Missile Defense (General thread)

[American Patriot]

Russia and China are playing "word games", as you said Ryan.

I don't for a second believe that Russia isn't hoping like hell that China can knock our stuff out.

If they can, then they figure all ground based MD is useless..... if that's the case, when they decide to have at it with us, they will do everything they can to take out satellites and nuke our missile installations.

[American Patriot]

Russia capable of hitting US missile shield: general
AFP ^ | Mar 5, 2007 | Staff

Russia's bomber force would have no trouble destroying planned US missile defense sites in Europe, its head said Monday as the country's security council warned of new policies to counter NATO.

"Since the components of the anti-missile defence system are weakly protected, all types of our aircraft are capable of using electronic countermeasures against them and physically destroying them," Interfax news agency quoted Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov as saying.

The Kremlin has fiercely protested US plans to install an anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic. Washington insists it would not be aimed at Russia but designed to counter attacks from countries such as Iran and North Korea.

Khvorov also said Russia is modernizing its fleet of Tu-160 strategic bombers, with two updated versions of the aircraft expected to be ready this year.

Known as Blackjack to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the Tu-160 is a highly manoeuvrable supersonic strategic bomber.

Meanwhile the national security council said Russia is to adopt a new military doctrine in response to the "strengthening" of NATO forces, in the latest sign of worsening relations between the two sides.

"The analysis of the international situation shows that recourse to military force is increasingly the policy of leading world states," the council said in an announcement that the new doctrine was in preparation.

"The military policy of the principal countries devotes more and more energy to the modernisation of the armed forces," including updating their weapons technology and strategies, it said.

"Military alliances are strengthening, and especially NATO," the Russian security council claimed.

"Armed forces are being used above all as a principal instrument for pursuing the economic and political interests of countries" in the West, it said.

The council statement echoed hard-hitting speeches by Russian President Vladimir Putin last month.

In Moscow on February 22 Putin warned, "We are encountering a dangerous disdain for international law, ambitions to use military force to achieve personal interests," in what appeared to be a veiled reference to the United States.

His comments came less than two weeks after he made a full-frontal assault on US foreign policy in a speech in Munich, saying the United States had "overstepped its borders in all spheres."

[Ryan Ruck]

Russian Air Force Could Easily Incapacitate Planned U.S. Missile Defenses

Russia's air force would be capable of easily knocking out missile defense sites the United States wants to place in Europe, news agencies quoted a top general as saying Monday in the latest bellicose remarks in response to the U.S. plans.

Lt. Gen. Igor Khvorov, who is in charge of Russia's strategic bomber force, said the installations the United States plans to deploy in Poland and the Czech Republic will be an easy target for his aircraft, Interfax and RIA-Novosti news agencies reported.

"Since missile defense elements are weakly protected, all types of our aircraft are capable of applying electronic countermeasures against them or physically destroying them," Khvorov was quoted as saying.

The statement follows a stream of other comments from Russian government leaders and military officials who have harshly criticized the U.S. plans. The head of Russia's missile forces said last month that his forces would be capable of targeting the putative facilities if the country's leadership decided to do so.

The United States has said the planned defenses would not be aimed at Russia, and were intended to defend against missile attacks from countries such as Iran. President Vladimir Putin has said, however, that he does not trust the American claims and warned that Russia would take countermeasures.

[American Patriot]

THAAD Radar Completes Successful Target Tracking Test
MDA. ^ | March 8, 2007 | MDA

Lt. General Henry “Trey” Obering, Missile Defense Agency director, announced today the successful completion of an important radar data collection flight test for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense element. The test was conducted on March 5 and involved the launch of a shortrange target missile from an aircraft over the Pacific Ocean.

The short-range target missile was launched at approximately 2:30 p.m. Hawaii Time (8:30 p.m. EST) from a U.S. Air Force C-17A transport aircraft approximately 400 miles west of the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii. The target missile was extracted from the rear of the C-17A aircraft by parachute. The missile’s rocket motor then ignited, sending it on a planned trajectory over the Pacific Ocean.

