Eyes of Israel

Dear Members and Friends,

As President Barack Obama continues his tour of Israel, one of the most valuable assets, for the protection and defense of Israel, is the presence of a United States forward based radar that is deployed in Southern Israel, towards Iran. It is imperative, for the security of Israel, to clearly see and define all incoming missile threats early to track, discriminate, process, cue, and target in absolute definition in order to adequately defend against them.

There are three critical tools within a missile defense system that provide the highest confidence in tracking, discrimination, and targeting volumes of sophisticated and unsophisticated missiles 1) the placement, the deployment and quality of the sensors, 2) the collection and fusion of all of the sensors to provide the best tracking to the best interceptor, and 3) the discrimination capability on the missile defense interceptor.

This invaluable United States missile defense presence is a set of eyes, protecting the over seven million people in the state of Israel today. This asset is the forward based AN/TPY-2 radar that provides quality and persistent searching and tracking to target incoming missiles far beyond the horizon and cue all of the missile defense platforms and their system sensors protecting Israel. This United States AN/TPY-2 radar enables all the current missile defense assets, in and around Israel, to perform more efficiently and effectively; from the United States Aegis BMD ships in the Mediterranean Sea, to Israel’s Arrow 2, and Patriot Advanced Capability 2 systems deployed throughout Israel.

We give great credit to our few men in the U.S. Army green of the U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery 13th attachment of the 10th AAMDC that command the AN/TPY-2 radar and to those brave United States civilian contractors that keep this sensor running 24/7 here in Israel. This invaluable team makes a tremendous difference in the responsibility of helping to defend the state of Israel.

It was a privilege and an honor to be amongst these soldiers and civilians earlier this month at their site to recognize what they do and give them great appreciation for this mission of peace that they help provide. To have our American citizens out there holding down the site, close to hostile territories, with the reliance of Israel’s military to defend them while they do the work to stand vigilant for all, is truly a selfless mission that is unheralded and of vital importance for the state of Israel and the stability of this region.

The 6th Fleet

Dear Members and Friends,

On the Mediterranean Sea that borders Northern Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, Southern Europe, and the entrance to the Black Sea into Eastern Europe and Russia, float the U.S. Navy’s 6th Fleet ships. These ships provide stability in multi-purpose and multi-purpose platforms to provide a great asset in preserving peace, supporting international efforts, and joining with NATO forces to bring stability in this confluence of regions. The ships’ ability to steam in these international waters offers unique mobile platforms to insert where needed and leave when not needed without the challenging political efforts and diplomacy required to have both U.S. capability and presence on land.

The mixture of regional powers, non-state actors, and terrorist groups that border and are in proximity to the Mediterranean Sea are both numerous and diverse.
Of all the regions in the world, accounting for this decade and the last, this geographical area has had the greatest number of anger driven ballistic missile and rocket firings; Russia, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Hamas have all launched ballistic missiles or rockets in this time frame. This trend continues as Syria demonstrates its use of these weapons on its own people and the proliferation of these systems continue to grow as an accepted force extension and provider of a poor man’s air force to project power.
Having a constant U.S. Naval presence, with Ballistic Missile Defense capability, near these hot spots is a critical mission for NATO, the United States, and those countries that cannot defend themselves from these threats. It is so critical that the President of the United States, with the support of the leaders of the NATO alliance made a commitment to provide U.S. Aegis BMD ships in the Mediterranean at all times.
Within this commitment, Spain provides a port in Rota, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Rota, Spain will serve as the home port of four U.S. Aegis BMD ships and has current deployments of one to two U.S. Aegis BMD ships out of Norfolk, Virginia and Mayport, Florida that will support that mission until Rota, Spain is ready. These Aegis BMD Ships have AN/SPY-1 radars, SM-3 Block IA, and SM-2 missiles that provide anti-missile defense for up to a few hundred miles from where they are steaming. In addition, these Aegis BMD ships are linked into forward based AN/TPY-2 radars in Turkey and Israel that provide them with early sensing capabilities for their missile interceptors that can extend their range beyond the range of the ships radars.
In terms of defense, of all the nations that are in proximity to the Mediterranean Sea, including Israel, these U.S. Aegis BMD ships unilaterally provide the highest intercept points in space and demonstrated capability against the current missile threats to all of these countries. They are an absolute critical asset here for Europe, Northern Africa, Middle East, and Turkey and their mission continues to grow.
More Aegis BMD ships are needed here and countries such as Spain and Italy are to be commended for their support of U.S. Naval bases to enable these ships.
MDAA was honored to visit, recognize, and meet one of our Aegis BMD ships and its crew, the USS Mahan (DDG-72) at a fuel stop in Haifa, Israel during its mission. These 300 strong sailors and officers of the USS Mahan (DDG-72), led by CDR Aycock, are from all parts of our nation and are a great team that we as a nation and as a NATO member are very fortunate to have in helping to preserve peace and protection in the confluences of the countries and entities that border the Mediterranean Sea.
On behalf of our membership and of the American public great appreciation goes to the 300 on the USS Mahan (DDG-72) and all of our ships in the 6th Fleet that provide peace and security.

