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Physics Today
August 26, 2009

The Pentagon is signaling to Russia that plans for an extensive European missile defense system (EMDS) could be scaled back.

The original EMDS proposal was to use interceptors similar to those based in Alaska, with a X-band tracking radar located in the Czech Republic and the interceptors based in Poland. The EMDS would protect Europe and the US from missiles launched in the Middle East by destroying them mid-flight.

However Russia objected to the EMDS sites accusing the US of attempting to weaken their security and trying to gain influence in a region that they see as under Russian geo-political influence.

To limit these concerns, and after a new Pentagon analysis suggests the likelihood that the US will face an intercontinental missile threat is a lot weaker than previously believed, the US military is recommending that a land-based SM-3 system be deployed instead says Aviation Week.

The SM-3 can, in theory, destroy mid-range missiles aimed at Europe, but not long-range intercontinental missiles aimed at the US, either from the Middle East or launched from Russia. The SM-3 would still make use of a radar station in the Czech Republic.

“The reality is [long-range intercontinental missiles] did not come as fast as we thought it’d come,” said General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaking at a missile-defence conference in Alabama last week.

The Pentagon is currently in the midst of a major review of all its missile defense programs and a number of exotic technologies, such as the Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV) are likely to be canceled. …

http://blogs.physicstoday.org/politics/2009/08/us-offers-flexiblity-on-euro-m.html

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Chavez: Venezuela ready to sever ties to Colombia
August 26th, 2009

President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday that Venezuela is getting ready to break off diplomatic relations with Colombia over the neighboring country’s plan to give American troops greater access to its military bases.

Chavez said that “there’s no possibility” of repairing relations with the government of President Alvaro Uribe and that he instructed his foreign minister to “begin preparing for the rupture with Colombia.”

“It’s going to happen. Let’s get ready,” he said.

Venezuela and Colombia have been feuding for weeks over the negotiations between Bogota and Washington that would allow the U.S. military to increase its presence at seven Colombian bases through a 10-year lease agreement.

Colombian and U.S. officials say the agreement is necessary to more effectively help Colombia’s security forces fight drug traffickers and leftist rebels.

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Global Security Newswire
August 13, 2009

The Obama administration’s proposal to emphasize battlefield missile defenses over systems for intercepting strategic ballistic missiles would save the nation money while potentially making it more vulnerable to future attack, says a report published yesterday by a Washington-based defense think tank …

The Defense Department’s $9.3 billion missile defense budget request would slash spending by $1.7 billion — or 16 percent — from the current funding level, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments analyst Todd Harrison wrote in the report. Still, the missile defense budget remains $4 billion higher than in fiscal 2001, the last funding year settled under the Clinton administration.

Harrison noted particular concern about a proposal to deploy only 30 ground-based interceptors, warning that doing so “with no replacement or replenishment program could result in too few missiles to provide a basic level of protection, especially as these missiles are depleted over time from regular test launches.”

The Pentagon request would decrease funds for the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system by 35 percent, providing it with $983 million in the fiscal 2010, the report states. …

The Pentagon requested a total of $668 billion for the next fiscal year, including $130 billion for international military commitments. The poor economic climate and spending in other sectors is likely to limit future expenditures on defense procurement as well as research, development, test and evaluation efforts …

www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20090813_4838.php

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