballistic missile defence assets.

DRDO Plans to Test 10 Missiles this Year

India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) announced that it will test at least ten missile this year. This regional display of power will include the nations first ICBM, the Agni-V. The missiles in line to be tested also includes India’s domestically developed missile defense  Advanced Air Defence (AAD) interceptor.

N. Korea to Develop Nuclear-capable ICBMs Within Decade: Adm. Mullen

Admiral Mike Mullen

Admiral Mullen, Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has become the latest military official to recognize the growing ballistic missile threat coming from North Korea. “There’s little doubt in my mind, unless North Korea is deterred, that sometime in the next…five to ten years the provocations will continue at a much higher level, which could include a nuclear-capabale ICBM.”

N.Korea Will Not Drop Nuclear Program – Kim Jong-il’s son

Kim Jong-nam, the North Korean dictators eldest son, has said that his father would not halt the Communist Nations nuclear program. He sighted the increased tension on the Korean Peninsula and the tightening of foreign sanctions as outside factors driving the development of the North’s nuclear program.