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Does U.S. President Obama have a foreign policy or should we call it a "dangerous farcical policy." Is he even control of the White House? By now, most people have heard the story of how, "11 Secret Service agents" and "as many as 10 U.S. military personnel," hired prostitutes, drank alcohol, and possibly used illicit drugs -- all in "security preparation" for the president to attend the Summit of the Americas in Columbia. Besides the security debacle, Obama's diplomatic effort, "wasn't exactly smooth sailing." But there's a subtle clincher to Obama's ridiculous Columbia trip which belies his true incompetency, a...

Plans to use surface-to-air missiles to protect the skies over London during the Olympics could be thwarted – because they will disturb the habitat of a rare wild flower.

Chandipur-on-sea (Orissa): India's indigenously built Advanced Air Defence (AAD) interceptor missile, capable of destroying hostile in-coming ballistic missiles, was successfully test-fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Wheeler Island off the Orissa's east coast on Monday. "The interceptor destroyed target missile at an altitude of 15 km," said Integrated Testing Range Director, SP Das. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) also sees it as a major success for India's indigenous air defence system. However, the defence sources said that "the trial, scheduled in last mid-March 2010, was abandoned in the last hour twice (on 15th and 16th March)...

Raytheon has been awarded a $58.2 million contract for Patriot Guidance Enhanced Missile-Tactical, or GEM-T, missiles. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AAMCOM), Redstone Arsenal, Ala., issued the contract to upgrade 124 Patriot Advanced Capability-2 missiles to the configuration. This is a follow-on contract issued as part of AAMCOM's Patriot missile continuous technology refreshment program initiated in 2000. "Patriot is combat proven and trusted by 12 nations around the globe, and the continuing upgrades speak to the critical role Patriot plays in those countries' air and missile defense capabilities," said Sanjay Kapoor, vice president for Patriot Programs at Raytheon...

The US Defense Department has approved the sale of upgraded missile equipment to Taiwan, a Taipei-based US official said Thursday, risking the ire of the island's rival China. The sale of the Patriot missile equipment is part of a package passed by the US Congress more than a year ago, said a spokesman with the American Institute in Taiwan, the US de facto embassy in the absence of formal ties. "The US Defense Department awarded Lockheed Martin Corp the contract to provide Patriot missile defence systems to Taiwan as part of a big arms deal approved by Congress in 2008,"...

September 17, 2009 Dismay In Europe As Obama Ditches Missile Defence Philippe Naughton and Tony Halpin in Moscow President Obama dismayed America's allies in Europe and angered his political opponents at home today when he formally ditched plans to set up a missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. The project had been close to the heart of Mr Obama's predecessor, President Bush, who had argued before leaving office in January that it was needed to defend against long-range ballistic missile attacks from rogue states such as Iran and North Korea. But it had hobbled relations with Russia,...

I blogged a couple of weeks ago that the Obama administration was about to abandon its plans for Third Site missile defence installations in Poland and the Czech Republic. I wrote then that “if enacted, this would represent a huge turnaround in American strategic thinking on a global missile defence system, and a massive betrayal of two key US allies in eastern and central Europe. Such a move would significantly weaken America’s ability to combat the growing threat posed by Iran’s ballistic missile program, and would hand a major propaganda victory to the Russians.” It now looks as though the...

Reports in the Polish media indicate that the Obama administration is about to abandon its plans for “third site” missile defence installations in Poland and the Czech Republic. If enacted, this would represent a huge turnaround in American strategic thinking on a global missile defence system, and a massive betrayal of two key US allies in eastern and central Europe. Such a move would significantly weaken America’s ability to combat the growing threat posed by Iran’s ballistic missile program, and would hand a major propaganda victory to the Russians. This shift in US policy is intricately linked to a naïve...

MOSCOW (AFP) – The United States and Russia can resolve a missile dispute that has poisoned relations in recent years and even start working together on the issue, a top US senator said on Wednesday. Russia has repeatedly expressed anger at US plans to place missile defence facilities in the Czech Republic and Poland, an issue that helped trigger a substantial deterioration in ties under former president George W. Bush. "We believe that if we can undertake some serious discussions and negotiations in the area of missile defence, this subject which has divided us can actually turn around and we...

Barack Obama's praise for the Czech government's "courage" in hosting a planned United States missile defence fell flat with many of his supporters during a speech to an audience of 20,000 on Sunday. President Obama linked America's missile defence project to his wider vision of a world free of atomic weapons while setting out his new US policy on nuclear non-proliferation. "Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile activity poses a real threat, not just to the US, but to Iran's neighbours and our allies. The Czech Republic and Poland have been courageous in agreeing to host a defence against these missiles,"...

