According to a report published on June 8, the news agency received and confirmed a White House document detailing the $110 billion U.S.-Saudi arms proposal made on May 20. The document includes $13.5 billion for seven THAAD batteries, with an estimated delivery time of 2023-2026. The proposal also includes $6.65 billion for enhancements to Saudi’s Patriot...
Missile threats facing both the United States and its allies in the Asia-Pacific are increasing in complexity, number, and source. In response, the Trump administration is using missile defenses to boost military capability and signal resolve, as indicated by the deployment of THAAD to South Korea...
The U.S. Army FY 2018 budget request has placed added emphasis on the need to expand and modernize its short-range air defenses and long-range precision fires capabilities, saying that this portfolio “contains the Army’s most urgent and pressing capability needs due to challenges not faced in almost 30 years. Given the possibility of conflict with...
At a meeting with the President of Lithuania on May 10, 2017, Secretary of Defense James Mattis suggested that the United States would consider deploying Patriot units to the country. The Patriot system will reportedly be used for U.S. military exercises in the summer and withdrawn before Russia begins their own military exercises in the Baltics in...
According to reports, Romania has announced its intent to procure the Patriot air and missile defense system. Romania, a NATO member, would purchase the Patriot missile defense batteries to work with its integrated air and missile defense system, which also includes six recently purchased F-16 fighter jets and the Aegis Ashore missile defense radar deployed...
Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA) introduced legislation to the house that would prevent the Patriot Guided Enhanced Missile (GEM-T) from being demilitarized and phased out. The GEM-T, the United States’ lowest cost interceptor, is employed by 5 countries in addition to the United States and has been used prominently by Saudi Arabia against the Yemen-based Houthi...
On March 28, the Saudi Royal Air Defense Force reported that it successfully intercepted four ballistic missiles fired by Houthi forces in Yemen. The missiles, intercepted by Saudi Arabia’s PAC-3 interceptors, were targeting the Saudi cities of Khamis Mushayt, which contains the King Khalid Air Base, and Abha. In a statement by the Saudi Press...
The defense authorization act signed into law in December 2016 contained an important provision mandating a review of missile defeat policy, strategy, and capability, to be completed and submitted to Congress in January 2018. This Missile Defeat Review (MDR) appears likely to serve as a successor to both the Department of Defense’s 2010 Ballistic Missile...
In the series finale of the television show Breaking Bad, chemistry teacher-turned meth kingpin Walter White breaks into the home of an ex-business partner, who out of fear arms himself with a butter knife. “If we’re gonna go that way,” White says dryly, “you’ll need a bigger knife.” The man knows he cannot compete, and...
On February 21, ADM Harry Harris, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command, called for greater integration of joint forces so that Army platforms can target threats identified by Navy radars and vice versa. Harris, talking about the future of PACOM, said that he’d “like to see the Army’s land forces conduct exercises to sink a...