The target missile’s flight was successfully tracked by the THAAD radar, now designated as Army Navy/Transportable Radar Surveillance, or AN/TPY-2. Preliminary indications are that all radar data collection objectives were met.

(Excerpt) Read more at mda.mil ...

[American Patriot]

US Missile Shield a Threat to Europe Unity: Chirac
http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish/missiles/US_Missile_Shield_Threat_to_Europe_Unity_Chirac160 010886.php ^ | www.defencetalk.com



The U.S. anti-missile shield project, which is strongly opposed by Russia, risks creating “new lines of division in Europe,” French President Jacques Chirac warned March 9.


”The project raises numerous questions which require consideration before they are answered,” the French leader told a press conference following a summit of EU heads of state and government in Brussels.


”We have to be very careful not to encourage new lines of division in Europe,” said Chirac, attending his last formal European summit.


The United States wants to build a bank of 10 interceptors in Poland from next year to shoot down missiles that might be fired from “rogue states” like Iran or North Korea.


The interceptors would home in on information provided by a tracking station to be set up in the Czech Republic, as well as a forward operating radar at an undisclosed location in the Caucasus.


Moscow has reacted angrily to the plan and senior Russian military figures have warned that they might target the missile-shield sites with their own weapons.


Washington maintains that the new part of the shield — to be fully operational by 2013 — would protect not only eastern parts of the United States, but also many of its European allies.

[American Patriot]

Homeland Security to test anti-missile system
Valley Press on ^ | Monday, April 9, 2007. | ALLISON GATLIN



PALMDALE - The Department of Homeland Security plans to evaluate unmanned, high-altitude vehicles as a platform for a counter-missile defense system for commercial airliners in answer to the threat of shoulder-fired missiles being used to attack aircraft as they take off or land.


While seeking bids for development of such a system, the department plans to conduct trials using the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Global Hawk and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems' Predator B aircraft.


Both are built and tested in the Antelope Valley; Global Hawk at Northrop's facility at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale and Predator B at General Atomics' site at Grey Butte.


The risk-reduction testing may also include the NASA ER-2 - a variant of the high-altitude U-2 spy plane - and Scaled Composites' Proteus aircraft, according to the department's bid solicitation. The ER-2 aircraft are stationed at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, while the Proteus is a product of Mojave-based Scaled Composites.


The ground-based missile launchers are known as "man-portable air defense systems," or MANPADS. Originally developed in the Vietnam War era as defense against air attacks, they have become increasingly sophisticated weapons capable of offensive threats. Consisting primarily of 6-foot-long launch tubes, the systems can be carried easily and set up by a single person in under a minute.


The Department of Homeland Security plan calls for using proven high-altitude, unmanned systems coupled with defensive counter-measure systems located either on board the aircraft or on the ground around an airport.


In the latter case, the airborne system would carry a missile warning system that would then alert the defense countermeasure on the ground, according to the department solicitation.


According to the solicitation, "the payload design and application must be suitable for employment aboard a Global Hawk or Predator B (unmanned vehicle)."


(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...

[American Patriot]

America knew about China's secret anti-satellite test
The Times of India ^ | 23 Apr, 2007 l 1250 hrs IST | The Press Trust of India (PTI)

WASHINGTON: American intelligence had picked up signs about preparations of an anti-satellite test by China in January this year but the US government decided to keep quiet as it felt it had little leverage with Beijing.

The United States had detected two previous tests of the system, dubbed the SC-19 by American intelligence on July 7, 2005, and Feb 6, 2006. Neither struck a target. In neither case did the Bush administration complain to the Chinese, a senior official said.

In December 2006 and early January of this year, US intelligence agencies picked up signs that preparations for a third Chinese anti-satellite test appeared to be underway. The mobile missile launcher for the Chinese SC-19 was repeatedly detected on the Songlin pad, according to American officials familiar with the classified reports.

In early January, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which collects and analyzes reconnaissance information, also warned that an SC-19 test was possible that month.

