RUSSIA WORKS ON ITS OWN MISSILE SHIELD...
Amid ongoing disagreements with the United States over the deployment of missile defenses in Europe, Russia is continuing work on its own anti-missile capabilities. On December 20th, it carried out a successful trial of of a short-range missile interceptor from a test range in Kazakhstan, state news agency RIA Novosti reported the same day. The diagnostic test was part of the country's effort "to develop a domestic missile defense shield," the agency reports the country's Defense Ministry as saying.
...WHILE THE BULAVA WAITS ON DECK
Russia isn't strictly focused on defensive capabilities, however. According to RIA Novosti (December 27), Russia's newest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Bulava, is ready for combat duty. Flight tests on the new sea-launched ICBM have reportedly been completed, and coming months will see the Bulava inducted into the Russian Navy. “We have made a very important step - we have completed the cycle of flight tests... of the Bulava missile,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said. “Now it will be put into service.”
REQUIEM FOR THE AIRBORNE LASER, BUT NOT FOR LASER INTERCEPT
At long last, the Pentagon's troubled Airborne Laser (ABL) project has been officially mothballed. TheAerospace Daily & Defense Report (December 22) reports that, after 16 years of development and massive financial expenditures, the hammer has finally come down on the next-generation anti-missile project, which was intended to outfit a Boeing 747 with the capability to intercept incoming missiles using a high-energy laser.
But while the ABL might be dead, the concept behind it is still very much alive. There is now fresh momentum behind the concept of laser intercept of ballistic missiles - due in no small measure to the technological advances made in the development of the ABL. The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, the trade bulletin reports, "is now looking toward a new generation of lasers that could operate on unmanned vehicles at very high altitudes owing to advancements in laser technology, power generation and beam control work made possible in part by the foundation laid in the ABL years."
MISSILE DEFENSE DATA BECOMES A PAWN OF THE "RESET"
In an effort to jump-start its troubled "reset" of relations with Russia, the Obama administration could soon share critical missile defense data with the Kremlin. The Washington Times reports in its January 4th "Inside The Ring" column that President Obama has signaled his displeasure with provisions of the FY2012 Defense Authorization Act that restrict dissemination of missile defense interceptor data. Administration officials in the past have supported the sharing of the velocity burnout parameters of U.S. SM-3 interceptors with Russia - a development critics say could allow Russia to more effectively work to defeat U.S. missile defenses.
As a result, restrictions on such sharing have been codified in the Defense Authorization Act. But President Obama has indicated that he may not honor those prohibitions. “While my administration intends to keep the Congress fully informed of the status of U.S. efforts to cooperate with the Russian Federation on ballistic missile defense, my administration will also interpret and implement [the Act] in a manner that does not interfere with the president’s constitutional authority to conduct foreign affairs and avoids the undue disclosure of sensitive diplomatic communications,” the President has maintained.
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