|
American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, DC
|
|
SEA-BASED INTERCEPT SCHEDULE SLIPS... With the deadline for an initial deployment of missile defenses drawing closer, the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has tabled an intercept test of the Navy’s Aegis system. Inside The Pentagon (January 15) reports that the test, dubbed “Flight Mission-7” and originally scheduled for this spring, is now slated for January 2005. Explaining the move, a senior MDA official quoted by the paper cited both problems in funding and competing programmatic priorities. According to the unnamed official, MDA’s focus now rests with “delivering” the initial sea-based system by this fall, as mandated by the President. ...AMID GROWING WORRIES OVER RELIABILITY The Pentagon’s top systems evaluator, meanwhile, has issued a new warning regarding the risks of limited testing, the Washington Post and Channel News Asia both reported on January 22nd. In a brief issued a day earlier, Thomas Christie, the Pentagon’s director of operational test and evaluation, cautioned that scaled-back missile defense testing and an absence of comprehensive data threaten to undermine confidence in the Bush administration’s initiative. While two flight tests are still scheduled for 2004, Christie writes in the annual systems review, the Missile Defense Agency has lagged in “end-to-end operational testing of a mature integrated system” – a reality that could “limit confidence” in the system’s performance once it is deployed later this year. “BARAK” BRANCHES OUT As part of its continuing anti-missile efforts, Israel is now developing a new ground-based missile defense system, Flight International (January 6) reports. According to the trade magazine, a new project – currently in development by the state-run Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) – will create a ground-based variant of the ship-borne “Barak” interceptor. Intended to complement existing Israeli defenses like the advanced Arrow theater missile defense system, the new initiative will provide terminal interception of long-range missiles. While details are still sketchy, the project is expected to incorporate significant upgrades to the existing “Barak” design, including extended range and greater countermeasure discrimination. India has already been named as a potential customer for the new system. IN PAKISTAN, MISSILE FEARS OVER INDIA’S NAVY India’s unprecedented naval expansion over the past several years “has been a cause of grave concern” to Pakistan, writes Ghulam Sarwar in the January 14th issue of Pakistan’s Nation newspaper. Of particular distress, according to the retired Pakistani Colonel, are India’s efforts to cement a major maritime presence in Asia through the creation of a ballistic missile-equipped submarine fleet. This work includes the development of a 300-kilometer range submarine-launched missile based on New Delhi’s “Prithvi,” as well as the indigenously-made “Dhanush” medium range submarine-launched rocket. Such advances, carried out in part through collaboration with Russia, are creating a “very great asymmetry” in the regional correlation of strategic forces in South Asia, Sarwar asserts. DETERRENCE, TERRORIST-STYLE Recent attacks by Lebanon’s Hezbollah may have spiked tensions on Israel’s northern border. But, according to one prominent Israeli lawmaker, the missile capabilities of the terrorist group have so far prevented appropriate Israeli military action. In a January 21st interview with Israel’s Channel 2 Television, Labor MK Efraim Sneh cited the estimated 12,000 short-range rockets in the Shi’ite militia’s arsenal – and Hezbollah’s resulting ability to target much of Israel – as having a deterrent effect on officials in Jerusalem. That dynamic, asserts Sneh, is the direct result of Israel’s year 2000 withdrawal from Southern Lebanon, which created a “vacuum” that has since been filled by the Lebanese terrorist powerhouse and its burgeoning strategic arsenal. RUSSIA FOCUSES ON THEATER DEFENSES Moscow is developing a new missile for its advanced S-300 theater missile defense system, a top Russian military official has revealed. According to Vladimir Mikhailov, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force, Russian specialists are currently working on an extended range interceptor for use in the sophisticated anti-aircraft and anti-missile system, which the Kremlin has been marketing to clients in the Middle East and Asia. Work on the S-300 has been mirrored by stepped up development of both the next-generation S-400 and the Pantsyr short-range air defense system, the RIA-Novosti news agency (January 14) reports Mikhailov as saying. |
|
Copyright
© 2004, American Foreign Policy Council.
|
The American
Foreign Policy Council |
|
 |
|
509 C Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Email: afpc@afpc.org Phone: 202-543-1006 Fax: 202-543-1007 |
|
| |
Copyright
© 2006, American Foreign Policy Council. All Rights Reserved. |
| Web Hosting provided by Mosaic Technologies | |