Entries Tagged as 'Missile Defense'

Gates meets Soldiers on front lines of US missile defense

By American Forces Press Service
June 4, 2009

FORT GREELY, Alaska: Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates stepped down inside a missile silo here yesterday …

Fort Greely, about 100 miles into the Alaskan interior from Fairbanks, is home to one of two ground-based, mid-course defense units housing missile interceptors on the West Coast. The other is at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. …

“We have a good capability here,” Gates said after a tour of the site. “I think knowing that we have this and that it becomes more effective in each passing day should be a source of comfort to the American people in an uncertain world.”

Sixteen interceptors are in the ground here, with plans to add two more. Combined with those at Vandenberg Air Force Base, the United States will have 30 such interceptor systems. More could be added if needed, Gates said.

In a brief meeting with reporters, Gates said he has planned nearly $1 billion in the 2010 budget for the development of ground-based interceptors. The budget also allows for developing other missile technologies that protect troops in the field, ships at sea and provide theater defense, he added. …

www.defencetalk.com/gates-meets-soldiers-on-front-lines-of-us-missile-defense-19485/

Defiant North Korea fires rockets, blames U.S.

Reuters
May 26, 2009
By Jack Kim

North Korea defied international condemnation of its latest nuclear test by firing three short-range missiles off its coast on Tuesday and major powers considered tougher action against the isolated communist state.

With tension in the region high, South Korea said it would join a U.S.-led initiative to intercept ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction, something Pyongyang has warned it would consider a declaration of war.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted a government source in Seoul as saying the North had test-fired one surface-to-air and one surface-to-ship missile off its east coast. The missiles had a range of about 130 km (80 miles). …

North Korea also fired three short-range missiles on Monday and South Korean media quoted government sources as saying further missile tests were possible. …

www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSSEO14165620090526

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Russian FM: arms control and missile shield linked

Associated Press
20 May 2009

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s foreign minister says U.S. missile defense plans need to be taken into account in talks on further reductions in nuclear arsenals.

Sergey Lavrov says it’s impossible to achieve progress in negotiating a new arms control treaty without taking into consideration the planned missile shield.

Lavrov spoke Wednesday as Russian and U.S. negotiators continued their talks to work out a replacement to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START I, which expires in December. The talks started in Moscow Tuesday.

President Barack Obama has put his predecessor’s plan for a missile defense in Europe on hold, but Russia wants the U.S. to scrap the anti-missile system altogether.

Lavrov’s statement followed a similar warning from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5joyt2yQAg5FcRwHi_T2dXgmfGDoQD989T8V80

US-Europe missile defense won't work: think tank

AFP – New York
19 May 2009

A planned US anti-missile system, hotly opposed by Russia, to defend Europe against the threat of missile attack from Iran would not work, a new study by a US-based think tank said Tuesday.

The study by the New York-based EastWest Institute found the proposed system “will not provide dependable protection against an Iranian threat if and when it emerges.”

The study titled “Iran?s Nuclear and Missile Potential” was produced by a joint team of US and Russian military and academic experts.

Its findings fall in line with arguments made by Moscow, which says the plan for a radar-and-interceptor system based in Poland and the Czech Republic would threaten Russian security, but fail to protect against an Iranian attack.

The issue poisoned relations between Moscow and Washington under former US president George W. Bush.

President Barack Obama, who took office this January, has said he will pursue the planned missile shield as long as Iran remains a “real threat,” while adding that the system needs to be “cost-effective and proven.”

According to the report, Iran could in theory easily launch sufficient rockets or decoys to overwhelm the planned system. …

www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i5eVOnIqZc9y0C8-s4e9rMUAyfCA

Patriot Battery to Arrive This Year, Poland Says

Global Security Newswire – Washington
Monday, May 18, 2009

A senior Polish defense official said today that the United States is likely to field a Patriot battery in his nation this year even if the Obama administration curbs plans for missile defense installations in Europe …

The Bush administration planned to deploy 10 ballistic missile interceptors in Poland as part of a European missile shield that would also include a radar base in the Czech Republic. In return, it promised military aid that would include deployment of the 100-missile Patriot battery to Poland for a limited time per year in 2009, 2010 and 2011, “providing an opportunity for training up our soldiers and our systems,” Komorowski [Deputy Defense Minister] said. …

“Regardless of the decision (on missile defense), President [Barack] Obama has said other cooperation with Poland, including strategic projects such as modernization of our armed forces, will definitely be continued,” Komorowski told Reuters. …

www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20090518_1292.php

US puts ballistic missile flight tracking satellite in orbit

15 May 2009

The United States has launched a satellite intended to detect and track missile flights, the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced. The Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) Advanced Technology Risk Reduction (ATRR) satellite was launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

The STSS ATRR is a small experimental satellite that will serve as a forerunner for next-Credit: Northrop Grummangeneration sensor technology for future MDA space missions.

