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Missile defense trajectory
A year ago this month, after decades of debate and delay, the first units of a national missile defense were deployed. Today, as that defense grows, a transition from a national to a global defense is under way. Japan, India, Australia, South Korea, Israel, Taiwan, NATO and others are moving to acquire new or improved missile defenses. An obvious self-preservation move, given the current state of affairs with IAEA, the EU-3, etc. Recently, the Republican-led Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) approved a defense appropriation bill that includes nearly $8 billion for missile defense. Top priority is to complete the current Ground-Based Missile Defense (GMD) to protect the United States, while adding regional defenses where needed. The SAC found GMD fundamentally sound, but in need of more rigorous testing. It added $200 million to maintain production of GMD interceptors and allow more tests. Much is being done to improve initial defenses. Nine interceptors are on line in Alaska and California, and five more will be in place by the end of this year. The battle-management, command, control and communications systems are connected, linking the interceptors to ground- and sea-based radars and space-based sensors. Existing radars are being upgraded and new ones built. A transportable X-band radar was tested against a Minuteman missile Sept. 14 and will be deployed in December. On Sept. 26, the Cobra Dane radar on Shemya Island in the Aleutians successfully tracked an air-launched missile on a realistic trajectory across the Pacific. The big sea-based X-band radar, which will help distinguish warheads from decoys, is in testing in the Gulf of Mexico and will move to the Aleutians next spring. U.S. and Japanese Aegis destroyers are on station in the Pacific and Sea of Japan, watching for missiles. The Navy's new Standard Missile-3, which will give Aegis ships the ability not just to detect short- and medium-range missiles, but shoot them down, will soon be in the fleet. The SAC added $75 million to accelerate this successful program. In addition to the U.S. and Japan, South Korea and Australia are deploying Aegis-equipped ships also able to carry missile interceptors. The U.S. and Japan are jointly improving the sea-based interceptor SM-3 Block II, to defend a larger area and counter longer-range missiles. Japan, worried about China and North Korea, will build the second-stage rocket and design a "clam shell" nose cone, paying a large part of development costs. The main program to attack missiles in their vulnerable boost-phase is the Airborne Laser (ABL), a high-energy laser weapon carried in a 747 aircraft with a global reach. ABL continues meeting its milestones and is on schedule for a missile shoot-down attempt in 2008. The SAC added $10 million for the ABL because of its "steady progress in the last 18 months." Posted by: Captain America 2005-10-10 |
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