The presumed target for the test was an old Chinese weather satellite known as the Feng-Yun-1C. The US Air Force was carefully tracking the satellite on the day of the test, checking its location six times that day instead of the normal two, according to Geoff Forden, a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute.

Senior Bush administration officials debated how to respond and even began to draft a protest, but ultimately decided to say nothing to Beijing until after the test.

The administration felt constrained in its dealings with China because of its view that it had little leverage to stop an important Chinese military program.

[American Patriot]

The location where I work will be on FOX news sometime this morning, and the crew that visited here will be out on an Aegis cruiser this morning sometime.

Keep your eyes on the news. (They can't give us a firm time, but I got the following information)

The Fox crew who visited the JNIC facility back on March 29th will be attempting multiple live reports on 24, 25 and 27 April from an Aegis Cruiser. We understand the JNIC portions will be aired the morning of Tuesday, April 24, however, Fox has not been able to provide a concrete time of the broadcast since there are a lot of variables involved. If a solid time is provided from Fox News, that information will be sent out as a JNIC Announcement.

Fox news will, as usual, be shown all day on the televisions in the JNIC High Plains Cafeteria for anyone interested in attempting to view the broadcast. The broadcast can also be viewed from individual unclassified LAN systems using the Viewer program.

[Ryan Ruck]

I just saw the piece at around 11:36am ET.

It was about 2 minutes long and they indicated they would have other reports over the next couple days.

[American Patriot]

I caught it. Thanks

[American Patriot]

Raytheon Missiles Engage Ballistic Missile and Airborne Targets Over the Pacific Ocean
defensetalk.com ^

PACIFIC MISSILE RANGE FACILITY, KAUAI, Hawaii: In a first-of-its-kind dual missile defense test today, Raytheon Company produced Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) and Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) simultaneously engaged targets over the Pacific Ocean.

This was the first time a U.S. Navy ship demonstrated simultaneous ship engagements against both cruise and ballistic missile targets. It was the eighth successful intercept for the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system's SM-3.

The SM-3 Block IA destroyed a short-range ballistic missile target in space while SM-2 Block IIIA engaged a cruise missile threat at a lower altitude. Both intercepting missiles were fired from guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70) by the ship's crew. The ballistic missile target was launched from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai. The subsonic cruise missile target was launched from a range aircraft.

"The success of the SM-3 program is a validation of our strong Missile Defense Agency, Navy and contractor team," said Louise Francesconi, president of Raytheon Missile Systems. "This strong customer relationship and our ability to balance kill vehicle, missile and system requirements helped to ensure a successful mission."

[American Patriot]

And videos for some of the stuff.

[American Patriot]

[American Patriot]

http://www.nowpublic.com/navy_ballis...s_at_sea_today

This site has the most recent video of the tests yesterday. No audio or I broke something/.....

[Ryan Ruck]

That's our Democrat party, always looking out for our national security!

House Panel Considers Cuts for Missile Defense

The Bush administration’s proposal to construct two American missile defense bases in Europe has roiled relations with Russia and provoked sharp questioning even in NATO capitals, where critics ask: With the system still unproven and, under the best of circumstances, years from completion, why rush construction now?

Now the Democratic majority in Congress is moving toward budget cuts aimed at slowing the administration’s plans to break ground this year on one of the bases, in Poland. Representative Ellen O. Tauscher, a California Democrat who is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said the committee would approve “only prudent investments” in what she labeled “high-risk, immature programs” to shoot down long-range missiles, like the system advocated for Europe.

The administration wants to begin digging silos for 10 interceptors in Poland and laying the foundation for a tracking radar in the Czech Republic this year to defend Europe against what it calls a looming long-range ballistic missile threat from Iran. But in a vote scheduled for Wednesday, the House committee was expected to approve only a study of the “political, technical, operational, force structure and budgetary aspects” of the European sites.

The bill, still under consideration late Wednesday, would cut $160 million from funds proposed for construction in Poland, as part of $764 million in cuts from the $8.9 billion the administration has sought for the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency in 2008.

A cut of $160 million would prevent breaking ground on the interceptor silos in Poland, while leaving funds to move forward with buying the 10 interceptor missiles and installing the radar for the Czech Republic, Congressional officials say.

