DefenceTalkIn the late 1990s, defense hawks and doves were involved in an intense debate over missile defense. The Clinton Administration had stomped on the brakes, reducing the Reagan-Bush program to a research effort. Official intelligence estimates saw the threat to the U.S. homeland from nations such as Iraq, Iran and North Korea as maturing only […]https://www.defencetalk.com/intelligence-leak-confirms-missile-threat-commissions-predictions-47485/

DefenceTalkLockheed Martin’s PAC-3 Missile successfully detected, tracked and intercepted a tactical ballistic missile (TBM) in a Lower Tier Project Office flight test today at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Two PAC-3 Missiles were ripple-fired in the test per current doctrine. The first interceptor destroyed the target and the second PAC-3 Missile self-destructed as planned. Mission […]https://www.defencetalk.com/lockheed-pac-3-missile-intercepts-and-destroys-tactical-ballistic-missile-in-new-test-47464/

DefenceTalkGuam has raised its official threat level and on Thursday tested its emergency alert system after warnings from North Korea identifying the island as a potential missile target. With a North Korean missile test expected at any time, authorities said the US territory in the western Pacific was on yellow alert, the middle phase of […]https://www.defencetalk.com/guam-heightens-alert-level-after-north-korea-threats-47445/

DefenceTalkIt takes a crisis to concentrate the mind. Faced with unusually bellicose rhetoric from the regime in Pyongyang, the Obama Administration reversed course on National Missile Defense (NMD) and is rapidly bolstering its theater air and missile defenses in the region. The Department of Defense will add 14 ground based interceptor missiles to 30 currently […]https://www.defencetalk.com/crisis-in-northeast-asia-makes-the-case-for-jlens-47395/

DefenceTalkThe United States is to deploy a THAAD missile defense battery to defend its bases on the Pacific island of Guam, the Pentagon said Wednesday following threats from North Korea. The news that the ground-based system would be in place in the coming weeks came after two Aegis anti-missile destroyers were sent to the western […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-missile-shield-sent-to-guam-after-north-korea-threat-47350/

DefenceTalkThe United States will need between five and seven Ground Based Interceptors (GBI) to intercept one Russian Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile, a Russian military expert said on Tuesday. “From my contacts with the director of the [US Department of Defense’s] Missile Defense Agency, I have learned that the Americans will need five to seven interceptors […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-needs-5-7-gbis-to-intercept-one-topol-icbm-expert-47327/

DefenceTalkThe White House said Tuesday that NATO would not provide Patriot missile batteries to protect rebel strongholds in Syria, following a request from opposition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib. Khatib asked for an extension of the umbrella provided by Patriot positions on the Turkish border designed to intercept any missiles fired from the Syrian side, as […]https://www.defencetalk.com/white-house-no-patriot-missiles-in-syria-47281/

DefenceTalkThe United States is dedicated to defending Europe from missile attacks despite a US decision to abandon the final phase of a planned anti-missile system, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel said Friday. In a phone call to Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak, Hagel conveyed his condolences over the death of a Polish soldier in Afghanistan this […]https://www.defencetalk.com/hagel-seeks-to-reassure-poland-on-missile-defense-47250/

DefenceTalkRaytheon Company (RTN) delivered its eighth AN/TPY-2 radar to the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) in support of the U.S. combatant commands. An integral capability of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS), AN/TPY-2 is a mobile, X-band phased-array radar that helps protect the U.S., deployed forces, and America’s friends and allies by searching, acquiring and tracking […]https://www.defencetalk.com/raytheon-delivers-8th-antpy-2-radar-47202/

DefenceTalkRussia said Monday it saw “no concession” in the US decision to abandon the final phase of its missile shield for Europe in favour of deploying new interceptors against a possible attack from North Korea. The US move was seen in Washington as raising prospects for a revival of arms control talks with Russia. But […]https://www.defencetalk.com/russia-dismisses-us-missile-defence-move-47189/