Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases

Reuters
By Jim Wolf
May 10, 2012

U.S. forces said they had destroyed a target in the first successful test of the Navy’s newest anti-missile interceptor, designed to protect allies from attacks by countries like North Korea and Iran.

A target ballistic missile was downed near Hawaii late on Wednesday by the latest Raytheon Co-built Standard Missile-3 interceptor, the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said.

The advanced interceptor is key to the next phase of an anti-missile shield being built by the United States in and around Europe.

The United States plans to deploy increasingly capable SM-3 versions up to around 2020 to boost defenses against missiles that could be fired by Iran and North Korea.

“Initial indications are that all components performed as designed,” the agency said in an emailed statement.

The interceptor, called the SM-3 Block 1B, had failed to knock out its target in its maiden intercept test in September. This led to a continuing delay in Raytheon’s production.

The shield under construction in Europe involves ground- and ship-based hardware as well as space-based sensors. …

Read on: www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/10/us-usa-missile-idUSBRE8490CY20120510

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Arirang News
May 10, 2012

A U.S. bill to construct a new East Coast missile defense site is becoming one of the most contentious issues at Congress.
The Republican-backed legislation contains an initiative to ready the country’s third missile defense system on the East Coast by 2016, adding to existing sites in California and Alaska on the West Coast.
It also includes a 1-hundred million U.S. dollar pre-construction review of the potential project.
Republicans say the increasing nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea highlight the need to build the new site, but Democrats are playing down the security threats, calling the estimated 4-billion dollar project “politically motivated.”
Democrat lawmakers are planning to take out the 1-hundred million dollars from the defense authorization bill at this week’s House Armed Services Committee markup.

www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=129565&code=Ne2&category=2

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MDAA (Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance)

The National Academy of Sciences is casting more doubt on whether the Obama administration’s European-based missile defense shield can protect the United States and recommends scrapping key parts of the system.
The academy’s assessment could complicate White House efforts to persuade Congress to fund the still-developing program. Though the academy says the plans would protect Europe effectively, some lawmakers already are asking why the U.S., at a time of tight budgets, should spend billions of dollars on a system that provides limited homeland defense.
The conclusions from the academy, which advises the government on science and technology, are contained in a letter to lawmakers obtained by The Associated Press.
The academy’s letter bolsters two earlier reports by Defense Department advisers and congressional investigators that said the European system faced significant delays, cost overruns and technology problems.
The letter is dated April 30 and addressed to the chairman of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, and the panel’s top Democrat, California Rep. Loretta Sanchez. It is based on unclassified parts of a broad academy report on U.S. missile defense capabilities not yet released.
Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency, said he was unaware of the academy’s report and declined to comment.
Republicans, who have been questioning President Barack Obama’s national security credentials ahead of the November elections, are likely to seize on the letter to bolster their argument that the European plans were poorly thought through and designed to appease Russia.
The defense shield is one of Obama’s top military programs. Soon after he took office in 2009, he revamped a Bush administration missile defense plan that had been a chief source of tension with Russia. The Russian government believed the program is aimed at its missiles, while the U.S. said the system was designed to counter any Iranian missile threat. …

Read on: http://missiledefense.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/more-doubts-cast-on-european-missile-defense-plan/

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Space Daily
May 7, 2012

The US plans to conduct ‘the largest ever test launch’ of its missile defense program elements to intercept and destroy five ‘enemy’ missiles- three medium-range ballistic missiles and two cruise missiles, the director of the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency Gen. Patrick O’Reilly told Congress on Wednesday.

It is planned to use several surface-to-air guided missileair defense systems, including Patrior, TAAD and Idjis.

The US has been working with other NATO countries to locate such defense systems in the Asia-Pacific region and in the Middle East.

Read more: www.spacedaily.com/reports/US_to_conduct_largest_ever_missile_defense_test___Pentagon_999.html

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U.S. News & World Report
By Desmond Butler (Associated Press)
May 4, 2012

The National Academy of Sciences is casting more doubt on whether the Obama administration’s European-based missile defense shield can protect the United States and recommends scrapping key parts of the system.

The academy’s assessment could complicate White House efforts to persuade Congress to fund the still-developing program. Though the academy says the plans would protect Europe effectively, some lawmakers already are asking why the U.S., at a time of tight budgets, should spend billions of dollars on a system that provides limited homeland defense.

