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...
On Sunday, Yemen’s Houthi rebel group claimed to launch “a winged cruise missile…towards al-Barakah nuclear reactor in Abu Dhabi.” The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has denied these reports, and claims that no missiles entered UAE airspace. This is the second time this year that the Iran-aligned Houthis have claimed to fire a long-range cruise missile...
Fragments from four ballistic missiles fired into Saudi Arabia this year by Yemen’s Houthi rebels appear to be Iranian in origin, according to a confidential UN report drafted by sanctions monitors obtained by Reuters. “Design characteristics and dimensions of the components inspected by the panel are consistent with those reported for the Iranian designed and...
On November 30, Romania signed an official Letter of Offer and Acceptance to receive U.S. Patriot Advanced Configuration-3+ (PAC-3) air and missile defense systems. Approved by the U.S. State Department on July 11, the $3.9 billion sale will include: seven Patriot Advanced Configuration-3+ firing units, 56 Patriot MIM-104E Guidance Enhanced Missile-TBM (GEM-T) missiles and 168...
Following North Korea’s test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, the state-run KCTV news agency released a statement designating the missile as the Hwasong-15. Of note, the statement also claimed the missile is “tipped with [a] super-large heavy warhead” and can reach any portion of the continental United States. The statement elaborated: “The development and advancement...
On November 28, the State Department approved separate $250 million Foreign Military Sales to Poland for both the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and up to 150 AIM-120C-7 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM). Included in the sale of the HIMARS are 16 Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) M31A1 unitary warheads, 9 GMLRS...
Four Patriot Adanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Cost Reduction Initiative (CRI) missile interceptors and one PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) recently completed an operational test-firing at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. Led by the U.S. Army, PAC-3 interceptors successfully detected, tracked, and defeated four tactical ballistic missile targets. These upgraded systems feature improved command and control...
