Interceptor shield

Source: Defense Industry Daily

August 29, 2005
The Deccan Herald reports that according to sources in India’s Ministry of Defence, India will soon develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with a flight range of 9,000-12,000 km based on their experience with the Agni intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM).
While Agni is a two-stage solid fuel ballistic missile capable of delivering a 10-15 kiloton nuclear warhead up to 2,500 km, the ICBM is projected as a three-stage solid and liquid ballistic missile, with solid fuel rockets based on the Agni in the first and second stages, and a liquid propellant rocket in the third stage. Projections include a 2,500-3,500 kg releasable front section with two to three warheads of 15-20 kilotons each, a launch weight of 270-275 tonnes and a CEP impact error of around 2.0-2.8 km.

Note that CEP impact errors of this magnitude make such missiles useful for city targeting only - this is not precise enough to attack hardened bases, especially given 15-20 kiloton (kT) warheads that are roughly the size of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.

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Source: Mercury News
Aug. 25, 2005

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - An unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile successfully reached its target during a test launch early Thursday.
The Minuteman 3’s dummy warhead traveled more than 4,000 miles in about 30 minutes, hitting a predetermined target at the Kwajalein Atoll in the western chain of the Marshall Islands.
The last such test was conducted about a month ago.
Thursday’s liftoff was to demonstrate the integration of a Safety Enhanced Re-entry Vehicle into the existing Minuteman 3 weapons system, Maj. Todd Fleming said. The technology is designed to improve the safety of the launch.

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Source: Daily Telegraph
Aug. 25, 2005

The High Energy Laser Area Defence System (HELLADS), being designed by the Pentagon’s central research and development agency, will weigh just 750kg and measures the size of a large fridge.
To date, such lasers have been so bulky because of the need for huge cooling systems to stop them overheating, that they had to be fitted to large aircraft such as jumbo jets, New Scientist magazine reported today.
But the Pentagon’s Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency reckons it has solved the problem by merging liquid and solid state lasers to cut the size and weight by “an order of magnitude”, according to its website.
Liquid lasers can fire a continuous beam but need large cooling systems, while solid state laser beams are more intense but have to be fired in pulses to stop them overheating.

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Source: Japan Times
Aug. 25, 2005

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The Japanese and U.S. governments have begun arranging for Japan to develop a rocket engine and the United States a warhead for the joint sea-based missile defense system, diplomatic sources said Tuesday.
The missile shield system is scheduled to reach the development phase in fiscal 2006.
The two countries will conclude a new pact on the project after Japan’s Security Council endorses the plan around the end of this year.
To fund the project to develop the enhanced Standard Missile-3 interceptor, the Defense Agency is expected to request billons of yen for fiscal 2006 in its annual budgetary request at the end of this month.
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Source: LockheedMartin

Press Release

DALLAS, TX, August 24, 2005 — Fire units of Battery Bravo, 3rd Battalion, 13 Artillery Regiment, successfully conducted the first in-theater tests of the Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) Unitary rockets recently in Iraq.

Seven GMLRS Unitary rockets were rippled fired from a 65 kilometer distance and reached the target with extreme accuracy. Test objectives included demonstrating the GMLRS Unitary rocket precision capability, and also demonstrated its lethality while limiting collateral damage. The tests served as a determination of employability of the GMLRS rocket in the Global War on Terrorism.

“This test measures the lethality and accuracy of the GMLRS rocket,” said Al Duchesne, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control’s director - MLRS Rocket Programs. “The GMLRS Unitary fills the Army’s urgent need for a long-range precision rocket. The GMLRS team has worked very hard to deliver an accurate and lethal addition to the Army’s capability to achieve its missions.”

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Source: LockheedMartin
August 15, 2005

Press Release
ORLANDO, FL, August 23, 2005 –

Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) announced that the U.S. government has approved the thermobaric HELLFIRE (AGM-114N) missile for an accelerated full-rate production run.
A government-industry team conducted a successful Production Readiness Review (PRR) of the metal augmented charge (MAC), also known as a thermobaric warhead, clearing the way for production of the AGM-114N version of the precision-strike semi-active laser-guided HELLFIRE II missile.
The MAC warhead will be manufactured at the Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) facility in Rocket Center, WV, and shipped to Lockheed Martin for integration with the missile.
Under a $90 million Buy 11 contract with Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Army has called for the production of 900 AGM-114N MAC missiles; 180 AGM-114K missiles, the high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) version; and conversion of 100 HEAT missiles to the MAC warhead configuration. This order extends HELLFIRE production well into 2007 at Lockheed Martin’s manufacturing plants in Ocala, FL (seeker electronics), and Troy, AL (missile final assembly).

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Source: Missile Defense Agency
August 18, 2005

Air Force Lieutenant General Henry “Trey” Obering, Missile Defense Agency Director, announced today a successful launch of a Critical Measurements and Counter-Measures flight test. This test, the second in a series of two scheduled events, was conducted from the Kauai Test Facility at the Pacific Missile Range Facility Hawaii. Both missions met all mission objectives.

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Source: U.S. Department of Defense

No. 856-05
August 19, 2005

AIR FORCE

The Boeing Co., Huntington Beach, Calif., is being awarded a $24,679,000 cost-plus award-fee contract modification to provide for funding for the continued production of Space Vehicles 1 through 3. Total funds have been obligated. This work will be complete by June 2006. The Headquarters Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., is the contracting activity (F04701-96-C-0025, P00358).

To read the full contract follow this Link

Source: RIA Novosti
MOSCOW, August 17 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian nuclear submarine, the Yekaterinburg, successfully launched a ballistic missile from the Barents Sea at 11.06 Moscow time (7.06 a.m. GMT), a source in the Russian Navy said Wednesday.
“The missile was launched toward the Kura target range on the Kamchatka Peninsula (the Far East) during Northern Fleet exercises,” the source said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov observed the launch.
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Modernized antiaircraft missile system displayed at MAKS-2005
Source: RIA Novosti
ZHUKOVSKY (Moscow region), August 16 (RIA Novosti) - The OSA-AKM modernized antiaircraft missile system was presented at the MAKS-2005 aerospace show in Zhukovsky Tuesday.
“About 400 OSA systems have been adopted by different countries,” Alexander Konopolov, chief designer at the Izhevsk Electromechanical Plant Kupol, said at the presentation ceremony. Various aspects of the antiaircraft missile system have been modernized - crew protection has been enhanced, combat control efficiency has been improved, the payload has been replaced, and microwave devices and units have been changed.
“Among the innovations introduced through the system’s modification are a day-night electro-optical finder and ‘traps’, special devices to protect the vehicle from HARM missiles,” Konopolov said. OSA-AKM has also been equipped with a radar locating system.
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Source: RIA Novosti
MOSCOW, August 15 (RIA Novosti) - An exercise involving long-range flights and cruise missile firing will start Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said at a Cabinet meeting attended by President Vladimir Putin.
“A major Northern Fleet exercise will start Wednesday, involving intercontinental ballistic missile launches, along with preparations for aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov’s voyage across the Atlantic which will take few months,” Ivanov said.
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