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Hellfire builds success record in Iraq
Published: Jan. 8, 2008 at 5:57 PM
ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin said Tuesday its Hellfire missile has logged new records of success in Iraq and Afghanistan. -
LM wins new Hellfire missile contract
Published: Jan. 8, 2008 at 5:52 PM
ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin said Monday it had won a U.S. Army order for more Hellfire II air-to-ground missiles. -
Boeing launches CCDR of JTRS GMR design
Published: Jan. 8, 2008 at 5:52 PM
ST. LOUIS, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. company Boeing said Tuesday it has launched a Capstone Critical Design Review of its JTRS GMR radio system design.
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Outside View: Japan goes ABM
Published: Jan. 8, 2008 at 11:15 AM
By PYOTR GONCHAROV
UPI Outside View Commentator
MOSCOW, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. anti-ballistic missile program has crossed the boundaries of Russian-U.S. relations and, to all appearances, will soon acquire larger global significance now that Japan is following the American footsteps to establish its own sea- and land-based ABM system. The plan was already announced and is rapidly being built up. -
BMD Watch: Japan scores BMD breakthrough
Published: Jan. 8, 2008 at 11:15 AM
By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News Analyst
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Japan's ballistic missile defense program took a giant leap forward last week with its first successful interception of a ballistic missile with a U.S.-built Standard Missile-3 off Kauai Island, Hawaii. -
Thompson Files: Reforming the NRO
Published: Jan. 8, 2008 at 11:14 AM
By LOREN B. THOMPSON
ARLINGTON, Va., Jan. 8 (UPI) -- The National Reconnaissance Office, the organization that manages America's spy satellites, is a relic: It hasn't managed to grow its intelligence collection and processing capabilities, leading some policymakers to conclude that major reform is needed. -
Outside View: CFE talks facts -- Part 2
Published: Jan. 7, 2008 at 11:04 AM
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UPI Outside View Commentator
MOSCOW, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- It would be odd for Russia to be seriously worried about a higher level of military threat after NATO admitted Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and the three Baltic countries of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia as member nations. But not everyone can afford to follow this logic -- military experts, diplomats and lawyers have to be guided by military balance figures and contractual provisions until they receive other signals or documents from political leaders. -
Defense Focus: Year in review -- Part 2
Published: Jan. 7, 2008 at 11:01 AM
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- The year 2007 was a year when several major powers served notice that U.S. weapons superiority in every field and class wasn't going to remain an uncontested monopoly. -
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Published: Jan. 4, 2008 at 8:30 PM
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BMD Watch: Japan scores BMD breakthrough
Published: Jan. 8, 2008 at 11:15 AM
By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News Analyst
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Japan's ballistic missile defense program took a giant leap forward last week with its first successful interception of a ballistic missile with a U.S.-built Standard Missile-3 off Kauai Island, Hawaii.
The SM-3 was launched from the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force's Aegis destroyer Kongo, the MSDF said Dec. 17.
The test indicates that Japan already has the capability to intercept and destroy in flight North Korean ballistic missiles such as the Rodong, or even the Taepodong-1, that Pyongyang could fire at the island nation's densely populated cities, the Daily Yomiuri reported Dec. 19.
The Tokyo newspaper reported details of the test, which began at 12:05 p.m. Dec. 17 when a real ballistic missile with a fake warhead was fired from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai.
The Kongo picked up the target missile right after its takeoff and responded rapidly, firing an SM-3 Block IA standard missile only four minutes later. The SM-3 struck the target missile and eliminated it in an exoatmospheric interception more than 60 miles above sea level three minutes after the Kongo launched it, the newspaper said.
Although the test success was the first for Japanese BMD forces, the Aegis-SM-3 systems are now a relatively mature and very reliable technology. The paper noted that U.S. forces have now racked up 11 successful interceptions in 13 tests.
The target missile was a multistage one that was designed to have the flight characteristics of a North Korean Rodong intermediate range ballistic missile with a range of just under 800 miles, the paper said.
IRBMs fly far more slowly than intercontinental range ballistic missiles, and therefore are technically much easier to intercept. SM-3s cannot destroy ICBMs in flight once they have accelerated to high speeds. But the SM-3 missiles do have the capability to intercept and destroy old Scud-type missiles, which do not jettison their early stages and therefore remain lower and larger targets. The Daily Yomiuri said the Rodong could fly at speeds of Mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound. That is about half the velocity of an ICBM.
The newspaper said the successful test was personally watched by Japanese Vice Defense Minister Akinori Eto, who was on the Kongo. It said the SM-3's interception and destruction of the target missile were recorded on an infrared camera.
"The success of this experiment is symbolic of close security relationship between Japan and the United States," Eto said, according to the report.
Lt. Gen. Henry "Trey" Obering III, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, welcomed the Japanese test and said it reflected and would further strengthen the U.S.-Japanese partnership.
Japan's drive to develop effective ballistic missile defenses goes back to the alarm caused by North Korea's August 1998 firing of a Taepodong-1 IRBM over the Japanese islands into the Pacific.
Russia ready to put MIRVs on Topol-Ms
Russia said Dec. 19 its massive renewed investment in intercontinental ballistic missile modernization and upgrades was bearing fruit.
