Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases

Reuters
By Stephanie Nebehay
July 13, 2010

The United States would consider a new global treaty to ban deployment of weapons in space if it meets its security concerns and includes safeguards against cheating, a U.S. arms control official said on Tuesday.

Frank Rose, deputy U.S. assistant secretary of state, also indicated that any future pact must prohibit land-based anti-satellite systems — a technology favored by countries including China.

“We have not seen a space arms control treaty to date that meets the criteria that I laid out of equitability and effective verifiability,” Rose told a news briefing in Geneva after addressing the U.N.-backed Conference on Disarmament.

But he said that under the Obama administration’s new space policy, the United States would “consider space-related arms control concepts and proposals” that meet such criteria.

Diplomats and analysts welcomed the new U.S. position as a small but significant departure from policy under George W. Bush which opposed any space arms control. Brazil’s ambassador Luiz Filipe de Macedo Soares called it real progress. …

www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66C4K520100713?type=politicsNews

Jerusalem Post
By Hilary Leila Krieger
18 July 2010

A senior State Department official on Friday delivered a special address on US efforts to bolster Israel’s security, underscoring support for the Iron Dome missile defense program shortly after a successful test of the system.

“The ever-evolving technology of war is making it harder to guarantee Israel’s security,” said Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for political military affairs, in an address at the Brookings Institution.

“Advances in rocket technology require new levels of US Israel cooperation.”

Shapiro spoke about American commitment to funding Israel’s Iron Dome and longer range Arrow missile-defense systems. Despite earlier concerns from the administration about the programs, the US has this year significantly increased its spending.

Shapiro, in a rare public appearance devoted entirely to US military support for Israel, stressed that the assistance secures America as well.

Helping to make Israel’s population more secure from the short-range rocket and missile threat its border towns face “is not only the right thing to do, but it is the type of strategic step that is good for Israel’s security and for the United States’ interests in the region,” he said. …

www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=181752

UPI.com
July 9, 2010

Demonstration satellites built by Northrop Grumman and Raytheon successfully tracked a ground-based missile launch in a systems test last month.

Tracking data generated by satellite sensors was transmitted to the Missile Defense Integration and Operation Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., which serves as the ground station for the two demonstration spacecraft, Northrop Grumman said in a news release.

“The STSS satellites operated as expected and the system generated high-quality track data during the boost phase in this first missile test of capabilities,” said Gabe Watson, vice president, missile defense and missile warning programs for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.

“The STSS system is on its way to proving the value of space-based sensors for missile defense by demonstrating the ability to detect and track missiles throughout their entire flight trajectory.”

STSS stands for Space Tracking and Surveillance System. …

www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2010/07/09/Space-sensors-detect-track-missile-launch/UPI-63431278707709/