Ground-to-Ground Missile Systems

[buglerbilly]

Boeing Proposes Missile With Global Reach

Updated: 1 day 8 hours ago

Sharon Weinberger
Contributor

AOL News (March 18) -- For nearly a decade, the Pentagon has grappled with finding a way to field a weapon with the speed and range of an intercontinental ballistic missile, but without the political ramifications of launching a nuke. Now Boeing says it has the answer: a revived 1980s-era hypersonic missile that could strike anywhere in the world in less than an hour.

The company says it has a missile concept ready, and that if it gets the go-ahead and funding from the Pentagon, the weapon could be ready for fielding within 30 months. The missile, which was developed in the 1980s, is already "flight proven," Margaret Morse, Boeing's director for strategic missile systems, told reporters today at a press briefing on the company's missile defense work.


Missile Defense Agency, AP
Boeing says it can built a hypersonic missile capable of hitting anywhere in the world. It would offer a different option than an intercontinental ballistic missile, which is shown here being launched during a 2007 test in Alaska.

The company describes the hypersonic strike vehicle as a quick turnaround "gap filler" that could fit the Pentagon's desire for what officials call "prompt global strike," that is, the ability to strike anywhere in the world within one hour using a conventional weapon. Such a capability has been proposed as a way to strike "fleeting targets," such as a high-profile terrorist.

Currently, the only way to strike anywhere in the world in an hour or less is using nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles launched from land or submarines. Though the Pentagon has proposed swapping the nuclear warheads with conventional ones, the idea has largely foundered amid concerns that Russia would mistake any long-range ballistic missile launch for a nuclear strike.

Morse says the Boeing missile would have a very different trajectory than an ICBM and could not be mistaken for a nuclear strike. Rather, it would be launched from a solid-rocket booster with a depressed trajectory, and then the unpowered missile would maneuver to its target using only its kinetic energy.

The Boeing concept involves using a hypersonic weapon based on a 1980s-era system that was then called an advanced maneuvering re-entry vehicle.

The hypersonic missile is just one of the ideas that Boeing is pitching to the government in the hopes of making up for the expected hit in its missile defense business. With President Barack Obama's shift in missile defense strategy from a ground-based interceptor system developed by Boeing to a sea-based system, the company is poised to lose what has been a significant source of revenue.

In refocusing missile defense and canceling plans to expand the ground-based missile defense system in Europe, the administration cited the lack of an immediate long-range missile threat from countries such as Iran and North Korea.

But Boeing is also proposing a mobile two-stage ground-based missile interceptor that could be used against long-range missile threats in the event those forecasts are wrong. "It's looked at now as a hedge against the Iranian threat progressing quicker than expected," Norm Tew, the vice president for Boeing's Ground-based Midcourse Defense, said at the briefing for Boeing's mobile missile launcher idea.

The government, however, is not paying for Boeing to work on the mobile-launcher idea; the company is using its own funds. Tew said Boeing plans to test the two-stage booster this summer and then conduct an intercept test at a later date.

[buglerbilly]

U.S. looks to non-nuclear weapons to use as deterrent

By Craig Whitlock

Washington Post staff writer

Thursday, April 8, 2010

As the White House pushes for cuts in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, the Pentagon is developing a weapon to help fill the gap: missiles armed with conventional warheads that could strike anywhere in the world in less than an hour.

U.S. military officials say the intercontinental ballistic missiles, known as Prompt Global Strike weapons, are a necessary new form of deterrence against terrorist networks and other adversaries. As envisioned, the conventional missiles would give the White House a fresh military option to consider in a crisis that would not result in a radioactive mushroom cloud.

The Prompt Global Strike program, which the Pentagon has been developing for several years, is already raising hackles in Moscow, where Russian officials predict it could trigger a nonnuclear arms race and complicate President Obama's long-term vision of ridding the world of nuclear weapons. U.S. military officials are also struggling to solve a separate major obstacle: the risk that Russia or China could mistake the launch of a conventional Prompt Global Strike missile for a nuclear one.

"World states will hardly accept a situation in which nuclear weapons disappear, but weapons that are no less destabilizing emerge in the hands of certain members of the international community," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters Tuesday in Moscow.

The White House says that development of Prompt Global Strike is not affected by the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev are scheduled to sign Thursday in Prague. Analysts say, however, that any conventional ballistic missiles would count the same as nuclear ones under the treaty, which places new limits on each country's stockpile.

Deployment of a conventional ballistic missile is not expected until 2015 at the earliest. But the program has received a recent boost from the Obama administration, which sees the missiles as one cog in an array of defensive and offensive weapons that could ultimately replace nuclear arms.

The administration has asked Congress for $240 million for next year's Prompt Global Strike development programs, a 45 percent increase from the current budget. The military forecasts a total of $2 billion in development costs through 2015 -- a relative bargain by Pentagon standards.

After years of preparation, the Air Force is scheduled to perform an initial flight test of a prototype next month.

"Capabilities like an adaptive missile defense shield, conventional warheads with worldwide reach and others that we are developing enable us to reduce the role of nuclear weapons," Vice President Biden said in a February speech at the National Defense University. "With these modern capabilities, even with deep nuclear reductions, we will remain undeniably strong."

Nuclear arms have formed the backbone of U.S. deterrence strategy for six decades. Although the strategy worked during the Cold War, military leaders say they need other powerful weapons in their arsenal to deter adversaries who assume that the United States would refrain from taking the extreme step of ordering a nuclear strike.

"Deterrence can no longer just be nuclear weapons. It has to be broader," Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a leading proponent of Prompt Global Strike, told a conference last month.

Some U.S. military officials say their current nonnuclear options are too limited or too slow. Unlike intercontinental ballistic missiles, which travel at several times the speed of sound, it can take up to 12 hours for cruise missiles to hit faraway targets. Long-range bombers likewise can take many hours to fly into position for a strike.

"Today, unless you want to go nuclear, it's measured in days, maybe weeks" until the military can launch an attack with regular forces, Cartwright said. "That's just too long in the world that we live in." Other military officials said potential scenarios might include the discovery of an imminent plot by terrorists to use a weapon of mass destruction, or indications that an enemy state was preparing to launch a missile attack on a U.S. ally.

The Air Force prototype Prompt Global Strike design is a modified Peacekeeper III intercontinental ballistic missile. If it is successful, the plan is to deploy a handful of the missiles at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The weapons would be overseen by the U.S. Strategic Command, which is responsible for the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Air Force Gen. Kevin P. Chilton, who leads the command, based near Omaha, has said he sees Prompt Global Strike as a niche weapon, not one that could substitute for nuclear arms.

"I look at that as an additional weapon in the quiver of the president to give him options in time of crisis today, in which he maybe only has a nuclear option for a timely response," Chilton told a House committee last month.

Although it is technically simple to replace nuclear warheads on a missile with conventional ones, Prompt Global Strike has been dogged by a significant problem: how to ensure that Russia could tell the difference if a launch occurred.

To alleviate the risk of an accidental Russian nuclear retaliation, the Air Force is developing a conventional, land-based ballistic missile that would fire into space at a much lower altitude than nuclear warheads, something that could be detected by Russian early-warning radar systems. U.S. military officials have also said they might be willing to grant access to Russian inspectors, or warn Moscow about a conventional strike on a third-party target.

The Army is working on a separate design that is not as far along in its development. The Navy had been preparing yet another design -- a conventional version of its submarine-based Trident missile -- but Congress curtailed that program two years ago because of concerns that it was too difficult to distinguish from a nuclear-armed Trident.

Critics acknowledge that the technological hurdles are surmountable. But they say a more basic problem is that taking the nuclear part out of the equation could make it too easy for the White House to order a Prompt Global Strike attack. Intelligence in fast-breaking crises is rarely rock-solid, they note, and could result in a rushed strike on the wrong target.

"People watch '24' and think that's how intelligence comes in," said Jeffrey G. Lewis, director of the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative at the New America Foundation. "It's not like the president has his brain cybernetically linked to satellite images."

But proponents of Prompt Global Strike said its primary value would be in adding a level of deterrence to the U.S. nuclear arsenal. "At the end of the day, anybody who would be your adversary walks away thinking, 'If I'm going to do this, I'm going to pay dearly,' " Cartwright said last month. "There just can't be any doubt in their mind."

[buglerbilly]

From The Sunday Times April 25, 2010

Hyperfast missile to hit anywhere in an hour

Tony Allen-Mills in Washington

HAUNTED by the memory of a lost opportunity to kill Osama Bin Laden before he attacked the World Trade Center in New York, US military planners have won President Barack Obama’s support for a new generation of high-speed weapons that are intended to strike anywhere on Earth within an hour.

Obama’s interest in Prompt Global Strike (PGS), a nonnuclear weapons programme, has alarmed China and Russia and complicated nuclear arms reduction negotiations.

White House officials confirmed last week that the president, who won the Nobel peace prize last year, is considering the deployment of a new class of hypersonic guided missiles that can reach their targets at speeds of Mach 5 — about 3,600mph.

That is nearly seven times faster than the 550mph Tomahawk cruise missiles that arrived too late to kill Bin Laden at an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in 1998.