http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001-m4Pe52wHajIy1Lq8rbD83rxf21ivyz3MIDJHDcPP90Hc1GO07XAdF_x6h3_dT9hI06ocmYWEyS4VwOzIs9oyl0W7nwTSqpQP4l2p4VpjNkAPQk0cW2EsXUmsqtFZ_8TAaRwKzAtkp2MacaUbdcufpoGDBvLhKxOUZsaobSbaMR2iucjgEQHkuJrcI7YkFktlXNtdicShDKGnGCqnDAnAuUsqvwpHDO5r-SLUvS2k9Q=

It’s a Good Thing

Dear Members and Friends,

Last week, over the skies of Israel and out to the Mediterranean Sea flew the first significant test of world’s newest missile defense interceptor, the Arrow 3. In the defense of Israel, the Arrow 3 will add to Israel’s quiver of capability.

This missile, built in partnership with the United States, achieved a tremendous amount of firsts with this particular test that due to risk tolerance, spiral development, and concurrent engineering unique to Israel is just a few years away from being deployed in Israel. Thus, the Arrow 3, will add to their deterrence in defeating Iranian missiles, self-protecting their nation, and providing more flexibility in preemption as well as reaction to provocative acts by Iran.

The four new technologies of the Arrow 3 missile successfully demonstrated for Israel during this test are:

- A two stage rocket engine

- A flexible skirt for stability and increased speed of the second stage

- A dual pulse propelled kill vehicle

- A Kimball designed kill vehicle that allows 90 to 180 degrees tracking of the incoming ballistic missile warhead

This test demonstrated a lighter, faster, and an exponential increase in divert capability for a missile defense interceptor.

The test was a non-intercept test that stressed these new technologies for Israel before attempting high velocity kinetic energy intercept tests in space.

Having more nations like Israel and Japan that co-produce with the United States and share technologies increases missile defense capabilities in volatile regions thereby increasing stability and peace while sharing the burdens of costs to the tax payers of the citizens they protect and defend.

It is a good thing

The Lion of Judea

Dear Members and Friends,

Since the remarkable defeat of the tremendous barrage of over 1,500 rockets, fired upon Israel from the Gaza Strip over an eight day span in December, by the Iron Dome system there has not been a rocket attack on Israel except for an errant rocket this week that was not worth intercepting.

The deployed Iron Dome’s deterrence of rocket attacks on the citizens of Israel and the Arab population that live here as well as the systems’ ability to hold these weapons and their ballistic trajectories, from their launching points in the Gaza Strip, harmless and void is a monumental movement for peace.

This achievement represents the true essence of missile defense. The Iron Dome has prevented organizations such as Hamas and small militant groups from firing Fajr-5 and Katyusha rockets because these groups know that, against the Iron Dome, their rockets will not be successful nor will they do harm to their intended targets. The Tamir interceptor of the Iron Dome was 95 percent successful, so successful that only one Tamir interceptor needed to be fired per interception to achieve the 400 plus successful intercepts of rockets that were deemed as life threatening. Some, if not most, of those who fired these missiles and rockets in Gaza have paid a heavy consequence of quick repercussions and become targets themselves.