National Security: Iranian missile experts are helping North Korea with the imminent launch of an ICBM that can hit Alaska and Hawaii. Imagine a Taepodong-2 with a nuke. This is no time to gut missile defense.The enemy of my enemy is my friend, the saying goes. On Sunday, the Japanese paper Sankei Shimbun reported that a 15-member delegation from Tehran has been advising the North Koreans on their imminent "satellite" launch since the beginning of March. Iran recently launched its own satellite to demonstrate its global reach. The Iranian experts include senior officials with rocket and satellite producer Shahid Hemmat...

Russia has suspended the deployment of its Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad due to a change in U.S. missile defence policy in Europe, Interfax news agency quoted a military official as saying on Wednesday. "The implementation of these plans has been halted in connection with the fact that the new U.S. administration is not rushing through plans to deploy" elements of its missile defence shield in eastern Europe, Interfax quoted the unnamed official in the Russian military's general staff as saying.

The author suggests a cheap closed AB-Dome which protects the densely populated cities from nuclear, chemical, biological weapon (bombs) delivered by warheads, strategic missiles, rockets, and various incarnations of aviation technology. [snip] The hemispherical AB-Dome is the inflatable, thin transparent film, located at altitude up to as much as 15 km, which converts the city into a closed-loop system. The film may be armored the stones which destroy the rockets and nuclear warhead. AB-Dome protects the city in case the World nuclear war and total poisoning the Earth’s atmosphere by radioactive fallout (gases and dust). Construction of the AB-Dome is...

WARSAW, Poland - Poland will only sign up to accept a U.S. missile defence base if Washington gives significant help to modernizing Poland's military, the Polish defence minister said in comments published Saturday. "As long as we cannot sign an agreement about a satisfactory contribution by the Americans to the modernization of our armed forces, we can't talk about our agreeing to an American installation on our territory," Bogdan Klich was quoted as saying in an interview with the daily Polska. Washington wants to place 10 missile defence interceptors in Poland and a radar system in neighbouring Czech Republic as...

Washington Times articles are excerpt only.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Poland said Friday it has reached a deal in principle with the United States for aid to modernize Polish air defenses in return for Warsaw's hosting a controversial US missile shield. But Poland's visiting Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski added that "a great deal of work" lay ahead while his host, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, spoke of "some progress" and "some momentum" on missile defense. Amid concerns about the potential risks of hosting US missile interceptors, Warsaw has been pressing the United States to help upgrade the Polish armed forces, and notably to boost the country's...

DEFENCE Smashing hit T.S. SUBRAMANIAN The DRDO’s Advanced Air Defence missile propels India into a select group of countries with the ability to intercept ballistic missiles. PTI THERE was applause at first, followed by five minutes of silence as missile technologists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scanned the consoles in front of them. After 25 seconds of tension, a deafening applause broke out in the Mission Control Centre (MCC) on Wheeler Island, 17 kilometres from Dhamra on the Orissa coast. The atmosphere turned electric as the young men and women missile technologists went delirious with joy. Full-throated...

NEW DELHI: Very soon, India will take a crucial step towards proving its fledgling ballistic missile defence (BMD) system. In the first week of December, the country plans to unleash a new "interceptor" missile to "kill" an incoming "hostile" missile over the Bay of Bengal. This new interceptor missile, an "endo-atmospheric" one, will take on the "enemy" missile at an altitude of 15-20 km above the earth, on the lines of the American Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system. A year ago, on November 27, India had tested an "exo-atmospheric" hypersonic interceptor missile to successfully destroy an incoming Prithvi missile at...

GROWING military co-operation between Australia, Japan and the US is worrying Moscow, as is work on US-Japanese missile defence co-operation, a top foreign ministry official said in an interview today. "The strengthening of US-Australian-Japanese ties has got our attention.... Narrow alliances, especially tight military-political unions, are a worry,'' Deputy Foreign Ministry Alexander Losyukov told daily Vremya Novostei newspaper. "We don't hide that concern - we talk about it with the Australians and the Americans,'' he said. Mr Losyukov said Moscow was also worried over US-Japanese co-operation on missile defence. "They explain this by what appear to be not entirely justified...

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia issued a veiled threat Wednesday to deploy rocket units in the Kaliningrad exclave near Poland if Washington does not draw back from its missile defence plans in central Europe. "If our offers are accepted, Russia will not believe it necessary to deploy new rocket units in the European part of the country, including in Kaliningrad," Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.