“The ability to attack a wide range of targets at intercontinental range, promptly and without resort to nuclear weapons, is of central importance to US national security,” said Daniel Goure, a defence analyst at the Lexington Institute in Virginia.

The White House has requested almost $250m in congressional funding next year for research into hypersonic technologies, some of which harness the shock waves generated by a fast-moving missile to increase its speed further.

The new weapon could be launched from air, land or sea on a long-range missile travelling at suborbital altitudes above 350,000ft. The missile releases a hypersonic pilotless plane that receives updates from satellites as it homes in on its target at up to five times the speed of sound, generating so much heat that it has to be shielded with special materials to avoid melting.

Depending on the version the Pentagon chooses, the warhead would either split into dozens of lethal fragments in the final seconds of its flight or simply smash into its target, relying on devastating kinetic energy to destroy anything in its path. As a precision weapon its effects would be quite different from the mass destruction inflicted by nuclear warheads delivered by intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach 13,400mph.

The development of PGS has won praise and criticism as the president seeks to reduce the strategic US nuclear arsenal in favour of tactical weapons that can be used swiftly to counter terrorists or rogue states. “Conventional weapons with worldwide reach ... enable us to reduce the role of nuclear weapons,” said Joe Biden, the vice-president, recently.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, warned earlier this month that “states will hardly accept a situation in which nuclear weapons disappear, but weapons that are no less destabilising emerge in the hands of certain members of the international community”.

General Yuri Baluyevsky, a deputy secretary of the Russian National Security Council, complained that US concessions at nuclear arms reduction talks were not because of America’s love of peace, but because “they can kill you using conventional high-precision weapons”.

US analysts have also warned of the risk that Chinese or Russian monitors might mistake a hypersonic launch for nuclear attack. “The short flight time ... leaves very little time for an assessment of the situation, putting an enormous strain on national decision-making mechanisms and increasing the probability of an accident,” argued Pavel Podvig of Stanford University.

General Kevin Chilton, the US air force commander supervising the PGS programme, told The New York Times that the Pentagon’s current options were not fast enough.

“Today we can present some conventional options to the president to strike a target anywhere on the globe that range from 96 hours to maybe four, five, six hours,” he said. “If the president wants to act faster than that, the only thing we have that goes faster is a nuclear response.”

The Pentagon has already begun testing missile systems that might be used in a PGS programme. Last week the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) launched a test flight of a prototype labelled the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2), also known as the Falcon.

The prototype was launched from Vandenberg air force base in California on a solid-fuel rocket booster made from a decommissioned ballistic missile. There was no comment from US Strategic Command, which controls the programme, on either the success of the test or a timetable for future deployment.

“It is premature to discuss the actual implementation of this capability until the technology has sufficiently matured,” a Pentagon statement said.

The Washington Times reported last week that Darpa is building two Falcon vehicles, the second of which is scheduled for launch early next year.

US officials have sought to reassure Russian and Chinese authorities that the new weapons will be developed in small numbers and will be kept well away from US nuclear launch sites so there is no confusion that might trigger an accidental nuclear war.

The new arms reduction treaty signed by Obama and Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian president, in Prague two weeks ago also contains a provision that Washington will reduce its arsenal by one nuclear missile for every PGS weapon that it deploys.

Obama’s efforts to placate Moscow and Beijing have been criticised by US arms control hawks. Dean Cheng, a China specialist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, accused the administration of “pursuing a strategically incoherent policy, one that is ostensibly aimed at reassuring other nations but will more likely lead to greater instability and uncertainty”.

Cheng added: “This is not the path to another Nobel peace prize.”

[buglerbilly]

How To: Risk World War III, and Blow Billions Doing It

By Noah Shachtman April 26, 2010 | 12:50 pm



The Pentagon’s plan to fire ballistic missiles at terrorists isn’t just a nuclear Armageddon risk. It’s a ludicrously expensive way to accidentally start World War III: each weapon could cost anywhere from a few hundred million to $1 billion.

The Defense Department wants to spend about $240 million next year on the controversial “prompt global strike” project. Eventually, it could lead to weapons that could strike virtually anywhere in the planet within an hour or two. (Here’s an interview I did with Rachel Maddow on Friday about the plan.) But that quarter-billion would be the tiniest of down payments.

“There are no accurate cost estimates for the program, largely because the technology is unproven,” writes Joe Cirincione at ForeignPolicy.com. His back-of-the-envelope calculation: $10 billion for 10 conventionally-armed Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, meant to strike at terrorists on the move. “Each missile with its tiny payload could easily go over $1 billion each.”

Official price tags are a little lower. The Air Force figures a single demonstration of such a missile might eat up $500 million. Follow-on weapons missiles might only cost $300 million apiece, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz guessed at a recent House subcommittee hearing. But Schwartz isn’t at all sure such how much use there’d be for a budget-buster like that.

“There is a place, I think, for that kind of capability. I don’t think that that’s the sort of thing you would use broadly, because you know, fundamentally what you don’t want to have is a 300 — let’s just say, a $300 million weapon applied against a $30,000 target,” Schwartz recently told a House subcommittee.

Critics like Cirincione (and me) are worried such conventional ICBMs would look to Russia and China like nuclear launches — risking an atomic response every time one of the weapons was sent into the sky. Defenders of the prompt global strike effort note that the missiles would be based far from America’s nuclear arsenal, and would follow different flight paths. So the risk of one of these missiles touching off an atomic showdown are very small. “Nuclear in one place. Conventional in another. This isn’t a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup,” notes the National Space Studies Center’s blog.

Maybe the U.S. can put enough safeguards in place to persuade Moscow and Beijing that America’s conventional ICBMs aren’t nukes. (And maybe, as commenter “Almanac” notes, the Russian and Chinese radars are functioning well enough to tell the difference.) Maybe. But what happens other countries follow our lead, and start assembling their own conventional ballistic missile stockpiles? Will Pakistan and India be able to assure eachother that their intentions are pure? How and Israel and Iran? Perhaps a unipolar planet can survive an American global strike arsenal. A multipolar planet — that’s less likely.

Prompt global strike first came to prominence during Donald Rumsfeld’s tenure at the Pentagon. Back then, the Defense Department had a knack for spending outlandishly on far-fetched programs: laser-equipped 747s, lightning guns, quarter-weight tanks that could stop bombs with data. Under Bob Gates, the culture has shifted a bit. Common sense, wartime relevancy, and fiscal restraint now figure more prominently in weaponeering. And that’s what makes the embrace of prompt global strike such a mystery. It’s a Rumsfeld throwback - risky, willfully ignorant of how the world works, and ridiculously expensive.

[Photo: Wikimedia]

Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/04/how-to-risk-world-war-iii-and-blow-billions-doing-it/#more-23973#ixzz0mFhoj1W8

[buglerbilly]

Pentagon’s Mach 20 Glider Disappears, Whacking ‘Global Strike’ Plans

By Noah Shachtman April 27, 2010 | 4:49 pm



The Pentagon’s controversial plan to hit terrorists half a planet away suffered a setback this weekend, after an experimental hypersonic glider disappeared over the Pacific Ocean.

In its first flight test. the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) was supposed to be rocket-launched from California to the edge of space. Then the HTV-2 would could screaming back into the atmosphere, maneuvering at twenty times times the speed of sound before landing north of the Kwajalein Atoll, 30 minutes later and 4100 nautical miles away. Thinly wedge-shaped for better lift, equipped with autonomous navigation for more precision, and made of carbon-carbon to withstand the assault of hypersonic flight, the hope was it could fly farther and more accurately at a lower angle of attack than other craft returning to Earth.

At least, that was the idea. Instead, nine minutes after launch, Darpa researchers lost contact with the HTV-2. They’re still trying to figure out why. The agency says the flight test wasn’t a total bust: The craft deployed from its rocket booster, performed some maneuvers in the air, and “achieved controlled flight within the atmosphere at over Mach 20,” Darpa spokesperson Johanna Jones says.

But it’s bad news for the Pentagon “prompt global strike” program — a burgeoning and hotly-debated effort to almost-instantly attack targets thousands of miles away. The Defense Department is pursuing three different families of technologies to accomplish the task. One is to re-arm nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles with conventional warheads. But that runs the risk of accidentally triggering a response from another atomic power, who might mistake it for a nuke. A second effort is to build shorter-range cruise missiles than can fly at five or six times the speed of sound; that effort hit some recent turbulence when flight tests for the X-51 Waverider, scheduled for December 2009, were pushed until May 2010. Something like an armed version of the HTV-2 is the third choice.

“There’s always a concern that a conventional warhead on an ICBM might be confused with a nuclear device - what can you do to prove otherwise?” Dr. Mark Lewis, the former chief scientist of the Air Force, tells Danger Room. ”With a high lift vehicle, your trajectory would be so different that no one would likely confuse it with something more sinister.”

Brian Weeden, a technology advisor for the Secure World Foundation, agrees. “This thing itself is not a weapon. But it’s designed to lead to a precision strike weapon,” he says.

But the first step is to figure out what went wrong over the Pacific. Darpa says its investigation is ongoing.

Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/04/pentagons-mach-20-glider-disappears-whacking-global-strike-plans/#more-24084#ixzz0mLpPSjGZ

[buglerbilly]

Published 10:47 05.05.10
Latest update 10:47 05.05.10

Syria gave advanced M-600 missiles to Hezbollah, defense officials claim

Army intelligence worried by Lebanese militants' growing rocket arsenal - but says Syria has a genuine desire to strike a peace deal with Israel.

By Jonathan Lis and Amos Harel HAARETZ.com

Syria has delivered advanced M600 rockets to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon within the past year, Israeli defense officials said on Wednesday.

The M600, a Syrian copy of the Iranian Fateh-110, has a range of 300km and carries a half-ton warhead. If fired from southern Lebanon it would be capable of hitting Tel Aviv.

Latest claims of arms transfers to Lebanon follow recent accusations by President Shimon Peres that Syria Hezbollah gave long-range Scud missiles, capable of inflicting heavy damage on Israel's cities.

Other government figures, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, have since avoided repeating the claims and it is unclear whether Damascus could have delivered the 44-foot liquid-fueled missiles, handling which requires complex logistics, undetected.

Yet doubts over the Scuds have not masked growing fear in the Israeli defense establishment over Hezbollah's rapidly expanding arsenal. On Tuesday the army's head of intelligence research, Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, told the Knesset that the Scud transfer was the "tip of the iceberg".

"Even today Hezbollah has missiles of all ranges types, including solid-fueled rockets that have a longer range are extremely accurate," Baidatz told the Knesset's foreign affairs and security committee.

Baidatz warned that arms transfers were not sporadic but reflected long-term policy in Tehran and Damascus

"Syria and Iran carry out weapons transfers on a constant and structured basis in way that can't be described as simple smuggling – the transfers are official and well-organized," he said.

He added: "Hezbollah's long-range rockets allow them to position launchers deep within Lebanese territory and cover ranges far greater than we aware of in the past.

The militant group was far stronger today than in 2006, when it fought a war with Israel, Baidatz said.

"Hezbollah in 2010 is very different to Hezbollah in 2006 in terms of military capability, which has advanced a great deal," he said. "Hezbollah is now regarded by the Syrians as a component of their defense establishment."

But despite strong backing for Hezbollah, Syria remained keen to strike a peace deal with Israel, Baidatz said.

"A political settlement with Israel is high on Syria's list of priorities and intelligence shows a will to reach an agreement – but on their terms, meaning a return of the Golan Heights and American involvement" he said.

Baidatz said that Syria's President Assad was willing to embrace sweeping changes – but did not trust the administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Military intelligence believes Syria could radically alter its role – but Assad feels that political progress with the current Israel government is impossible and has therefore avoided confidence-building measures."

[buglerbilly]

Taiwan to test long range missile: report

(AFP) – 20 hours ago

TAIPEI — Taiwan is to test a missile for the first time that could hit Beijing, a report said Wednesday.

The island's defence ministry immediately denied the report on the medium-range surface-to-surface missile, but said research was being carried out on "various weapons systems".

The missile, designed to hit targets up to 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles) away, will be launched Thursday and Friday from Chiupeng, a tightly-guarded base in southern Taiwan, Taipei-based Next Magazine said.

If successful, the weapons project codenamed "Ching Sheng" would move into mass production stage, according to the usually well-informed magazine.

The defence ministry plans to deploy 150 such missiles, on top of 240 existing cruise missiles, to form one of the island's main deterrents against Chinese attack, it said.

The medium-range missiles could also be used to strike other major Chinese cities like Shanghai and Chongqing as well as its ballistic missile bases in eastern and southeast China, it said.

"Research and development of various weapons systems have been carried out as scheduled," a defence ministry official told AFP, but added that "the content of the report is not true".

Tensions across the Taiwan Strait have eased significantly since President Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang party came to power in 2008, pledging to boost trade links and allowing in more Chinese tourists.

Yet Beijing still refuses to renounce the use of force against Taiwan should it declare formal independence, prompting the island to seek more defensive weapons.

The island has governed itself since it split from the mainland in 1949 at the end of a civil war.

The magazine said China had boosted the number of its missiles aimed at the island from 300 in 2001 to 1,400 in 2008.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Pakistan test fires nuclear-capable missile

(AFP) – 21 hours ago


Ghauri Hatf 5 has a range of 1,300 kilometres (800 miles)

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan on Tuesday successfully test fired a medium-range ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear and conventional warheads, the military said.

The military said in a statement that Ghauri Hatf 5, with a range of 1,300 kilometres (800 miles), could carry conventional and other warheads.

The launch was conducted by the Army Strategic Force command's strategic missile group at the end of a field-training exercise aimed at testing the force's operational readiness, the statement said.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee chairman General Khalid Shahmeem Wyne and other senior military officers and scientists witnessed the tests, it said.

"You have made the nation proud and we salute you for your outstanding work," Gilani told the scientists and engineers.

Gilani said Pakistan could be proud of its defence capability and the reliability of its nuclear deterrence. This capability, he added, formed the bedrock of Pakistan?s security policy and will continue to be enhanced.

"The test amply demonstrates the credibility of our minimum deterrence strategy, which is the cornerstone of our security policy and ensures peace in the region," he said.

"It also sends the right signals internationally that Pakistan?s defence capability is impregnable and should never be challenged."

Gilani said Pakistan was a responsible nation with an extremely reliable nuclear capability and did not harbor any aggressive designs against anyone.

South Asian rivals India and Pakistan -- which have fought three wars, two of them over the disputed territory of Kashmir -- have routinely carried out missile tests since both demonstrated nuclear weapons capability in 1998.

Pakistan's arsenal includes short-, medium- and long-range missiles named after Muslim conquerors.

"Let there be no doubt that Pakistan?s armed forces are highly professional, motivated and fully capable of safeguarding Pakistan?s security against all types of aggression," Gilani added.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Two Prithvi-II Ballistic Missiles Test-Fired

(Source: India.gov.in; issued December 22, 2010)

India on Wednesday test-fired two Prithvi-II nuclear-capable ballistic missiles from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, off the Orissa coast. as part of user trials by the Army.

"The surface-to-surface missiles mounted on mobile launchers were test-fired from the launch complex-3 in the ITR at around 0815 and 0915 hours", defence sources said on Wednesday.

With a maximum striking range of 350 km, Prithvi-II is capable of carrying a pay-load of 500-1000 kg warhead.

The test-firing of the indigenously developed missiles, already been inducted into the armed forces, were routine trials conducted by the personnel of strategic force command (SFC), they said.

The first test-fire has already been found successful, while analyses was on to ascertain the outcome of the second trial, they said.

"The entire trajectory of trial was tracked by a battery of sophisticated radars, electro-optic telemetry stations and ships launched in the down range impact point area in the Bay for post-launch analyses," the sources said.

During the last user trial from the same launch complex on 24th September, 2010, the missile had failed to perform due to some technical problems.

"Prithvi-II missile had proved its robustness and accuracy repeatedly during many trials earlier," a Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) official said.

"Taken from routine production lot during earlier user trials by Indian Army, the missile had achieved single digit accuracy reaching close to zero circular error probability (CEP)," the sources said.

The missile, which has the features to deceive any anti-ballistic missile, had demonstrated flight duration of 483 seconds reaching a peak altitude of 43.5 kms during users trial in 2008.

As part of operational exercises by armed forces, two Prithvi-II missiles, aimed at different targets at 350 km from launch point of ITR were successfully launched within minutes of each other on 12th October, 2009 and all mission objectives were met, sources said.

-ends-

[buglerbilly]

New missile 'ready by 2015'

Source: Global Times [07:59 February 18 2011]

By Zhang Han and Huang Jingjing

The Chinese army is researching a new type of conventional missile that is set to be weaponized and entered into active service within five years, military sources have revealed.

China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), the nation's largest missile weaponry manufacturer, is set "to complete research, production and delivery of this new generation of missile by 2015," the China News Service reported Thursday.

The new missile would be part of a network forming a solid defense system allowing for total coverage in both defense and attack, and capable of dealing with various threats from land, sea, air, space as well as cybernetic attacks, according to the report.

The report, however, did not provide any further details of the new missile.

A military source close to the development, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to the Global Times yesterday that "The subject under development is a medium- and long-range conventional missile with a traveling distance of as far as 4,000 kilometers."

"The research is going smoothly, and the missile will be produced and ready for service in five years," he said, noting that the project would also entail a three-year evaluation period.

"It extends the range of China's missiles and will therefore greatly enhance the national defense capabilities," the source said.
The source also unveiled that "the Chinese-made Dong Feng 21D missile, with firing range between 1800 and
2800 kilometers, is already deployed in the army."

Foreign media have also speculated that the Dong Feng 21D is a "carrier killer" and would prove to be a game-changer in the Asian security environment, where US Navy aircraft carrier battle groups have ruled the waves since the end of World War II, the AP reported.

China debuted its first stealth fighter jet, the J-20, in January, in a test flight that coincided with a visit to Beijing by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Following the successful test flight, speculations and assessments of Beijing's military advancement echoed around the world.

The Pentagon this week formally rolled out a record base budget for fiscal year 2012 of $553 billion, up $22 billion from the level enacted for 2010. However, additional overseas war funding is down by $41.5 billion.