The bill would also face a vote by the full House. Similar discussions are under way in the Senate, where the new Democratic majority is also skeptical of missile defense.

Administration officials say the proposals for two antimissile bases in former Soviet satellites in Central Europe are a modest but important step toward establishing a system of high-technology global sentries capable of shooting down warheads fired off by an adversary with a limited arsenal of ballistic missiles.

But in a critical assessment of the missile defense program issued in March, the Government Accountability Office noted that the antimissile program “cannot yet be fully assessed because there have been too few flight tests conducted to anchor the models and simulations that predict overall system performance.”

In an interview, Lt. Gen. Henry A. Obering III, director of the Missile Defense Agency, took issue with the report, saying, “I do believe we are on the right path.” The American military is moving at full speed to prove that the system is capable of destroying a long-range enemy warhead in an environment that he says mirrors a real-world threat, and has its next test scheduled along the West Coast for the end of this month.

Even so, the administration says the United States must begin pouring concrete soon to have the European system operating by 2012 — to counter an Iranian long-range missile ability that American intelligence warns will be reached between 2010 and 2015. Pentagon officials have said that the emerging European system can also incorporate improvements in technology.

Last month, the administration opened a campaign in which the secretaries of state and defense, along with a team of other senior officials and generals, canvassed European capitals, including Moscow, to explain the limited nature of the system under consideration.

Daniel Fried, the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said recently that the missile defense system in Europe was intended to help protect American forces serving in NATO nations, and to help guarantee the security of those allies, at a time when the United States was moving ahead with its own system of missiles and radars to guard American territory.

“The fact is alliance security should be indivisible,” Mr. Fried added. “And if Europe is vulnerable to Iranian missiles, that means we’re insecure as well.”

Russia has little to fear from the bases proposed for the former Soviet satellites, American officials say, because the limited missile defense architecture under consideration — the 10 interceptors — is not even a tiny shadow of the Reagan-era “Star Wars” program that dreamt of an impenetrable missile shield. The price tag of the European system is small by comparison, at $3.5 billion.

Kremlin leaders rejected a peace offering of American-Russian cooperation on missile defense that was carried to Moscow by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, but Russian leaders agreed to set up a joint commission to examine the fine print of the plan. The Russians also demanded a high-level session to debate details of proposed missile defenses in Europe, which is likely to lead to a meeting in September between Mr. Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and their Russian counterparts, Mr. Fried said.

As discussions with the Russians accelerate, administration and military officials are expected to emphasize their position that the location, size and design of the missile defense sites in Central Europe clearly illustrate that the system poses no threat to Moscow’s hundreds of missiles and thousands of warheads.

General Obering said the sites in Central Europe were not positioned to intercept Russia’s strategic nuclear missiles, as they would fly over the North Pole, and not over Europe, if fired at the United States.

“It doesn’t matter that the deployment poses no plausible physical threat to Russia’s deterrent, because Moscow fears it might serve as a toehold that could be expanded and upgraded in the future,” said Wade Boese, research director for the Arms Control Association, a research and advocacy group here. “The administration should be careful that its response to a projected or hypothetical threat does not create a much bigger problem with Russia.”

[Ryan Ruck]

BMD Focus: The Battle To Save The ABL

Democrats on Capitol Hill have declared war on the ambitious Airborne Laser anti-ballistic missile program, but the three giant aerospace contractors who are building the ABL are already fighting back.

War was declared on Tuesday when the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives announced it was slashing $400 million from the $517 million requested for the development of the troubled and widely criticized program in its markups to the annual defense appropriations bill. If that cut goes through, it may be curtains for the ABL, whose prime contractor is Boeing.

The subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., also took a swipe at the Bush administration's cherished program to deploy BMD systems in Central Europe over the next five years. The administration requested $300 million. Tauscher and her committee cut that in their markup to around $160 million. In all, the subcommittee proposed cutting around 9 percent of the total Bush administration budget request for ballistic missile defense -- a proposed total of $764 million in cuts out of an $8.9 billion request.

