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Missile Defense Watch: Operational
In this photo provided by Missile Defense Agency, a ground-based missile is shown shortly after liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., Friday, Sept. 28, 2007. The missile successfully intercepted a target missile Friday in a test of the nation’s defense system, the Missile Defense Agency said.
Missile defense system is up and running, military says
After a successful test last week, the tracking radars and interceptor rockets of a new American missile defense system can be turned on at any time to respond to an emerging crisis in Asia, senior military officers said Tuesday.
General Victor Renuart Jr., the senior commander for defense of United States territory, said that the antimissile system could guard against the risk of ballistic missile attack from North Korea even while development continues on a series of radars in California and the Pacific Ocean and on interceptor missiles in Alaska and California.
While the new system is limited, it is the most extensive anti-ballistic missile system the Pentagon has fielded since the Safeguard ABM system near Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota was briefly operated, starting in 1975. Congress immediately voted to shut it down, and it operated for only a few months.
“We can bring missiles up or take them down as need be so that they can continue doing the testing,” said Renuart, commander of the military’s Northern Command, based in Colorado Springs. But, he added, “I’m fully confident that we have all of the pieces in place that, if the nation needed to, we could respond.”
Here is the video of the September 28th test from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=z2nlYEJIEDE[/youtube]
Although there appears to be minimal operational status at this time it is still noteworthy milestone in the history of the Missile Defense Agency.
So, what is next?
The Pentagon will incorporate counter-measures in its next major missile defense test for the first time in years after a successful intercept last week, the general who heads the program said Tuesday.
Critics of the system have long contended the interceptor’s so-called “kill vehicle” could easily be spoofed with simple counter-measures such as decoy balloons, because of the difficulty of distinguishing a warhead from other objects in space.
But Lieutenant General Henry “Trey” Obering showed reporters a video of the view from the kill vehicle in Friday’s test in which it is seen sorting through a variety of objects before zeroing in on the mock warhead.
The other objects included the missile’s re-entry vehicle as well as other as yet unidentified debris, said Obering, who heads the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency.
“We did not have countermeasures on this flight,” he said, but based on the system’s performance in the test, “we will be put them on the next flight.”
The next test could be as early as February or March, or as late as May, a spokesman for the agency said.
And, deployment in Europe to protect United States and its Allies from Iran missile attack.
A successful U.S. missile defense test last Friday should quieten doubts about the system’s viability and bolster support for U.S. plans to deploy interceptor missiles and a powerful tracking radar in Europe, a top Pentagon official said on Tuesday.
“I think it helps in a very real way,” Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Henry Obering told reporters. He said European and NATO allies often questioned him about the unproven nature of U.S. missile defenses.
“This goes a long way to answering that question,” he said. “We’re making great steady progress in terms of showing that this system does work, and this is a major step forward.”
Washington wants to install 10 ground-based interceptor missiles in Poland and a tracking radar station in the Czech Republic to defend against a potential Iranian missile attack. It says Iran may develop missiles able to reach the United States by 2015.
Even if work began next year, the European sites would not be operational until 2011 or 2012, Obering said, underscoring the need to start soon.
Thanks to President Ronald Reagan and his early SDI staff America is safer today. And, no thanks to Senators Carl Levin, Joe Biden, Teddy Kennedy and John Kerry.
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Technorati Tags: Missile Defense Agency, Missile Defense
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Missile Defense Watch: United States Tests Ship-Based Missile Defense System Against Short-Range Missile
AFP: US tests ship-based defense system against short-range missile
An interceptor missile fired from a US warship destroyed a short-range target missile in its last few seconds of flight, the US Missile Defense Agency said.
“It was the first sea-based intercept of a ballistic missile in its terminal phase,” the agency said.
The USS Lake Erie, an Aegis cruiser that has been modified for missile defense operations, used a Standard Missile-2 Block IV missile to intercept a short range ballistic missile off Hawaii, the agency said.
The goal of the test was to show that the target missile could be destroyed in the last few seconds of flight either with a direct hit or with a blast close enough to knock it down.
“In today’s test, the threat missile was completely destroyed by the combined effects of these two mechanisms,” the agency said.
The US military has a ground-based missile defense system, the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, designed to intercept and destroy incoming short-range missiles. But it has no ship-borne capability.
A Pentagon report this week highlighted the threat to US aircraft carriers and surface warships of China’s ballistic missiles.
And a nice missile to have deployed next to Israel and adjacent to the Persian Gulf to protect your carriers by defeating Iranian Shahab-3 missiles.
Is this a message to Iranian President Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs?
You betcha…….
Technorati Tags: USSLakeErie, Aegiscruiser, StnadardMissile-2BlockIVMissile, PatriotAdvancedCapability-3Missiles, Iran
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Strategic Missle Defense Watch: Russians Deploy NEW Strategic Missle
Matt Drudge has Russia deploys new set of strategic nuclear missiles
The chief of Russia’s strategic forces on Saturday attended the deployment of a new set of state-of-the art intercontinental ballistic missiles, boasting of their capability to penetrate any prospective missile defense, news reports said.
Col. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, chief of the Strategic Missile Forces, took part in a ceremony that marked the commissioning of the latest set of Topol-M missiles at a missile base in Tatishchevo in the Volga River’s Saratov region.
Solovtsov said Saturday that the new missile “is capable of penetrating any missile defense system,” the RIA Novosti and Interfax news agencies reported.
Russian officials have called prospective U.S. missile defenses destabilizing and boasted repeatedly that Russia’s new missiles could pierce any nation’s missile shield.
The Topol-M missiles, capable of hitting targets more than 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) away, have so far been deployed in silos. The mobile version, mounted on a heavy off-road vehicle, is to enter combat service next year, Solovtsov said.
The deployed Topol-Ms have been fitted with single nuclear warheads, but officials have considered plans to equip each missile with three individually targeted warheads.
Merry Christmas from the Russians – a NEW strategic missle with the capability of destroying American cities.
Topol-M Missle
Here is a pre-deployment story on the Topol-M.And the Russians have already tested earlier in the month a newly developed sea-based ICBM, the Bulava.
Russia successfully test-launched a newly developed intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday for the first time under water, the navy said.
The Bulava, a solid fuel missile, blasted off from the nuclear submarine Dmitry Donskoy in the White Sea and hit its designated target in the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, chief naval spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo told The Associated Press.
“This is the second test-firing of the new generation missile Bulava and the first underwater launch of the missile,” he said.
Russia’s navy is to get two newly equipped nuclear submarines in 2006, armed with the new Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles, the navy commander said in April. The missiles have a range of 5,000 miles.
Each submarine will be equipped with 12 missiles, the Interfax news agency reported.
In December last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin encouraged the Defense Ministry to keep up production of new strategic missile systems, a process slowed in the past by a shortage of funds.
And……“OUR FRIENDS?” the Russians are selling nuclear missle technology to the Iranians with help from the North Koreans.
It is a dangerous world out there my friends and the Senate Democrats are WORRIED about the Patriot Act?
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Iran Nuclear Watch: Russians Helping with Missle Threat to Europe