This led Gates to counter-attack, warning Congress on Wednesday against making deeper spending cuts than those already proposed, telling lawmakers that the US faces threats ranging from militants to states "developing new capabilities that target our traditional strengths," citing Iran, North Korea, as well as China, Reuters reported.

Li Daguang, a military expert at the People's Liberation Army National Defense University, told the Global Times that Thursday's revelation speaks volumes about the significant progress China had made in the field of missile technology as well as proving the country's commitments to transparency in military affairs.

"But the real combat capabilities of the missile in complicated situations remains to be tested. There is still a huge gap between China and Western countries with regard to advanced weaponry development," he said, adding that China should always remain prudent and rational when presenting its military progress.

Wang Yanan, an associate editor-in-chief at Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told the Global Times that some seem to favor wild speculation where the Chinese military is concerned.

"US wariness doesn't suggest its inability to develop advanced missiles. The US is still a leader in this aspect as it possesses the most cutting-edge missile technologies," Wang said.

Song Shengxia contributed to this story

[buglerbilly]

Russia to develop new ballistic missile system by 2013


Topol-M ballistic missiles

© RIA Novosti. Sergei Guneev15:12 17/03/2011

Russian scientists will develop a new land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system by 2013, a leading missile designer said on Thursday.

"I cannot be specific about the details but new design solutions will significantly boost the fire control and communications components of the system," said Yury Solomonov, general designer at the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology.

Solomonov, who designed Russia's Topol and Bulava ballistic missiles, said the new system would feature high survivability and enhanced striking capability.

Russia's Strategic Missile Forces reportedly have over 400 ICBMs, including 171 Topol (SS-25), 70 Topol-M (SS-27), and three RS-24 Yars missiles.

MOSCOW, March 17 (RIA Novosti)

[buglerbilly]

Russian Army to get new multiple rocket launchers


Grad system

© RIA Novosti. Pavel Lysicin16:06 28/03/2011

Slightly disingenuous report, the 90km range missile is the equivalent of the ATACM's the Western MLRS use NOT the standard range missiles used for everyday tasking which are most likelyto still have the "normal" 30-40km range...........

Russia's Ground Forces will start taking delivery of new Tornado-G multiple rocket launching systems (MRLS), replacing the current Grad systems, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Sergei Vlasov said on Monday.

This will further increase the Army's firepower and standoff capability for effective engagement, Vlasov said.

Tornados are superior to Grads in their effectiveness, automated control, aiming and satellite navigation systems, Vlasov said, without disclosing any technical details.

The Grad truck-mounted system featuring 122-mm rockets with a range of 30-40 km was developed in 1962 and has been in service since 1964.

A Tornado MRLS vehicle can carry up to twelve 300-mm rockets with an effective range of up to 90 kilometers.

MOSCOW, March 28 (RIA Novosti)

[buglerbilly]

Boeing Supports 1st Hellfire Test Launch from Avenger System

(Source: Boeing Co.; issued April 5, 2011)



HUNTSVILLE, Ala. --- Boeing supported the U.S. Army's first test launch of an AGM-114 Hellfire missile on Feb. 23 at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The missile was fired from a modified Avenger weapon system as part of Boeing's continuing development of the Avenger-derived Adaptive Force Protection System (AFPS).

"The Avenger turret's ability to launch Hellfire missiles offers the warfighter another choice of weapon, one with significant ground firepower," said Phil Hillman, Avenger program manager for Boeing Network & Tactical Systems. "We continue to integrate and test additional capability on this system. Since Avenger is already in the Army inventory, upgrading Avengers instead of developing and fielding new systems has obvious cost advantages -- something that we believe is critically important in the current budget environment."

The test evaluated the feasibility of adding the Hellfire missile and Hydra 2.75-inch rocket capabilities to the Army's Avenger system. Boeing designed, built and installed the mechanical integration equipment to mate the Hellfire and rocket launchers to the Avenger, and supported the live firing at the test site.

Avenger was originally designed as an air defense system, but other ground defense capabilities, such as Hellfire, are being considered to expand the system’s range and versatility. The Avenger turret can be mounted on a variety of vehicles, including Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or used as a stand-alone, fixed-mounted weapon station.

Boeing is the largest aerospace company in Alabama and one of the state's largest employers. Current company operations in Huntsville include the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program and other missile defense work, such as the Arrow system and the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 seeker, as well as work associated with Ares I, the International Space Station, Army Integrated Logistics, Brigade Combat Team Modernization and engineering for the 787 and the P-8A Poseidon.

A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is one of the world's largest defense, space and security businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world's largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is a $32 billion business with 66,000 employees worldwide.

-ends-

[buglerbilly]

AVIBRAS Unveil a New UAV, Guided Cruise Missile at LAAD 2011

April 14, 2011

tamir_eshel

AVIBRAS, established in 1961 as an independent aerospace company in Brazil shifted its focus in the 1970s to the development of artillery rockets. At LAAD Avibras displayed their latest member of the ASTROS 2 Mk 5 multiple launch rocket system, the AV-SS-80 300 mm rocket, fully compatible with the ASTROS II system, this 300mm rocket can hit targets up to 85 km afar. The SS80 rocket has already been sold to several international customers, including Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. ASTROS II was originally developed in the late 1970s as an area saturation weapon, with the first customer being Iraq, utilizing the system in the later phase of its war against Iran in the 1980s. The rocket was used by both sides in the First Gulf War in 1991, as it was used by Iraq and Saudi Arabian armies.

Since then the Brazilian Army has also adopted the system, fielding the SS-30 127mm, SS-40 180 mm rockets and SS-09 TS 70 mm subcaliber training rounds. The Brazilian military has also renewed its interest in Avibras guided-rocket program, a 450mm ‘cruise missile’ version of the rocket (the ASTROS II will be able to carry two such missiles with the current system’s current launchers). The tactical missile (ASTROS II TM) will have a range of 300 km and carry a warhead weighing about 250 kg. It will employ INS/GPS guidance and will follow a pre-programmed route. The missile shown on display shows different features that, according to AVIBRAS officials have not been concluded yet. For example, the missile uses a rocket and turbo-jet propulsion – the final version will have either boost-sustain rocket-turbojet combination of a rocket propulsion sustaining the missile through its flight. The missile will have an auto-pilot system controlling two flight surfaces for cruise phase. The basic missile will offer typical INS;GPS precision level which could be further improved by adding a terminal guidance seeker.

AVIBRAS is also working on the development of trajectory correction system improving the precision of its long-range rockets, although, according to company officials, there will always be a need for the original area saturation capability offered with the ‘free flight’ version.

At LAAD 2011 the Brazilian defense company Avibras Is showing its new unmanned aerial vehicle called Falcao. The UAV is currently in advanced development and the first flight test is scheduled for later in 2011. This UAV has is designed for a gross takeoff weight of 650 kg, carrying 150 kg of payload over a range of 2500 km flying at 15,000 ft altitude. Falcao is designed for a wide range of applications. It was developed by the Aerospace Technology Development authority FINEP, under a Brazilian Air Force program, with AVIBRAS being a leading partner. Falcao can be used in support of many military and homeland security applications, including supporting other AVIBRAS weapon systems, including the long range surface/surface rocket systems, such as the new GPS/INS guided Astros 300 mm rocket, which requires precision targeting at long range. Falcao can also support homeland security applications, as border and maritime surveillance, environmental protection and control and crisis management.



© Copyright 2011 - Defense Update

[buglerbilly]

Ares

A Defense Technology Blog

Pakistan Tests Nuclear-Capable Missile

Posted by Robert Wall at 4/19/2011 5:37 AM CDT

I sure as Hell wouldn't want to be within 60 km of Nuke explosion!

Pakistan continues to step up its missile capacities, announcing the test of the Hatf-IX (or NASR) surface-to-surface missile.


(Picture: Pakistan defense ministry)

The Pakistani military reports the first flight of the weapon which, it says, is capable of delivering nuclear warheads.

The 60-km-range missile “has been developed to add deterrence value to Pakistan’s Strategic Weapons Development program at shorter ranges,” the government says. “This quick response system addresses the need to deter evolving threats,” it adds.

The firing comes after the HATF-VII flight test staged during Aero India in February.

[buglerbilly]

Taiwan missile 'can reach Beijing'

(AFP) – 17 hours ago

TAIPEI — Taiwan has developed a missile capable of reaching Beijing and tested it successfully three years ago, a report said on Wednesday, citing a former defence minister.

Taiwan's military successfully fired the medium-range missile in early 2008 in a secret test attended by then president Chen Shui-bian, said former defence minister Michael Tsai in memoirs released this week.

Tsai did not specify the range of the missile but the United Daily News said Wednesday it was capable of reaching major Chinese cities including Beijing, Chengdu and Shenyang with a 2,000-kilometre (1,250-mile) range.

The newspaper said Tsai is the first official to confirm the island has developed the technology, though local media have previously reported that Taiwan possessed mid-range missile capabilities.

Stephen Young, Washington's then de facto envoy to Taipei, had expressed concerns over the test, but Tsai assured him that Taiwan would not initiate any attack, the former minister said in the book.