Other military space or BMD programs took big hits, too.

"Worried that military space programs cannot be completed on schedule and within budget, the subcommittee cut $200 million from the Alternate Infrared Satellite System, $150 million from the Global Positioning Systems III and $80 million from High Integrity GPS," Defense News reported.

The subcommittee's decision is not the final word in the budget process, however. The bill may be heavily amended and some of the cuts restored in a reconciliation conference with the Senate. Or President George W. Bush, who has already shown his willingness to veto military funding bills crafted by the Democrats on Capitol Hill when they attempt to derail major policies, may swing his own ax on the bill.

But Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, the "big three" defense aerospace contractors most involved in the ABL, are not sitting back waiting for their congressional supporters to step in and fight Tauscher's proposed cuts. They are already out in the marketplace of ideas making their case for saving the ABL.

In a joint statement issued Tuesday, the three giant companies noted that the Airborne Laser is intended to provide a boost-phase intercept capacity to shoot down intercontinental ballistic missiles after they are launched.

They said the ABL program "remains on track to complete a lethal demonstration in 2009 that will validate the unique contribution ABL can bring to an integrated ballistic missile defense system (BMDS) as a boost phase element."

"The laser system fired effectively at full power and full duration during ground testing in 2005," the statement said. "In 2007, low-power flight tests for the beam control/fire control system will be complete and the high-power laser integration inside the aircraft will begin. In 2008, we will begin high-power system testing that will culminate in an early 2009 lethal demonstration.

"We stand on the verge of fully demonstrating a revolutionary warfighting capability," the companies said. "ABL technical risk has been substantially reduced as a result of previous investments by both Democratic and Republican administrations and congressional guidance. Given the importance of the boost-phase mission and the proximity of demonstrating ABL's capabilities, it would be imprudent to cripple or terminate this program just when we are on the cusp of demonstrating ABL's capability.

"We most respectfully urge Congress to support the full fiscal year '08 budget request for the Airborne Laser program," the joint statement said.

If the ABL program goes operational it will involve pairs of giant aircraft carrying the weapons that will patrol within friendly airspace at altitudes of around 40,000 feet, ready to track and acquire as targets ascending ICBMs.

A key attraction of the ABL concept is that, whereas the fastest ballistic missile or ABM interceptor can accelerate to 15,000 to 18,000 miles per hour, lasers fire at the speed of light, which is 186,000 miles per second.

It should also be noted that Tauscher and her subcommittee were by no means hostile to the U.S. BMD program in general. The Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance noted Tuesday that Tauscher's Strategic Forces Subcommittee "has authorized and added an additional $94 million to the Missile Defense Agency's budget, as well as sustaining full funding for all the current development, testing and deployment for near-term missile defense systems for a total $8.236 billion."

"In addition, this same subcommittee also recommended fully funding the $1.4 billion separate missile defense request by the U.S. Army to address the current missile threats through terminal missile defense systems," the MDAA said.

[Ryan Ruck]

U.S. May Share Missile Info With China

The United States would "seriously" consider sharing technology and missile warning intelligence with China, the U.S. defense chief said Sunday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters attending the Shangri-la Asian security meeting that he has not made such an offer but would be open to it. "I think if the Chinese were to express an interest in it, we would certainly take it seriously," he said.

The Russian government in April rejected a similar offer in its protests against a U.S. anti-ballistic missile defense system comprising 10 interceptors and a radar facility to be built in Poland and the Czech Republic.

China is concerned about U.S-Japan cooperation on a missile defense system, which would be primarily concerned with North Korea, which has launched long-range ballistic missiles toward Japan in recent years.

Gates reiterated the assertion that the missile defense systems under discussion were meant to counter rogue states or terrorists with missiles, rather than large countries like China and Russia, whose arsenals could easily overwhelm the limited system.

"In neither case is ballistic missile defense aimed at either at weakening the deterrent of either China or Russia," he said.