Even greater than the pure proven deterrence, the Iron Dome provides peace and security for those who live within 45 miles of the Gaza Strip, an area including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

It is the flexibility that the Iron Dome allows the Israeli government and military not to invade and go to war in Gaza. This flexibility saves countless lives and billions of dollars as well as it does not upset the tenuous balance between an unstable Egypt and the neighboring Arab countries to the South that have a peaceful coexistence with Israel. The use and deployment of the Iron Dome is one of the great real live demonstrations on why missile and rocket defense works.

The Iron Dome today is preserving peace for Israel from Hamas, Hezbollah, and small militant fraction entities within the Gaza Strip and Southern Lebanon.

This week MDAA has been in Israel to better understand the threat, the use of Israel missile defense systems, the consequences of those systems to Israel, the region, the missile defense partnership with the United States, as well as recognize our U.S. Military forces who are helping protect Israel with Israel.

Where It Starts

Dear Members and Friends,

Across the globe, in multiple regional theaters of operations throughout the continents, the United States Air Force has a force structure and command that controls the air space over each specific region of the world. This structure and command is called the Air Operations Center (AOC) and each United States Combatant Commander has at least one in support. The AOCs are stationed at the heart of projected air power and at the dominate air base of their region. These AOCs control the mass complexity in air both on offense, from surveillance to targeting, and defending air space to defense where air and missile defense are integrated into the AOC.

Multiple big color television screens light up the front wall that everyone in the building can see and cover different live air pictures of that region that are either delivered by drone, satellite, or plane. In front of these screens are massive amounts of organized chaos with long tables of men and women, each with separate computers and communication equipment. No cubicles here, it is open communication. For direct communication, you walk to the different sections that support different missions. The AOC is the Command, Control, Battle Management, and Communication (C2BMC) of air operations and missile defense in the region. It is shared information moved along multiple communication links, to all the critical players, in redundancy and in command control procedures that allows for the safeguarding of fire control and efficiency.

This Air Force centric operations center is manned by the Air Force but has a strong contingency of 60 Army soldiers from the Army Air Missile and Defense Command (AAMDC) of that region of the world who work in 30 seats of the AOC alongside their Air Force counterparts. Our nation currently has three AAMDCs, one in Europe out of Germany, the 10th AAMDC, one in Hawaii, for Pacific Command, the 94th AAMDC, and one for the Middle East, the 32nd AAMDC.

Of these 30 Army seats in the AOC, the most critical are the sensor management crew who are on a 24/7 rotation monitoring and directing the sensors of their region including the Defense Satellite Program (DSP) as well as SBIRS GEO-1, and the forward based radars that include, the Aegis BMD ships and the forward based AN/TPY-2 radars. They are able to give warning on any ballistic missile launch at any time throughout the region and direct radars at the specific or multiple launches, which then track their flights and discriminate their threat payload through termination.

This sensor information is used to provide situational awareness, production of algorithms for firing solutions, and queuing to the shooters, on land and sea in the region, and for the U.S. Homeland in the case of Pacific Command. The mentioned shooters are the Aegis BMD Ships, Patriot batteries, and soon to be THAAD batteries in the region as well as our Ground Based Interceptors (GBI) in Alaska and California defending our homeland.

The crown jewel sensor for the AOC is the forward based AN/TPY-2 X-Band radar. The AN/TPY-2 can perform three functions at once, surveillance, transfer sensor information from the DSPs and the SBIRS GEO-1 satellites, and pick up targeting from AN/SPY-1 Radars on Aegis ships and still be able to search. It is deemed the world’s best radar by those that work in the AOC and will be in place until the advancements in the low earth orbit sensors such as Precision Tracking Space System (PTSS) is deployed. The forward based AN/TPY-2 is the most sought after radar by our combatant commanders around the globe for its capability to precisely see and target the ballistic missile threat in the ascent, pre, and post boost phase of the launched offensive ballistic missile. Deployed AN/TPY-2 radars today are in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and more are demanded by the combatant commanders.

The men and women from our armed services that work in AOCs around the world 24/7 are the unsung and unnoticed warriors that gather the critical information to protect and defend our forward deployed forces and our allies. They are to be recognized for their selfless service in making those volatile regions safer and more stable. On behalf of our members and the American public, thank you.

It was a true honor to visit the Pacific Command’s AOC in Hickam Air Force Base with the 94th AAMDC in Honolulu, HI.