The Chinese military was prepared to go to war should the Beijing-friendly candidate Ma Ying-jeou lose the 2008 president election, Tsai wrote, citing Taiwan and US intelligence.

Tensions with China mounted during Chen's 2000-2008 rule over policies promoting Taiwan's independence from the mainland, but have eased significantly since Ma became president in May 2008.

But China still refuses to renounce the use of force against Taiwan should it declare formal independence, prompting the island to seek more defensive weapons.

The island has governed itself since it split from the mainland in 1949 at the end of a civil war.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved

[buglerbilly]

Prithvi-II Successfully Test-Fired

(Source: ddi Indian government news; issued June 8, 2011)

India on Thursday test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear-capable Prithvi-II ballistic missile from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in Orissa as part of the user trial by the Army.

"The missile mounted on a mobile launcher was test-fired from the launch complex-3 in the ITR at around 0905 hours", defence officials said on Thursday.

With a maximum striking range of 350 km, the missile is capable of carrying a pay-load of 500-1000 kg warhead.

"Prithvi-II missile had proved its robustness and accuracy during many trials earlier," an official of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said. "Taken from routine production lot during earlier users trials by the Army, the missile had achieved single digit accuracy reaching close to zero circular error probability (CEP)," they said.

The missile, which has features to deceive any anti ballistic missiles, had demonstrated flight duration of 483 seconds reaching a peak altitude of 43.5 km in 2008 users trial.

Similarly, as a part of the operational exercises by Armed forces, two Prithvi-II missiles, aimed at two different targets at 350 km from launch point of ITR, at Chandipur were successfully launched within minutes of each other on 12th October 2009 and all the mission objectives were met.

The sleek missile once again proved its accuracy when the user, tried it in a salvo mode on 27th March and 18th June 2010 from Chandipur.

It was the fourth successful Prithvi-II flight within a period of eight months.

The test firing of the surface-to-surface missile, which has already been inducted into Indian armed forces, was a routine trial conducted by the personnel of "strategic force command" (SFC), defence officials said.

"The trial was conducted in the presence of senior officials as part of routine training exercises," they said.

'Prithvi', the first ballistic missile developed under the country's prestigious Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP), is propelled by liquid propulsion twin engine.

With a length of nine meter and one meter diameter, Prithvi-II uses an advanced inertial navigation system with manoeuvring trajectory.

"The entire trajectory of today's trial was tracked by a battery of sophisticated radars, electro-optic telemetry stations and ships launched in the down range impact point area in the Bay of Bengal for the post-launch analysis", the officials said.

-ends-

[buglerbilly]

India Poised To Test Agni-V Missile

Jun 14, 2011

By Asia-Pacific Staff
New Delhi



India is about to take another big step forward in its nuclear weapons delivery capacity with plans to flight-test the Agni-V ballistic missile this year.

The Agni-V would represent a big step forward in India’s strategic weapons arsenal given its range in excess of 5,000 km (3,100 mi.). Once testing begins, developers hope to declare the Agni-V operational in two years. The missile’s predecessor, the 3,500-km-range Agni-III, is currently under induction into strategic missile groups governed by India’s nuclear command.

The development comes as the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute warns that India and Pakistan “continue to develop new ballistic and cruise missile systems capable of delivering nuclear weapons. They are also expanding their capacities to produce fissile material for military purposes.” The organization notes in its latest yearbook that the Indian nuclear stockpile is estimated to have grown to 80-110 warheads, up from 60-80 a year ago, with Pakistan’s inventory at 90-110 warheads, up from 70-90.

Earlier this month, in a departure from the Indian government’s traditional reluctance to talk publicly about the country’s strategic weapons arsenal, Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony ordered the country’s missile program administrators to speed up the Agni-V program, saying, “the [Defense Research Development Organization] must demonstrate its capability to reach the range of 5,000 km at the earliest.” DRDO chief Vijay Saraswat adds that the 22-meter-long (72-ft.) Agni-V would be test-fired in December.

In May, the Indian Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) reviewed progress on the indigenous submarine-launched ballistic missile (SSBN) program and the country’s long-range missiles. That meeting appears to have led to the decision to speed up the Agni-V program and ensure that there were no slippages in the induction of India’s first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, the Arihant, next year.

The Agni-V’s range puts China—India’s principal focus as far as nuclear deterrence is concerned—fully within range of a retaliatory strike. India functions on a no-first-strike nuclear policy. The Agni-V will be cannisterized, road-mobile and designed for quick deployment. It was revealed last February that the Agni-V is also being developed to carry multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV) warhead payloads.

An Agni-V program developer says “the missile will soon be ready in all respects for its first test. We are continuing with subsystem testing and simulation trials. We do not foresee any delays.” The 700-km-range Agni-I and 2,000-km-range Agni-II are already operational.

The three-stage prototype Agni-V that will be fired is currently under integration and fabrication. The DRDO’s Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) has tested the missile’s three stages separately on the ground. The Agni-V will be India’s first strategic missile with a rocket motor built from composites, unlike the metal construction used in all earlier Agni-series missiles. Over the next few months, confirmatory ground evaluations of all major subsystems will be completed. Last year, the program team grappled with delays arising from changes to the weapon’s payload structure, the addition of extra heat shields and alterations to the missile’s re-entry mechanism.

In terms of range, the Indian government does not feel the need to go beyond what the Agni-V is capable of, making it perhaps the last long-range ballistic missile in the country’s guided weapons program for the foreseeable future. The DRDO has revealed that while it has no official sanction to build an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with ranges in excess of 8,000 km, it has developed the critical technology to build one quickly if necessary.

Less is known about India’s K-series of submarine-launched missiles. While the K-15, with a range of 750 km, continues to be tested to meet the specifications of India’s first indigenous SSBN, the Arihant, DRDO engineers have unofficially spoken of a long-range missile being developed for underwater launch. While the Agni-V will fulfill the land leg of India’s nuclear deterrent, it is the 3,500-km-range K-4 missile that will truly complete the country’s strategic triad, providing it with a crucial strike capability from the sea. India’s Arihant-class SSBNs, the first of which is scheduled to enter service late next year, are being built to deploy four K-4s and 12 K-15s. An even longer-range variant of the K-4, with a range of 5,000 km, is also being planned.

Photo: Indian Defense Research

[buglerbilly]

Iran unveils smart underground missile silos (HQ)

redemptionway



They've got FIXED Missile Silo's! Be scared, be very scared.............static targets, yummy!


Uploaded by redemptionway on Jun 27, 2011

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has unveiled underground ballistic missile silos on the first day of the Great Prophet 6 military maneuver.

"The silos are a part of the swift reaction unit of the [IRGC] missile brigade; missiles are stored vertically, ready to be launched against pre-determined targets," Fars News Agency quoted the IRGC spokesman in charge of the drills, General Asghar Qelich-Khani, as saying on Monday.

Qelich-Khani said the country has been using domestically-built missile silos for fifteen years and added that the newer generation silos are operational from a launch control center located far from the launch pads.

The main advantage of missile silos is the reduced launch time as the weapons need not be moved or aligned prior to launch.

On Sunday, Commander of the Aerospace Division of the IRGC Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh short-, medium- and long-range missiles, namely Khalij Fars (Persian Gulf), Sejjil (Baked Clay), Fateh (Conqueror), Qiam (Rising), Shahab-1 and Shahab-2 missiles would be fired during the war games.

Hajizadeh stressed that Great Prophet 6 maneuver has completely defensive objectives and will be staged with the message of "peace and friendship."

IRGC's naval, air and ground forces staged the Great Prophet 5 military drill in the Persian Gulf in April 2010.

[buglerbilly]

Guard chief: Iran is capable of manufacturing even longer-range missiles but won’t make them


(Iranian Defense Ministry,Vahid Reza Alaei/Associated Press) - FILE - This file photo released June 16, 2011, by the Iranian Defense Ministry, claims to show launching the Safir, or Ambassador, satellite carrier, which carries Iran’s Rasad, or Observation, satellite into earth orbit, in an undisclosed location. Iran successfully launched a second satellite, raising concerns about Iran’s rocket and missile programs and, among some experts, doubts about the effectiveness of sanctions in curbing them.

By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, June 28, 4:57 PM

TEHRAN, Iran — A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander claimed on Tuesday that his country has the ability to produce even longer range missiles than those currently in its arsenal.

But Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Guard’s Aerospace Force, stressed that Iran will not manufacture such missiles because Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf are already within its reach.

The remarks came as Iran is conducting 10 days of war games, its latest show of military force amid a standoff with the West over the country’s controversial nuclear program.

Hajizadeh said the Guard’s arsenal already includes missiles with a range of about 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) — putting Israel, U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf and parts of southeastern and eastern Europe within Iran’s reach.

The missiles, he said, were specifically designed for Israeli and U.S. targets. Iran’s known missiles of such range are the Shahab-3 and the Sajjil. Iran considers Israel and United States its top enemies.

“There is no threat from any country to us other than the U.S. and the Zionist regime,” Hajizadeh was quoted by the semiofficial Fars news agency. “The range of our missiles has been designed on the basis of the distance to the Zionist regime and the U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf region.”

