The director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is in the early stages of engaging industry on a series of projects worth billions of dollars that will shape the nation’s defense architecture, but he continues to struggle with contractors building unreliable products.

Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly is withholding a production contract worth up to $400 million for the next 48 Ter­minal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) missiles because of a single part that failed qualification in June. Although a redesign is underway, he emphasizes that new systems require a “zero tolerance” for reliability shortcomings, and the delay is affecting readiness for operational units.

While struggling with some of today’s systems, new programs are essential to the emerging architecture envisioned by the Pentagon. At issue is spotty tracking of threat missiles. The goal is uninterrupted tracking of hostile weapons in order to engage them early in flight.

Among forthcoming technology demonstrations are efforts to field new midcourse tracking satellites, a long-range ICBM killer and a sensor pod for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) capable of tracking boosting ballistic missiles.

While the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense program will continue to be the mainstay to protect the U.S. from ballistic missile attack from North Korea and Iran, new systems are needed to complete the architecture and improve on the systems envisioned for protecting Europe. Among them is a 9-12-satellite Precision Tracking and Surveillance System (PTSS), which would provide ascent-phase midcourse tracking of ballistic missile targets. Today, operators lose sight of a target and are forced to reacquire it later in its flight. …

www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/awst/2010/08/23/AW_08_23_2010_p24-249587.xml&headline=MDA%20Plans%20Major%20Anti-Missile%20Programs

A top U.S. defense official has revealed new details about a major cyber attack in 2008, the most significant compromise of military computers known to date. The details of the attack, published this week in the bi-monthly magazine Foreign Affairs, not only outlines government efforts to counter that attack, but ongoing efforts by the U.S. military to create a broader cyber security strategy.

According to the report, which was authored by Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn, the attack began after an infected flash drive was inserted into a U.S. military laptop at a base in the Middle East. The malicious code on the drive spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems establishing what Lynn describes as a digital beachhead that allowed the attackers to transfer data to servers under foreign control.

The report says the intrusion served as a wake-up call and marked a turning point in U.S. cyberdefense strategy.

It was not, however, the only successful penetration.

Attacks of U.S. military networks have increased dramatically over the past 10 years, Lynn says, and U.S. military and civilian networks are probed and scanned thousands of times every day …

www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Cyber-Attacks-Againts-US-Military-Computers-Increase-Sharply-101613048.html

The U.S. military’s high-profile involvement in Sanaa’s operations against al-Qaida in Yemen may further fuel anti-U.S. sentiment among local population and make things worse for the Yemeni authorities, analysts say.

The U.S. open involvement is also causing embarrassment for Yemeni authorities, who have insisted Yemeni military forces alone are responsible for anti-terror operations in the country and that the U.S. military’s job is limited to intelligence and training.

U.S. officials have recently admitted that the U.S. has mounted raids on al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen and they have also indicated that the U.S. anti-terror focus is shifting to Yemen.

According to a New York Times report on Aug. 14, the U.S. launched an air raid on al-Qaida’s branch in the northeastern province of Marib in May, in its fourth onslaught on al-Qaida bases in the country since last December.

Washington had been tight-lipped about its “secret bombing raids” against al-Qaida’s affiliates.

And according to a Washington Post article on Aug. 25, for the first time since Sep. 11, 2001, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) called al-Qaida in Yemen the top terror threat to U.S. security, as al-Qaida has been decimated by predator strikes in Pakistan.

The Obama administration officials have called for an escalation of U.S. operations, worried that Yemen may become the next training center for al-Qaida. Drone strikes were suggested. …

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2010-08/29/c_13468167.htm

Pentagon wants to grow spending, despite record deficit

Presidential commission may take aim at defense spending

The end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq may increase pressure on the Pentagon to trim spending, giving ammunition to lawmakers who have long wanted to take aim at the massive defense budget.

The United States will formally end its combat mission in Iraq on Tuesday, ahead of a scheduled withdrawal of all U.S. forces next year. President Barack Obama also aims to start withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan in July 2011.

Given mounting concern over the giant U.S. budget deficit, those drawdowns could be potent political arguments for advocates of making defense cuts part of the overall effort to trim federal spending.

Tackling defense spending has been a politically taboo topic since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, but that may be changing, analysts say. …

The top U.S. military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, last week called the $13 trillion-plus U.S. debt “the single biggest threat to our national security.” …

www.reuters.com/article/idUSN29267405

The Pentagon announced Tuesday that it has blocked a 400 million dollar contract with Lockheed Martin because a component in an army missile defense system had failed to pass key tests.

“A safety device on board the missile has not passed qualification tests as yet,” said Richard Lehner, spokesman for the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency.

As a result, the agency withheld the contract to build the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile (THAAD), until the problem is fixed and it passes the required tests, he said.

The THAAD missiles, which are designed to intercept incoming short and medium-range ballistic missiles in the outer edges of the Earth’s atmosphere, were expected to play a key role in US plans to shield US forces in the Middle East against Iranian missile attack. …

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100817/pl_afp/usmilitarymissiles

A U.S. investigation has found the U.S. Department of Defense cannot account for most of a $9.1 billion Iraqi oil fund meant for reconstruction.