"I think it is worth reaffirming that the missile defenses that we are planning, both at home and abroad, both in Europe and in Asia, are intended to deal with the acquisition of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction by either rogue countries or rogue governments or terrorist groups," Gates said.

Missile defense is not the only subject China expressed concern about. U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Peter Pace said a Chinese general said he was not pleased by the annual U.S. report on Chinese military power.

[Brian Baldwin]

Missile defense is not the only subject China expressed concern about. U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Peter Pace said a Chinese general said he was not pleased by the annual U.S. report on Chinese military power.

LMAO. So what? They want us to take it back and say we're very worried, you chinese are big and tough? Grow up already.

[American Patriot]

FOXNEWS.COM HOME > WORLD

Russia Promises Retaliation if Weapons Deployed in Space

Thursday, September 27, 2007


MOSCOW — The chief of Russia's space forces on Thursday said Moscow would have to retaliate if others deploy weapons in space — a stern warning to the United States.

While Col.-Gen. Vladimir Popovkin did not name any specific country, he was clearly referring to U.S. plans for space-based weapons, which the Kremlin had vociferously opposed.


"We don't want to wage a war in space, we don't want to gain dominance in space, but we won't allow any other nation to dominate space," Popovkin said in televised remarks. "If any country deploys weapons in space, then the laws of warfare are such that retaliatory weapons are certain to appear."


President Vladimir Putin has criticized U.S. plans for space-based weapons, saying it could trigger a new arms race.


When China tested an anti-satellite missile in January, Putin said that the move was a response to U.S. plans for space-based weapons.
Russia and China have strongly pushed for an international agreement banning space weapons, but their proposals have been stymied by the United States.


"It's necessary to legalize the game rules in space," Popovkin said. He warned that the complexity of space weapons could trigger a war.



Satellites may fail on technical reasons, but their owner could think they were incapacitated by an enemy and could be tempted to retaliate, Popovkin said.


"If that happens, a nation might ask a legitimate question: could it be the beginning of an effort to deafen and blind it," Popovkin said.


President Bush signed an order last year tacitly asserting the U.S. right to space weapons and opposing the development of treaties or other measures restricting them.


Bush also had pushed an ambitious program for space-based missile defense, and the Pentagon is working on missiles, ground lasers and other technology to shoot down satellites.


The U.S. plans have worried Russia, which also has strongly criticized U.S. plans to deploy missile defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic. Putin has rejected U.S. assertions that the missile defense sites in Europe were necessary to confront a prospective missile threat from Iran and said they threatened Russia's nuclear deterrent.


The dispute has badly damaged the Russian-U.S. relations, also strained over U.S. criticism of the Kremlin's backsliding on democracy and rifts over global crises.


Popovkin said Russia would modernize components of its air and missile defense systems. He said, in particular, that the military would build a new early warning radar near Armavir in southern Russia's Krasnodar region to replace aging Soviet-built radars it currently shares with Ukraine.
Such radars are intended to detect the launch of an enemy's ballistic missiles.


Popovkin also said that Russia in 2009 would start testing a new generation of satellites to spot missile launches. He said more than 60 military and dual-purpose satellites are currently in orbit.

[American Patriot]

Here is the reason that the Russians are so up in arms about Poland and about Missile Defense.

Missile Defense Based in Poland Might Stop REussian Attack Aimed at U.S.
The Wall Street Journal Online ^ | September 26, 2007 | KEITH J. WINSTEIN

Missile Defense Based in Poland Might Stop Attack Aimed at U.S.

By KEITH J. WINSTEIN September 26, 2007 11:44 p.m.

A proposed missile defense system in Poland would be able to intercept Russian missiles launched at the U.S., according to an analysis by a prominent missile-defense critic.

The Missile Defense Agency, a part of the Department of Defense, strongly disputes the calculations, by Theodore A. Postol, a professor of national security policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Postol is best known for his criticism of the efficacy of the Patriot antimissile system's performance in the 1991 Gulf War.

As part of its negotiations with Poland and Russia over the proposed European-based missile shield, the Pentagon has said that the proposed system "would not be capable" of intercepting Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles launched at the U.S.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...