The conclusions from the academy, which advises the government on science and technology, are contained in a letter to lawmakers obtained by The Associated Press.

The academy’s letter bolsters two earlier reports by Defense Department advisers and congressional investigators that said the European system faced significant delays, cost overruns and technology problems. …

Read on: www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2012/05/04/more-doubts-cast-on-european-missile-defense-plan

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RIANOVOSTY
March 6, 2012

The Russian president is unlikely to attend a NATO summit in Chicago if the missile defense issue is not on its agenda

The Russian president is unlikely to attend a NATO summit in Chicago if the missile defense issue is not on its agenda, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Tuesday.

“Russia has an invitation to the NATO summit; everything depends on the agenda,” he said.

However, if the issue of the NATO missile defense system remains unchanged, then the chances of the Russian president attending the summit “will be even smaller,” he added. …

Read on: en.rian.ru/world/20120306/171790591.html

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Metro Business Media
March 19, 2012

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) announced today a firm-fixed-price contract from the U.S. Air Force.

The defense contractor will provide Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasure (LAIRCM) systems and support.

Under the $334 million contract Fairfax county-based Northrop Grumman will have until April 2014 to provide the Air Force with LAIRCM technology that will automatically detect a missile launch. Once detected as a threat, the LAIRCM system will activate a high-intensity laser to track and destroy the missile. …

Read on: metrobusinessmedia.com/article/northrop-grumman-awarded-large-contract-or-us-missile-defense-systems-031912

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Washington Post
A.P. March 16. 2012

The United States warned Friday it would not send food aid to North Korea if it goes ahead with a rocket launch next month.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. now has “grave concerns” about the Feb. 29 agreement that had eased tensions between the long-term adversaries.

Under the accord, Pyongyang agreed to nuclear concessions and a moratorium on long-range missile tests in return for 240,000 tons of American food aid for the impoverished country.

In a surprise announcement, North Korea said Friday it plans to launch a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket between April 12 and 16 off its west coast — a provocative step just as its new leader Kim Jong Un consolidates his power. …

Read on: www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-says-hard-to-imagine-it-can-give-food-aid-if-nkorea-goes-ahead-with-rocket-launch/2012/03/16/gIQARm7cGS_story.html

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RT
March 14, 2012

American authorities could soon be sharing classified data on their missile defense system with Russia in an effort to recruit their former Cold War foe to prepare against possible rocket strikes.

Officials from within the White House tell reporters this week that Washington is considering talks with Moscow that could lead to both nations exchanging top-secret intelligence involving their respective missile-defense systems. Responding to an inquiry on the talks, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to Reuters on Tuesday that the Obama administration is indeed looking to iron out a deal with Russia that would satisfy the desires of both nations.

Sharing missile defense data has been a sticking point between the two major nuclear superpowers since the US announced plans to build an anti-missile shield in Europe. Even after both parties agreed to cooperate on anti-missile defense, Moscow and Washington have been at odds over if and how their respective anti-missile programs should be managed jointly. Russia has asked for the United States’ cooperation by insisting that the missile defense systems of the countries be united into one global program; the US, on the other hand, has favored separate programs, although they have at the same time advocated for establishing a working relationship between the two. Should these developments prove true then, the US and Russia could soon ink out a deal that would see Washington siding with Moscow’s demands.

According to the latest reports, the US could be extending to Russia some top-secret intelligence on American interceptor missiles; in return, Russia might very well contribute assistance of their own by offering access to its own radar system and missile-defense program. …

Read on: http://rt.com/usa/news/obama-share-missile-russia-561/

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Laser Focus world
By John Wallace
February 17, 2012

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced this week that the Airborne Laser Test Bed — a megawatt-class 1.3 µm chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL) mounted in a modified Boeing 747 and intended to shoot down ballistic missiles in their boost phase — has been put into “long-term storage” at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis Monthan Air Force Base. This location, also known as the “Boneyard,” is where excess and unused military aircraft are taken for preservation.

The Airborne Laser achieved high-power “first light” in ground testing in 2008, then was tested in flight several times over the next few years with varying success; however, it never reached the couple-hundred-kilometer range required to make the system useful in practice. …

Read on: www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/2012/02/airborne-laser-test-bed-is-put-to-rest-in-the-boneyard.html

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