Hajizadeh said Iran “possess the technology” but will not manufacture missiles with a range over 1,250 miles. He gave no details. “We have no intention to produce such missiles.”

In Israel, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor denounced Hajizadeh’s remarks.

“This new Iranian bragging demonstrates once again the aggressive policies of the ayatollahs’ regime,” Palmor said. “Not that we had any doubts prior to this statement. But this renewed threat makes it obvious why Iran is the No. 1 threat to this whole region and beyond.”

Western intelligence reports say Iran is seeking to acquire the capability to produce inter-continental missiles with a range of up to 3,750 miles (6,000 kilometers), a claim Iran has denied.

Hajizadeh said some U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan are as close as 75 miles (120 kilometers) from Iran’s borders and can easily be hit by Iran in case of an attack.

The powerful Guard, which is in charge of Iran’s missile program, kicked off the war games on Monday by unveiling an underground smart missile silos for the first time, claiming that medium- and long-range missiles stored in them are ready to launch if Iran was attacked.

The silos are widely viewed as a strategic asset for Iran in the event of a U.S. or Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities.

As part of the exercise, Iran on Tuesday also fired 14 missiles, including Shahab-1, Shahab-2 and Shahab-3 as well as Zelzal missile.

Iran remains locked in a standoff with the West over its nuclear program, which the U.S. and its allies suspect is aimed at developing atomic weapons. Iran rejects the charges, and says the program is only for peaceful purposes.
__

Associated Press Writer Amy Teibel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[buglerbilly]

The Hindu newspaper

HYDERABAD, July 3, 2011

India all set to test new short-range tactical missile

Y. Mallikarjun

‘Prahaar' (to strike), a totally new quick-reaction, short-range tactical missile, which will fill the gap for such a battlefield weapon system in India's missile arsenal, is all set to be flight-tested on July 17.

This was stated here on Saturday by Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister and Director General, Defence Research and Development Organisation, V.K. Saraswat after inaugurating a new facility of Analogic Controls India Ltd. (ACIL) that manufactures electronic systems for mission critical defence and space applications.

Talking to journalists, Dr. Saraswat said the 150 km-range missile would replace unguided rockets and “is going to be an excellent weapon.” It would bridge the gap between Pinaka, a 40-km range multi-barrel rocket system, and the 350-km Prithvi-II, which had been converted into a strategic missile. Unguided rockets of 90-km range had also been imported from Russia.

Dr. Saraswat said that at present the services did not have a weapon such as Prahaar. The missile would be equipped with omni-directional warheads and could be used for hitting both tactical and strategic targets. The road-mobile system could be pulled out for quick deployment with each launcher carrying six missiles. “With different types of warheads, you can have different types of missiles from the same launcher,” he added.

Stating that the DRDO-developed missile was cost-effective, Dr. Saraswat said that only a few would be required to cause devastation equivalent to that produced by several unguided rockets. Initially, the missile would be given to the Army and later to other services.

Replying to a question, he said India's longest range, surface-to-surface Agni-V missile would be flight-tested by the year-end as scheduled earlier.

Avinash Chander, Chief Controller, (Missile & Strategic Systems), DRDO, said the most “critical milestone' — the testing of three propulsion motors for the first, second and third stages of the missile — was completed.

Electronic systems

Earlier, inaugurating the state-of-the-art manufacturing facility of ACIL, Dr. Saraswat called for forging public-private partnerships for producing electronic systems, which were being imported. The new Electronics Development Policy would aim to bridge the technological gap and seek large participation of the private sector.

He said a low cost laptop being produced by the DRDO in partnership with IIT, Jodhpur, was expected to be unveiled by December.

T.V. Prasad, Chairman, ACIL, said the company was developing more than 50 components for various projects and intended to move towards high-end products.

[buglerbilly]

IDF unveils special guided missile used in Lebanon, Gaza

By YAAKOV KATZ

08/01/2011 17:00

Tamuz missile based on Spike Long-Range Missile developed by Rafael, operated by elite Meitar unit in IDF Artillery Corps.

For years, Israel has been rumored to have secret missiles, but on Monday, for the first time, the IDF unveiled a special guided missile system that has seen successful action in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Called Tamuz, the missile is based on the Spike Long-Range Missile developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, and is operated by Meitar, an elite unit that operates under the Artillery Corps. The missile was opened to foreign exports a number of years ago.

The missile has a range of 25 km. and can penetrate armored vehicles. It can come with a different anti-personnel warhead. The missile is launched from an armored personnel carrier from two launchers, each of which is capable of carrying three missiles. The APC can carry an additional four missiles inside.

The Tamuz uses an advanced electro-optic camera that transmits the image of its target back to operators inside the APC, who then manually drive it toward the target. Tamuz teams work closely with an artillery unit, which operates Hermes 450 reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles that provide the intelligence on the targets that are then attacked by the Tamuz missile.

“The missile provides us with the ability to accurately attack targets from a standoff position without needing to physically come into contact with the enemy,” explained Col. Sharon, commander of the Artillery Corps’ David’s Sling Formation.

The Tamuz was used extensively during the Second Lebanon War in 2006 when Meitar fired 600 missiles at Hezbollah targets. Nevertheless, the results were not satisfactory and a new operational doctrine was written for how to operate the missile in an urban terrain and against which targets. The missile was again used against Hamas targets during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip in January 2009 with greater success.

The Artillery Corps established the guided weapons unit following the Yom Kippur War in 1973 when IDF tanks came under heavy antitank fire and the military had difficulty engaging Syria’s and Egypt’s tanks.

According to OC Artillery Corps Brig.-Gen.

David Suisa, the Tamuz missile is an example of the type of advanced and accurate firepower the corps can bring to a future battlefield.

“We are in a different place today in comparison to the past,” Suisa said. “In a future war, the Artillery Corps will operate advanced weapons with enormous firepower as shown by the combination of using the Tamuz and UAVs such as the Hermes.”

IDF sources said the decision to unveil the Tamuz came after long deliberations within the defense establishment. One of the reasons the missile was declassified was since the IDF has decided to upgrade Meitar’s capabilities with new weapons systems, and while it will still use the Tamuz, it will not buy more after the current arsenal is exhausted.

On Tuesday, the Artillery Corps will begin its summer draft. The corps noted a record-high demand among recruits to serve in artillery units, with each slot filled by a soldier who asked to serve in the corps. This is in comparison to a few years ago when only half the positions were filled by men who asked to serve in the corps.

Read more & video: http://www.jpost.com/VideoArticles/Video/Article.aspx?id=231945

Video from another Israeli source:



Uploaded by TheRothschildt on Aug 1, 2011
Haartez (8 July 2011): The Israel Defense Forces artillery corps revealed the previously classified Tamuz missile for the first time Monday, which was used in the Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.
The Tamuz missile has a range of up to 25 kilometers and is equipped with an electro-optic sensor that allows its operators to guide it to its target by watching it on a screen while it hovers to its target.

[buglerbilly]

Russian army to receive 120 Iskander tactical missile systems


Missile complex "Iskander"
© RIA Novosti. Iliya Pitalev01:30 02/08/2011MOSCOW, August 2 (RIA Novosti)

The Russian Defense Ministry is planning to buy up to 120 Iskander-M tactical missile systems, Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Dmitry Bulgakov said.

"We purchased six [Iskander] systems in 2010, and plan to acquire up to 120 more," Bulgakov told a news conference in Moscow on Monday.

The Iskander-M system (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) is a mobile theater missile system equipped with two solid-propellant single-stage 9M723K1 guided missiles with "quasi-ballistic" capability.

The missiles have a range of 400 km (250 miles) and can reportedly carry conventional and nuclear warheads.

According to the Moscow Centre for Strategy and Technology Analysis, the Iskander-M system was combat-tested in the brief war with Georgia in August 2008, and it proved highly effective in destroying military targets and infrastructure.

Russia threatened to deploy Iskander-M tactical missiles in its Kaliningrad Region, which borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania, if the alliance placed elements of its proposed "missile shield" close to Russian borders.

[buglerbilly]

More on TAMUZ..........

Ares

A Defense Technology Blog

IDF Declassifies Tamuz Missile

Posted by Robert Wall at 8/4/2011 4:57 AM CDT




(Photos: IDF)

Israel has lifted the veil on one its is most classified missiles, the Tamuz. Developed as a lesson from the 1973 war, the Rafael missile has been used by one of the IDF's most classified units.

Now, with the weapon approaching the end of its service life, the IDF has disclosed some of the details of the 25-km-range electro-optically guided missile, with multiple warhead options.

A full report from our Tel Aviv correspondent, Alon Ben-David, will be on our subscription AWIN site and in Monday's issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology.

In the interim, here is a video the IDF has released on the missile:



Watch out! The sound level is ridicuously high on this...............

[buglerbilly]

GMLRS+ completes successful test flight

August 10, 2011

Lockheed Martin's new Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System-Plus (GMLRS+) extended-range rocket successfully completed a 120-kilometer mission at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., an improvement in range of approximately 50 kilometers (31 miles) over the current GMLRS round.

