The Trump Administration released its National Security Strategy today, which includes the following excerpts on missile defense: “Many actors can now field a broad arsenal of advanced missiles, including variants that can reach the American homeland.” “A layered missile defense system will defend our homeland against missile attacks.” “As missiles grow in numbers, types,...
On Tuesday, Iron Dome batteries intercepted rockets fired from the Gaza Strip toward Ashkelon. While no groups claimed responsibility for the rocket launch, Israeli forces attacked Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip in response. Tension between Hamas and Israeli forces have intensified within the past week, following protests in response to President Trump’s announcement recognizing...
Lockheed Martin, General Atomics, and Boeing were all awarded contracts by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) worth around $9 million to create preliminary designs for a “UAV-based, multi-kilowatt-class laser to demonstrate beam stabilization technology.” The Low Power Laser Demonstrator program formally began in 2015, and, according to MDA Director Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, seeks...
The Japanese Defense Ministry has requested an additional 730 million yen (6.4 million USD) in the FY 2018 defense budget to begin building two land-based Aegis Ashore missile defense systems. Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters on Sunday that, “There is a need to strengthen our capability to regularly and sustainably defend all of the...
For the next two days, the United States, Japan, and South Korea will conduct a joint missile tracking exercise in the Sea of Japan. The exercise will include Aegis-equipped destroyers conducting computer-simulated training for submarine missile launches by North Korea, according to South Korean military officials. The drill comes as experts speculate that North Korea...
National Security Council official Christopher Ford revealed in a speech at the Wilson Center on November 29 that the Russian missile violating the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty is the land-based cruise missile Novator 9M729 (NATO designation: SSC-8). The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement saying that Russia is not violating the treaty,...
Poland is looking to negotiate a lower price for the Patriot defense system it plans to buy from the United States. Poland’s secretary of state in its Defense Ministry, Bartosz Kownacki, told Defense News, “We simply cannot accept such financial conditions, we will be working hard on reducing it, we will be conducting a line-by-line...
South Korea will increase its defense budget by 7 percent next year, raising the amount to 43.2 trillion won (39.7 billion USD). The budget allocates 4.3 trillion won to the “three-axis defense platform,” which includes the Kill Chain Preemptive Strike System, Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD), and the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR)...
Japanese government officials have announced a 2.9 trillion yen (25.9 billion USD) supplementary budget for missile defense and other programs related to North Korea that will be submitted for approval for the fiscal year through March. According to an unnamed source, Japan is also considering the acquisition of strike missiles, including the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff...
On December 4, a target missile’s failure to conform to safety requirements caused Israeli program officials to cancel its scheduled test of an Arrow-3 missile interceptor, declaring a ‘no-test.’ The joint Israeli Defense Ministry and U.S. Missile Defense Agency test ended before Arrow 3 systems could even come online, after on-site engineers noticed the target...
