On October 15, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced that ships from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States participated in a live-fire integrated air and missile defense (IAMD) scenario. During the exercise, the Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) tracked and defeated a medium-range ballistic...
On October 3, Secretary of Defense James Mattis disclosed the approval of Congressional defense committees to reprogram $416 million from other accounts, including unspent Army maintenance and operations funding, into several missile defense programs. The reallocation would shift $47 million into the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program for 10 to 20 new missile silos for a...
On July 24, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) indicated that sailor error was responsible for a failed SM-3 Block IIA missile intercept test. According to Defense News, a tactical datalink controller, responsible for maintaining communications between the missile and the Navy’s Aegis ship combat system, incorrectly identified the incoming ballistic missile target as friendly, consequentially...
On June 21, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the Japan Ministry of Defense conducted a development intercept test of a new Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA missile, an interceptor designed to operate as part of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system. The missile failed to intercept the medium-range ballistic target missile. The reason...
The Missile Defense Agency yesterday conducted an intercept test of the Standard Missile-3 Block IIA (SM-3 IIA), a relatively new interceptor designed for use in the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) program. Something appears to have gone wrong, however, and the interceptor did not destroy its target. The type or cause of failure is not yet known, nor will it likely be known for some time.
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...
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 3, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and the Japanese Ministry of Defense conducted a successful intercept test of the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA. This was the third flight test and first intercept test for the jointly-developed missile. The SM-3 IIA was fired by the USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53), which intercepted and...
In response to growing political tension in South East Asia, both Japan and South Korea have passed increased defense budgets for 2017. Japan’s $44.6 billion budget includes costs for upgrading its PAC-3 Patriot missile system, equipping its ships with Aegis radar systems, and continuing development of the SM-3 Block IIA anti-ballistic missile. South Korea’s budget...
The Navy’s bold new “distributed lethality” (DL) concept could dramatically change naval operations both in terms of geographic dispersion and armaments of individual ships.