An audit of the fund found the Pentagon is unable to show how $8.7 billion was spent. It says the Pentagon failed to properly create bank accounts for a bulk of the money, which it controlled from 2004 to 2007.

Without those accounts, the audit says the money became “vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected losses.”

The report does not allege any fraudulent activity.

Of the $8.7 billion that was not handled properly, the audit says the military failed to provide any records for $2.7 billion. …

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/usa/US-Cannot-Account-for-87-Billion-in-Iraqi-Funds-99304749.html

The U.S. plans to deploy its warships armed with “Aegis” air defence missile systems in the Black Sea and build radar in Bulgaria or Turkey. This is part of a planned missile defence system in Europe, says The Washington Post, quoting an unnamed official at the U.S. Defence Department.

Discussion on the possible involvement of Bulgaria in the future American missile defence system has been going on for some time. Something new in the Washington Post report is that the U.S. Defence Department plans to deploy warships equipped with “Aegis” missile interceptors in the Black Sea rather than the Mediterranean Sea as planned earlier. In February, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, Helen Tauscher told reporters that Washington had no plans to deploy radar in Bulgaria.

This report cannot be considered hundred percent true because it was received from an anonymous source. Perhaps, there is no fire without smoke is applicable here. In May, the U.S. started deploying “Patriot” air defence systems in Poland, 60 kilometers from the Russian border. The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the move. A report released recently by the U.S. Defence Department insists on the need for setting up an early warning missile defence centre in the Czech Republic. The Defence department requests the Congress to allocate over two million dollars for this purpose.

Some time ago, Russia and several other countries welcomed the back-down by the Barack Obama Administration to implement a plan to deploy a missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic. At present, there is an impression that this optimism was highly exaggerated. In reality, the U.S. is gradually implementing its plans to develop a missile defence system in Europe. In fact, this is being done despite the fact that the Presidents of Russia and the U.S., Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama, agreed to study the possible missile threats and then how to respond to them. Russian and American experts discussed this issue at their meeting in the U.S. last week. …

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/08/02/14275848.html

BY THE end of this month the United States is pledged to withdraw its combat troops from Iraq and by the end of next year its status of forces agreement with that state expires. President Obama says these commitments mark the end of the combat mission in Iraq as promised by him and on his timetable. There is a lot of politics in this statement ahead of the US midterm elections in November. In fact six brigades – 50,000 troops – will remain in 94 bases in September even when 14,000 others pull out. And Iraq’s most senior military commander once again last week insisted that the country’s armed forces will not be ready to take charge until 2020.

Lieut Gen Babaker Zebari said “the problem will start after 2011 . . . If I were asked about the withdrawal, I would say to the politicians: the US army must stay until the Iraqi army is fully ready in 2020.” He does not envisage a large force but troops in three or four bases. He is pushing an open door with the US military, who support him on this. They do not believe the Iraq armed forces are capable of withstanding an external attack, or of preventing any conflict with Kurdish forces in the north of the country. Al-Qaeda and other groups unreconciled to the new Iraqi regime are stepping attacks, making July’s 525 killings the highest in two years. Anyone looking at the size of the existing US bases and diplomatic facilities and those under construction, together with tens of thousands of contractors, might conclude that withdrawal is likely to be more symbolic than real. …

Read on: www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0816/1224276887081.html

Lawmakers on a U.S. House subcommittee have boosted missile defense funding to Israel beyond what President Barack Obama requested, elevating support to its highest level ever, according to The Jerusalem Post.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense added nearly $96 million to the original White House funding request for the long-range Arrow programs and medium-range David’s Sling, bringing the total to $422.7 million for 2011. The amount slated for next year represents a doubling of aid for missile defense from what was approved just last year. …

Although the funding still must be approved by the House and Senate, a confidential source close to the issue boasted to The Jerusalem Post “it would be political suicide” for members of Congress not to go along with the recommendation. …

Read the original here: www.allgov.com/US_and_the_World/ViewNews/House_Subcommittee_Votes_to_Raise_Missile_Defense_Aid_to_Israel_to_Highest_Level_Ever_100803

By Eva Golinger
The Chávez Code
Saturday, Jul 24, 2010

After Venezuelan President Chavez revealed intelligence data yesterday during a national address indicating the imminence of an aggression against his government via Colombia with support from the United States, the country is on maximum alert. Today, the Venezuelan President suspended an important trip to Cuba to celebrate the July 26th anniversary of the Moncada Battle. Chavez was to meet with Fidel Castro, recently recuperated and active again in his nation’s politics, and was scheduled to give the key address at the Moncada commemoration.

“After reviewing intelligence reports and other information all night, I have decided to suspend my trip to Cuba”, declared Chavez on Sunday before tens of thousands of members from the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). “The possibility of an armed attack against Venezuela from Colombia is too high, and therefore I will remain in the country”.

Chávez also warned the US government that in the event of a military attack against Venezuela from Colombia or elsewhere, all oil supply will be suspended. …

Read on: http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_60730.shtml