Engineers from Lockheed Martin and Aerojet, the GMLRS rocket motor manufacturer, are developing GMLRS+ as a proposed follow-on version of the existing Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System to further extend the rocket's range and add a new capability for a "scalable-effects" warhead.

"With this latest test, we have demonstrated the GMLRS+ range that our soldiers and Marines have been requesting," said Scott Arnold, vice president of precision fires in Lockheed Martin's Missiles and Fire Control business. "While adding this new capability, we are still retaining the system's affordability, precision and reliability."

This test was the first of two Lockheed Martin-funded GMLRS+ launches planned for 2011. The second test will assess the scalable-effects warhead in late fall. The scalable-effects warhead will offer multiple distinct outputs, which can be selected prior to launch.

In a November 10, 2010, test at White Sands Missile Range, a GMLRS+ rocket equipped with a Lockheed Martin Semi-Active Laser seeker flew 40 kilometers downrange, acquired the laser-designated target, and diverted more than 150 meters to the target. The demonstration validated the rocket's ability to acquire a laser-designated target after launch and divert to it.

Aerojet, a world-recognized producer of missile and space propulsion systems and defense armaments, was selected for the test phase as the GMLRS+ warhead and rocket-motor supplier after a two-month evaluation and selection process.

GMLRS+ is a Lockheed Martin internal research and development programme to upgrade the combat-proven GMLRS Unitary system, and integrate new capabilities into the existing GMLRS guidance/navigation package and airframe. It will accommodate various warheads, and will operate seamlessly within the current High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and MLRS M270A1 launcher force structure. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor on the GMLRS programme.

Source: Lockheed Martin

[buglerbilly]

India flight-tests Shourya missile

Press Trust Of India

Balasore, September 24, 2011First Published: 16:23 IST(24/9/2011)
Last Updated: 16:25 IST(24/9/2011)

India on Saturday flight-tested state-of-the-art nuclear capable Shourya missile from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur off Orissa coast, about 15 km from Balasore.

The surface-to-surface missile took off from an underground silo at the launch complex-3 in the ITR at about 2:28pm, defence sources said.

It was the second developmental trial of the missile. The first test of the missile was successfully conducted on November 12, 2008 from the same base, they said.

"This developmental flight trial is part of the on-going technology refinement work undertaken by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO)," said a defence official.

The sophisticated missile combines simplicity of operation with low maintenance. It can be easily handled, transported and stored within the canister for longer shelf life, he said.

The high manoeuvrability of the missile makes it less vulnerable to available anti-missile defence systems.

Shourya, which can carry a one-tonne nuclear and conventional warhead over 750 kilometers, is powered by two-stage solid fuel.

"We have designed the Shourya missile in such a manner that it can be launched from under water as easily as from land. The gas-filled canister that houses the missile fits easily into a submarine. The underwater leg of the nuclear trial needs to be totally reliable and needs a state-of-the-art missile," said a defence scientist associated with the project.

As a safety measure, prior to the test, Balasore district administration had temporarily evacuated 400 families residing within 2 km radius of the launch pad to nearby shelter camps early on Saturday morning.

[buglerbilly]

Ares

A Defense Technology Blog

Mysterious ICBM Crashed in Plesetsk

Posted by M Pyadushkin at 9/29/2011 2:20 AM CDT

A trial launch of a new Russian intercontinental ballistic missile from Plesetsk cosmodrome in Northern Russia ended with a failure as the missile crashed 8 km from the launch pad. The accident was first reported in Russian weblogs while Russia’s space troops confirmed the fact of the trials the next day, Sept. 28.

“On Sept. 27 in Plesetsk, industry representatives conducted the trials of the missile prototypes within the development program of the newest missile weapons”, said the official representatives of the Defense Ministry, cited by RIA Novosti news agency.


Yars ICBM (credits - Russia's Defense Ministry)

The military didn’t disclose the type of the crashed missile, but industry sources cited by the Russian media suggested it was an improved version of the mobile solid-propellant Yars (SS-X-29) ICBM with an increased number of warheads. The three-stage Yars with a range of 11,000 km was developed by Moscow Institute of Thermotechnics (MIT), that also designed mobile Topol (SS-25), and Topol-M (SS-27) as well as submarine-launched Bulava (SS-NX-30) ICBMs.

Earlier, in March this year, Yuri Solomonov, MIT Chief Designer, revealed that his company is working on modernization of the existing ICBMs, improving their survivability and enhancing the combat capabilities. He explained that this work is expected to be finished by 2013.

The first regiment armed with Yars ICBMs entered on duty with the Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces in March 2011.

[buglerbilly]

Ares

A Defense Technology Blog

Pakistan Tests Cruise Missile with New Launcher

Posted by Robert Wall at 10/28/2011 10:39 AM CDT

Pakistan has completed another test firing of its Hatf VII (or Babur) ground-launched cruise missile.

One of the main objectives of this test was to validate the new missile launch vehicle, according to the Pakistani military. The trial also was aimed at demonstrating other performance elements of the 700-km-range weapon.

The weapon is designed for both conventional and nuclear warhead use.


(Photo: Pakistani defense ministry)

The new launcher features three missile tubes and has a shoot-and-scoot capability, the Pakistani government says. The system, the military hopes, will be more survivable in this configuration, and provides options by being able to mix nuclear and conventional versions.

[buglerbilly]

YouTube: Pakistan tests Hatf-VII in new mobile launcher

Posted in Uncategorized on October 29th, 2011

Pakistan on Friday conducted a successful test fire of the Hatf VII cruise missile using a three-tube mobile launcher.




Uploaded by PakArmyChannel on Oct 28, 2011

Rawalpindi - October 28, 2011: Pakistan today conducted a successful test fire of the multi tube, indigenously developed Cruise Missile Hatf -- VII (Babur) having a range of 700 kms. The missile test was conducted to validate the design parameters of the weapon system and a new Missile Launch Vehicle (MLV). Babur Cruise Missile is a low flying, terrain hugging missile with high maneuverability, pin point accuracy and radar avoidance features. It can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads and has stealth capabilities. It also incorporates the most modern cruise missile technology of Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM) and Digital Scene Matching and Area Co-relation (DSMAC).

[buglerbilly]

Agni II Prime to be tested again

T. S. Subramanian, The Hindu

Missile technologists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) are reaching Wheeler Island off the coast of Orissa for the launch of India's Agni II Prime missile on November 15. The missile will take off from a specially designed truck and, if the flight is successful, it will target an area 3,000 km away in the Bay of Bengal.

The missile engineers are looking forward to the Agni II Prime launch after the successful flights of Shourya, Prithivi-II and Agni-II missiles in the last week of September this year.

However, they are keeping their fingers crossed because the maiden flight of Agni-II Prime in December 2010 had failed. The flight ended abruptly after a problem in the control system of the first stage of the missile, which occurred during the lift-off.

No change

There is no change in the configuration of the Agni II Prime to be launched on November 15 and the missile that failed last December.

The missile engineers said: “We had a problem last time. We have identified the problem and taken precautions to stabilise the whole system. We have introduced a lot of redundancies to take care of the anomalies that may occur during the flight,” they added.

Agni-II Prime is a two-stage surface-to-surface missile that aims at filling the gap in the ranges between Agni-II and Agni-III. While Agni-II can take out targets 2,000 km away, Agni-III can travel a distance of 3,000 km to 3,500 km.

All the three are strategic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads. But test flights like these carry conventional explosives. Agni-II Prime is 20 metres long and weighs 17 tonnes. This time it will carry a warhead weighing 800 kg instead of the normal 1,000 kg. “We are aiming to go for range of 3,000 km this time,” a DRDO official said. The Advanced Missile Laboratory, Hyderabad, has designed and developed the missile.

The DRDO has also developed the Agni-V, the most powerful missile in India's arsenal. Agni-V, which will carry a nuclear warhead, can aim at places 5,000 km away. The motors of its three stages have undergone successful tests at a facility at Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh. Its maiden flight may take place in December 2011 or January/February 2012.

[buglerbilly]

U.S. Army to Test “Global Strike” Technology This Week

Monday, Nov. 14, 2011

By Martin Matishak

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Army on Wednesday will test missile technology that could eventually be incorporated into the development a conventional "prompt global strike" weapon, according to Defense Department officials (see GSN, Dec. 14, 2010).


(Nov. 14) - The U.S. Army is expected to test on Wednesday a potential technology under development for conventional prompt global strike. Another experimental technology for the mission, the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2, is shown separating from a rocket in an artist's rendition (AP Photo/U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).

Army Space and Missile Defense Command and Army Forces Strategic Command will conduct a flight test of the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, which is to use an advanced-technology glide body built to endure high-speed flight in the upper atmosphere en route to a target.

"This test is designed to collect data on hypersonic boost-glide technologies and test-range performance for long-range atmospheric flight," Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Melinda Morgan told Global Security Newswire last week by e-mail.

She said the test scenario would focus on "flight performance of aerodynamics; navigation, guidance, and control; and thermal protection technologies."

The test vehicle is slated to be launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, and is to fly to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, located more than 2,000 miles southwest on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

The launch had been slated to take place on Tuesday but was delayed one day "due to scheduling conflicts with other events in the Pacific," according to Morgan, who did not elaborate.