Former defense minister and current First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who enjoyed great success under President Vladimir Putin in rebuilding the obsolescent equipment of the Russian armed forces and in boosting maintenance and operational reliability of the Strategic Missile Forces, said Dec. 19 that the Kremlin was almost ready to operationally deploy a new multiple-warhead missile system equipped with Topol-M multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles, or MIRVs.
According to a report carried by RIA Novosti Dec. 19, Ivanov said the Topol-M, the current backbone of the Strategic Missile Forces, is currently used in both mobile and fixed-site deployments.
The otherwise reliable and long-range Topol's weakness is that previously, it could not carry MIRV warheads the way other systems could. But Ivanov said the long-awaited MIRV version was on the way.
"I very much hope that it will appear in its MIRV modification in the very near future," he said.
RIA Novosti quoted a Strategic Missile Forces spokesman as saying Monday that Russia would deploy 48 fixed-site Topol-Ms -- NATO designation SS-27 -- by the beginning of January. He said that over the next two or three years, all of those ICBMs would be upgraded with MIRV warheads.
Russian missile force commanders believe that the new MIRV-equipped Topols would be more than a match for any ballistic missile defenses that the United States and its allies might develop and deploy.
RIA Novosti said that in December 2006 the SMF had 44 silo-based and three mobile Topol-M missile systems deployed.
UPI Senior News Analyst
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Japan's ballistic missile defense program took a giant leap forward last week with its first successful interception of a ballistic missile with a U.S.-built Standard Missile-3 off Kauai Island, Hawaii.
The SM-3 was launched from the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force's Aegis destroyer Kongo, the MSDF said Dec. 17.
The test indicates that Japan already has the capability to intercept and destroy in flight North Korean ballistic missiles such as the Rodong, or even the Taepodong-1, that Pyongyang could fire at the island nation's densely populated cities, the Daily Yomiuri reported Dec. 19.
The Tokyo newspaper reported details of the test, which began at 12:05 p.m. Dec. 17 when a real ballistic missile with a fake warhead was fired from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai.
The Kongo picked up the target missile right after its takeoff and responded rapidly, firing an SM-3 Block IA standard missile only four minutes later. The SM-3 struck the target missile and eliminated it in an exoatmospheric interception more than 60 miles above sea level three minutes after the Kongo launched it, the newspaper said.
Although the test success was the first for Japanese BMD forces, the Aegis-SM-3 systems are now a relatively mature and very reliable technology. The paper noted that U.S. forces have now racked up 11 successful interceptions in 13 tests.
The target missile was a multistage one that was designed to have the flight characteristics of a North Korean Rodong intermediate range ballistic missile with a range of just under 800 miles, the paper said.
IRBMs fly far more slowly than intercontinental range ballistic missiles, and therefore are technically much easier to intercept. SM-3s cannot destroy ICBMs in flight once they have accelerated to high speeds. But the SM-3 missiles do have the capability to intercept and destroy old Scud-type missiles, which do not jettison their early stages and therefore remain lower and larger targets. The Daily Yomiuri said the Rodong could fly at speeds of Mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound. That is about half the velocity of an ICBM.
The newspaper said the successful test was personally watched by Japanese Vice Defense Minister Akinori Eto, who was on the Kongo. It said the SM-3's interception and destruction of the target missile were recorded on an infrared camera.
"The success of this experiment is symbolic of close security relationship between Japan and the United States," Eto said, according to the report.
Lt. Gen. Henry "Trey" Obering III, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, welcomed the Japanese test and said it reflected and would further strengthen the U.S.-Japanese partnership.
Japan's drive to develop effective ballistic missile defenses goes back to the alarm caused by North Korea's August 1998 firing of a Taepodong-1 IRBM over the Japanese islands into the Pacific.
Russia ready to put MIRVs on Topol-Ms
Russia said Dec. 19 its massive renewed investment in intercontinental ballistic missile modernization and upgrades was bearing fruit.
Former defense minister and current First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who enjoyed great success under President Vladimir Putin in rebuilding the obsolescent equipment of the Russian armed forces and in boosting maintenance and operational reliability of the Strategic Missile Forces, said Dec. 19 that the Kremlin was almost ready to operationally deploy a new multiple-warhead missile system equipped with Topol-M multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles, or MIRVs.
According to a report carried by RIA Novosti Dec. 19, Ivanov said the Topol-M, the current backbone of the Strategic Missile Forces, is currently used in both mobile and fixed-site deployments.
The otherwise reliable and long-range Topol's weakness is that previously, it could not carry MIRV warheads the way other systems could. But Ivanov said the long-awaited MIRV version was on the way.
"I very much hope that it will appear in its MIRV modification in the very near future," he said.
RIA Novosti quoted a Strategic Missile Forces spokesman as saying Monday that Russia would deploy 48 fixed-site Topol-Ms -- NATO designation SS-27 -- by the beginning of January. He said that over the next two or three years, all of those ICBMs would be upgraded with MIRV warheads.
Russian missile force commanders believe that the new MIRV-equipped Topols would be more than a match for any ballistic missile defenses that the United States and its allies might develop and deploy.
RIA Novosti said that in December 2006 the SMF had 44 silo-based and three mobile Topol-M missile systems deployed.
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This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
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