It is where it happens and it happens there for the entire Pacific Rim

Dare and Do

Docked across from the USS Missouri (BB-63), the USS Arizona Memorial and the Sea-based X-band Radar at Pearl Harbor is the USS Hopper (DDG-70). The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) destroyer is one of five Aegis BMD ships home ported in the mid pacific fleet here in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. These five BMD ships support the 5th Fleet with their presence in the Persian Gulf and the 7th Fleet with their presence in the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea. At least one of these BMD ships is deployed at all times. There is one Aegis BMD cruiser in this group, the USS Lake Erie (CG-70), that is outfitted with the newest capable Aegis BMD 4.0.1 system that is involved with testing all of our nation’s newest missile defense technologies. The USS Lake Erie (CG-70) had a great success earlier this week with a missile intercept.

An estimated 275 men and women make up the crews of these ships that are called on eight to nine month deployments away from their home port in Hawaii where their ports of call are Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and Yokosuka. The crews live, train, maintain, and fight together on their ships and they do it in very intense environments with Iranian gun boats challenging them, diesel submarines in shallow waters threatening them, volumes of short and medium-range missiles on the shorelines, and heavy international shipping traffic to navigate through. The most critical responsibility of their mission as a BMD Aegis ship is being and having the first shot at any ballistic missile fired into our Armed Forces and Allies stationed around the Persian Gulf, South Korea and Japan. It is a monumental task that requires great leadership by the ship’s Commander and exceptional teamwork by the crew of the ship.

The USS Hopper (DDG-70) and its crew have recently returned to Hawaii from a long deployment with both the 5th and 7th Fleets. Their highlight of their tour of duty was the positioning of their ship in the northern part of the Sea of Japan on December 17, 2012 with the mission of protecting the United States homeland from the North Korean long-range ballistic missile launch that day. The sailors and crew of this ship are to be commended for their efforts and success.

The USS Hopper is named after the first woman to achieve the rank of Rear Admiral in the United States Navy, RADM Grace Hopper. She was a pioneer with computers and the use visual aids to illustrate the principles of a nanosecond. RADM Hopper’s favorite command quote was “Dare and Do.” This phrase captures her spirit, crew of the ship, and that of Aegis BMD in their quest for pushing the limits of conventional thinking and looking beyond the norm for innovative thinking. It is more than appropriate the ship is named after RADM Grace Hopper in performing this critical mission of BMD.

Great appreciation to the crew and command of the U.S. Hopper that sacrifice and serve our nation in a selfless capacity to provide our freedoms.

Shout Out to the President

Dear Members and Friends,

Whether you approve or do not approve of the President of the United States of America, President Barack Obama candidly, explicitly, and specifically referenced strengthening missile defense in his oratory to the nation during the annual State of the Union Address on Monday night.

“America will continue to lead the effort to prevent the spread of the world’s most dangerous weapons. The regime in North Korea must know that they will only achieve security and prosperity by meeting their international obligations. Provocations of the sort we saw last night will only isolate them further, as we stand by our allies, strengthen our own missile defense, and lead the world in taking firm action in response to these threats.”

-President Barack Obama, 2013

MDAA gives credit to President Barack Obama for the leadership he showed, on missile defense, during his State of the Union Address, as the Commander-in-Chief of our nation, the most powerful nation in the world, is worth applause, merit, and recognition.

Missile defense is embraced by the President of the United States of America and the statement of his desire to strengthen it, to the American public, validates his support as the United States Congress will steward his support and the United States military will follow his direction.

It is a necessary tool today and the future for the President of the United States to provide stability, strengthen international alliances, prevent war, and give a real solution to our nation, troops, and allies when isolation, diplomacy, and sanctions from the United Nations fail to work.

We, as a nation, need to follow his lead to devote more priority, more production, more deployment, and more development to strengthen all of our missile defense systems as our President stated to our Congressional leaders, our military leaders, and the American public.

It is great confidence that the President gains in the country’s missile defense systems and the men and women who operate them that continue to demonstrate their technical merit to North Korea, Iran and the world just as the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Army did on Tuesday night with the USS Lake Erie (CG-70) and the STSS-D satellite system for the 58th successful missile defense intercept across all missile defense systems since 2001.

We as a nation have an exceptional effective tool in Missile Defense for peace and let our nation develop, expand, and strengthen this great tool of missile defense.