The data gleaned from the test will be used by the Defense Department to develop future capabilities for conventional prompt global strike, she told GSN.

The Pentagon is interested in developing a nonnuclear, prompt-strike capability to attack a target anywhere around the world with just an hour's notice. This type of weapon might be used in the event that U.S. naval vessels or land-based aircraft are not located close enough to strike a target under urgent conditions, such as prior to an impending North Korean missile launch.

AHW technologies, if proven successful, might be incorporated into the Air Force Conventional Strike Missile, which could be the first such prompt-attack capability to be fielded (see GSN, June 24).

[buglerbilly]

Agni-4 surprise launch a success, next missile in Dec

Ajai Shukla / New Delhi November 16, 2011, 0:29 IST

The victory came without the date having been announced in advance. The Defence Research and Development Organisation succeeded in its surprise test on Tuesday, as the new Agni-4 missile was launched “flawlessly” — to quote the MoD — from the Odisha coast, establishing India as a builder of cutting-edge intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBMs).

While Agni-4 was fired out to just 3,000 kilometres this morning, the DRDO claims it can comfortably deliver a nuclear weapon to a target 3,500 km away.

That would make Agni-4 India’s first true IRBM. Its predecessor, Agni-3, with a 3,000-km range, was a medium range ballistic missile. The 1958-formed DRDO is now readying for its debut launch is the 5000-km range Agni-5. It will be only marginally short of the 5,500-km range needed to be classified as that Big Daddy of rockets: an intercontinental ballistic missile. The DRDO states that its plans is to launch Agni-5 as early as next month.

The Agni-4 project has been overseen by Tessy Thomas, called the “missile woman” after she became the first woman to head an Indian ballistic missile project. (It is another matter that the media prefers to call her Agni Putri, or daughter of fire, a play on the Agni name.) Thomas has ensured that Agni-4 makes a major technological leap from Agni-3, testing out several systems that will be crucial to the success of Agni-5.

Launched from a road-mobile missile carrier at Wheeler’s Island off the Orissacoast, the two-stage, solid-fuel Agni-4 roared off its launch pad at exactly 9 am in what the DRDO describes as a “textbook fashion”. After reaching a height of 900 km, tracked by a chain of radars along India’s eastern seaboard, it began its descent, encountering temperatures above 3,000 degrees centigrade, while re-entering the atmosphere. Two ships of the Indian Navy that had been pre-positioned in the target area witnessed the final splash down.

DRDO’s public relations chief Ravi Gupta said Agni-4 represents an entirely new class of missiles. “It uses advanced technologies to improve capabilities, even while reducing the missile’s weight,” he told Business Standard.

A crucial first for Agni-4 is the successful use of a composite rocket motor, made of lightweight composites rather than the heavier “maraging steel” from which earlier rocket motors were fabricated. This composite rocket motor will be key to the success of Agni-5. Ditto will the case be with other first-time technologies — such as a high-accuracy ring-laser gyroscope-based inertial navigation system (RINS), a micro-navigation system (MINGS) and a powerful new onboard computer. Through on Tuesday’s surprise Agni-4 test, the DRDO has technologically de-risked the high-profile Agni-5 test that the world will be watching carefully.

“This test has paved the way ahead for the success of Agni-5 mission. It will be launched shortly,” said Avinash Chander, who heads the DRDO’s missiles division. He also talked up the RINS and the MINGS, describing Agni-4 as ushering in major advances in long-range navigation systems.

Navigation is critical for long-range ballistic missiles. For, striking very close to the target allows smaller nuclear warheads to inflict as much damage as heavy “megaton class” nuclear bombs delivered by less accurate missiles — several hundred metres, or even a kilometre, away. The Agni missiles’ high accuracy would allow India to restrict itself to smaller nuclear warheads, Chander told Business Standard.

“Megaton warheads were used when accuracies were low,” he noted. “Now we talk of [the accuracy of] a few hundred metres. That allows a smaller warhead, perhaps 150-250 kilotonnes, to cause substantial damage. We don’t want to cause wanton damage (with unnecessarily large warheads).”

Even as Agni-4 tests several technologies will go into Agni-5, it is not a mere technology demonstrator, the DRDO emphasises. Instead, it will be deployed with the military as an operational missile. According to a press release by the agency, Agni-4 “has provided a fantastic [nuclear] deterrence to the country and it will be produced in numbers and delivered to the Armed Forces as early as possible”.

[buglerbilly]

‘Fly-by-photo’ Iskander missile test-fired

Published: 15 November, 2011, 13:47


RIA Novosti / Aleksey Danichev

Russian rocket artillery troops have equipped Iskander missiles with a terminal guidance system using photos of the target to greatly improve precision. The tactical ballistic missiles are Russia’s answer to NATO’s controversial European ABM shield.

The upgraded missile designated 9M723 for the Iskander system was tested last week by an artillery use and research center, reports Izvestia newspaper citing a source in the General Staff.

“The guided missile is homed ‘by photo’, that is compares the actual view to a pre-loaded digital image of the target,” the source explained.

The technology is similar to Pentagon’s Digital Scene-Mapping Area Correlator (DSMAC). In the case of the Iskander it helped improve the missile’s accuracy twofold. The versions currently deployed have Circular Error Probable (CEP) of 10 meters, while for the new missile it was lowered to merely 5 meters.

The improved precision makes the Iskander more efficient against highly fortified underground targets, the source says.

Iskander is a mobile theater-level ballistic missile system. It is a designated replacement for the older Tochka missiles, which had been deployed since 1970s. The first brigade armed with the missiles was formed in October this year. A total of 120 Iskander launchers are to be deployed by Russia by 2020.

The missile can be armed with different loads, including tactical nuclear warheads. Its estimated maximum range is 280 kilometers. An Iskander launcher can also potentially fire cruise missiles.

In 2008 amid the heated dispute over American plans to deploy an Antiballistic Missile system (ABM) in Eastern Europe, President Medvedev threatened to deploy Iskanders in the Russian western exclave, the Kaliningrad Region. It would allow for the attack of ABM sites in Poland and Czech Republic, which were to become part of the system.

[buglerbilly]

DoD Successfully Tests Hypersonic Flying Bomb

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Published: 17 Nov 2011 13:48

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon held a successful test flight of a flying bomb that travels faster than the speed of sound and will give military planners the ability to strike targets anywhere in the world in less than a hour.

Launched by rocket from Hawaii at 1130 GMT on Nov. 17, the "Advanced Hypersonic Weapon," or AHW, glided through the upper atmosphere over the Pacific "at hypersonic speed" before hitting its target on the Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands, a Pentagon statement said. Kwajalein is about 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii.

The Pentagon did not say what top speeds were reached by the vehicle, which unlike a ballistic missile is maneuverable.

Scientists classify hypersonic speeds as those that exceed Mach 5 - or five times the speed of sound - 3,728 miles an hour.

The test aimed to gather data on "aerodynamics, navigation, guidance and control, and thermal protection technologies," said Lt. Col. Melinda Morgan, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

The U.S. Army's AHW project is part of "Prompt Global Strike" program which seeks to give the U.S. military the means to deliver conventional weapons anywhere in the world within an hour.

On Aug. 11, the Pentagon test flew another hypersonic glider dubbed HTV-2, which is capable of flying 27,000 kilometers per hour, but it was a failure. The AHW's range is less than that of the HTV-2, the Congressional Research Service said in a report, without providing specifics.

The Pentagon has invested $239.9 million in the Global Strike program this year, including $69 million for the flying bomb tested Nov. 17, CRS said.

[buglerbilly]

U.S. Wants to Maintain Limits on S.Korean Missiles

Washington opposes the revision of guidelines that restrict South Korea's missile range to less than 300 km. Officials from the two countries discussed the issue at the Defense Ministry on Thursday but failed to narrow their differences. They agreed to meet again early next year.

A diplomatic source in Seoul said although South Korea has been seeking to extend the missile range through various channels including the Defense Ministry since earlier this year, "no progress has been made yet."

The guidelines were last revised in 2001, extending the range from 180 km to 300 km and increasing the payload capacity to 500 kg. But Seoul argues North Korean missiles have a much longer range and the restrictions now present a security risk.

In negotiations with Washington, Seoul called for a range of over 1,000 km to cover all of North Korea, which is developing intercontinental ballistic missiles as well as short and medium-range missiles.

The North had already developed a Scud missile capable of striking all of South Korea in the 1980s. In 1998, 2006, and 2009 it tested missiles whose range is now believed to be longer than 4,000 km. South Korea believes it must extend its own missile range in time for the handover of full operational control of the South Korean armed forces from the U.S. in 2015.

But government officials say that the U.S. administration opposes extending the range because Seoul joined the Missile Technology Control Regime in 2001, which focuses on preventing proliferation of rockets with warheads of over 500 kg or a range longer than 300 km. Washington is reportedly worried that extending the range would provoke North Korea and weigh on its relations with China.

"The U.S. is worried because extending the range to 1,000 km would bring Beijing within reach as well," a government official said. "There's a rough road ahead before the guidelines are revised."

englishnews@chosun.com / Dec. 05, 2011 09:22 KST