The MDA is pursuing a space-based sensor layer to detect missile launches, provide continuous target tracking, and pass track data to missile defense interceptors with the accuracy and timeliness necessary to enable successful target interception. …

The Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) space sensor layer will provide combatant commanders with the ability to continuously track strategic and tactical ballistic missiles from launch through termination. …

www.domain-b.com/aero/space/satellites/20090515_ballistic_missile.html

Pentagon Preparing for War with the 'Enemy': Russia

by Rick Rozoff
www.opednews.com
16 May 2009

“Today the situation is much more serious than before August 2008…. [A] possible recurrence of war will not be limited to the Caucasus.

“The new President of the United States did not bring about any crucial changes in relation to Georgia, but having a dominant role in NATO he still insists on Georgia’s soonest joining of the Alliance. If it happens, the world would face a more serious threat than the crises of the Cold War.

“Under the new realities, Georgia’s war against South Ossetia may easily turn into NATO’s war against Russia. This would be a third world war.”

On May 12 James Mattis, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation [ACT] and commander of the U.S. Joint Forces Command, spoke at a three-day symposium called Joint Warfighting 09 in Norfolk, Virginia, where NATO’s Allied Command Transformation is based, and stated: “I come with a sense of urgency. The enemy is meeting like this as well.” …

A local newspaper summarized his speech:

“Mattis outlined a future in which wars will not have clearly defined beginnings and ends. What is needed, he said, is a grand strategy, a political framework that can guide military planning.”

He failed, for what passes for diplomatic reasons no doubt, to identify who “the enemy” is, but a series of recent developments, or rather an intensification of ongoing ones, indicate which nation it is.

Last week the head of the U.S. Strategic Command, Gen. Kevin Chilton, told reporters during a Defense Writers Group breakfast on May 7 “that the White House retains the option to respond with physical force – potentially even using nuclear weapons – if a foreign entity conducts a disabling cyber attack against U.S. computer networks….”

An account of his talk added “the general insisted that all strike options, including nuclear, would remain available to the commander in chief in defending the nation from cyber strikes.” …

So in addition to US plans to deploy ground-, sea-, air- and space-based anti-missile systems primarily around and against Russia (Poland, the Czech Republic, Norway, Britain, Japan and Alaska to date), the Pentagon will hold in reserve nuclear warheads for activation without a monitoring mechanism provided to Russian inspectors and arms reduction negotiators.

On May 6 Euronews conducted an interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who warned, “The way it [the US anti-ballistic missile shield] is designed has nothing to do with Iran’s nuclear program. It is aimed at Russian strategic forces, deployed in the European part of the Russian Federation. …

www.opednews.com/articles/3/Correction-Pentagon-Prepa-by-Rick-Rozoff-090514-506.html

FACTBOX-Major weapon changes in 2010 U.S. defense budget

Reuters – USA
7 May 2009

The Pentagon on Thursday sent Congress a fiscal 2010 budget plan that shifts funding to focus more on irregular warfare and take better care of troops, while cutting back or canceling several major weapons programs.

Some of the recommendations, which must still be approved by Congress, call for:

… [ a long list of cuts, cancellations and terminations including:] …

Cuts of $1.2 billion in funding from the missile defense program, with the lion’s share of the cuts coming from the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system built by Boeing, and the Patriot PAC-3 missile program run by Raytheon Co and Lockheed. Officials said they also canceled funding for the Kinetic Energy Interceptor being developed by Northrop Grumman Corp. …

www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0726631020090507

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Obama pledge on nuclear weapons wins praise at UN

By Edith M. Lederer
Associated Press
May 4 2009

UNITED NATIONS – President Barack Obama’s pledge to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons won praise Monday from China and key developing countries, and spurred hope that Washington’s policy shift and new U.S.-Russian cooperation will end a long deadlock on global disarmament efforts. …

… there was widespread recognition — even from Iran — that Obama’s engagement with the Russians was an important reversal from Bush administration policies, which didn’t seek negotiations on major arms control cuts and angered Moscow by announcing its intention to install a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

In a joint declaration on April 1, Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered negotiators to start work on a new treaty reducing their nuclear stockpiles as a first step towards “a nuclear-weapon-free world.” The U.S. president also promised to seek speedy Senate ratification of the nuclear test ban treaty and to launch a global effort to secure nuclear material.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090505/ap_on_re_us/un_un_nuclear_disarmament

Krystian Zimerman's shocking Disney Hall debut

Los Angeles Times
April 27 2009

Poland’s Krystian Zimerman, widely regarded as one of the finest pianists in the world, created a furor Sunday night in his debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall when he announced this would be his last performance in America because of the nation’s military policies overseas.

Before playing the final work on his recital … Zimerman sat silently at the piano for a moment, almost began to play, but then turned to the audience. In a quiet but angry voice … he indicated that he could no longer play in a country whose military wants to control the whole world.

“Get your hands off of my country,” he said. [Obviously referring to US plans to put “missile defense” interceptors into Poland.] …

About 30 or 40 people in the audience walked out, some shouting obscenities. “Yes,” he answered, “some people when they hear the word military start marching.”

Others remained but booed or yelled for him to shut up and play the piano. But many more cheered. Zimerman responded by saying that America has far finer things to export than the military, and he thanked those who support democracy.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/04/krystian-zimermans-shocking-walt-disney-concert-hall-debut.html