Ballistic missile defense (BMD) will be as controversial as ever in 2009, with a new administration reviewing the past eight years of deployment and development. President-elect Barack Obama is not entirely opposed to BMD, but is skeptical, and has not taken a position on deployment in Western Europe.
As a presidential candidate, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) pledged to get U.S. combat troops out of Iraq, take a hard look at the defense contracting process and spend more money on ground forces and advanced technology like unmanned aircraft. As president-elect, his choices look more like business as usual: No change in the Defense secretary’s office, a transition team with many former Clinton administration figures and a national security adviser pick who has not been out of U.S. Marine Corps uniform long enough to be claimed by either party.
Israel’s current political crisis will be resolved by national elections in February, which may result in a parliamentary majority for the hawkish Likud party led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A Likud-led government will doubtless pursue a harder line in negotiations with the Palestinians, and certainly with those in Gaza who are ruled by Hamas, which most political parties in Israel recognize as a terror group. This in turn could raise tensions in the region and result in a demand for increased defense spending.
Like Predator UAVs and submarines, paper media has the advantage of persistence. That’s why we’ve created Defense 2009, the prototype of what is planned to be a regular feature of our editorial calendar.
When developing a list of the best defense-related books published in 2008, I sent e-mail messages to people I respect to ask what books are getting their attention and a piece of their ever-dwindling time. Given the sheer volume of books published, and the flood of war and military-related titles that have hit the market during the past few years, I was surprised to find that a few recommendations came up time and again.
Some militaries are showing solid progress in their ability to track, target and destroy an object in space. Case in point: The successful shootdown of a defunct spy satellite heading for reentry in the Earth’s atmosphere by the USS Lake Erie. The action last February by the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser confirmed that defensive measures extend to space-based threats.
The Danish army is acquiring a battle management system that will provide greater situational awareness, security and protection for its troops deployed in international operations. It plans to equip five battalions with the system, which is expected to be in service with the Danish contingent of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force starting in 2010.
Japan’s 2009 defense budget has been drafted with one particular threat in mind—North Korea. Recent missile tests by the secretive communist government there have raised enough alarm among Japanese defense planners that they are mandating funds for a number of measures, from sea-based ballistic missile defense capabilities to land-based missile batteries protecting Tokyo and other major cities.
The Italian navy is evaluating a new class of offshore patrol vessel (OPV) for blue-water and littoral operations that will use innovative modular designs to accommodate additional weapon systems, electronics and crew according to mission requirements.
Metamaterials are composites whose properties are derived from their use in manmade structures rather than from their composition. Advances in optical metamaterials, along with developments in signal-processing phenomenology, which includes the use of millimeter-wave radar and ultra-wide-band synthetic aperture radar to detect targets hidden by foliage, could result in sensors with unprecedented interpretation of visual, electromagnetic and acoustic signatures.
Iran wants to be a regional power. To do so, it must contend with the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan, and with Israel, which eyes its nuclear program warily and has threatened retaliation if the country develops nuclear weapons. Iran doesn’t have the military power to achieve its aspiration right now. Nevertheless, it can harass neighbors and major powers with asymmetric warfare, and threaten the global economy by attacking oil shipments in the Persian Gulf.
India’s $26.5-billion defense budget for fiscal year 2008-09 (ending Mar. 31) represents a 10% hike over the previous year but just 1.9% of GDP. While it has attracted criticism from those who claim more should be spent for security (especially after the Mumbai attacks) and to remain competitive with China, others hail it for the modernization it promises.
Roadside bombs are not only more numerous in Afghanistan these days, but more lethal. For the past six years, U.N. International Security Assistance Force troops have had to contend with roadside bombs in the 10-20-lb. range, which are potent and deadly; but in recent months the explosive devices have morphed into multigallon drums packed with 200-500 lb. of explosives.
The Pentagon has for years envisioned soldiers equipped with high-tech weapons, equipment and networked communication gear. Defense agencies and contractors have developed a range of this equipment at a cost of $160 billion and counting.
U.S. Army AH-64D Apache helicopter pilots will soon receive a new sensor that will improve their ability to spot obstacles, targets and noncombatants in low light and when flying at night.
Active defense systems (ADS) are standard on the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) latest main battle tanks (MBT) and armored infantry fighting vehicles (AIFV), as well as part of the protection suite of vehicles in the U.K.’s Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) and U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) programs.
Israel’s first Tecsar synthetic aperture radar (SAR) reconnaissance satellite was launched into low Earth orbit on an Indian rocket in January. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) established contact with the satellite 80 min. after launch. Tecsar is one of the most advanced SAR satellites, providing high-resolution images day and night and through clouds. The satellite carries a multimode X-band radar-imaging payload that provides significant near-term point and area collection capabilities to meet the needs of military and intelligence users.
For all its bloody history of military coups, sanctioned violence and insurgents of various stripes destabilizing governments, Central and South America have been quiet for some time, and in terms of security threats—both internal and geopolitical—they look likely to stay that way. Venezuela under Hugo Chavez remains a wild card, however. In September, two Russian Tupolev Tu-160 bombers flew to Venezuela, marking the first occasion since the end of the Cold War that such aircraft landed in the Western Hemisphere.
The U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency is funding work to adapt a biotech firm’s vaccine for use against bioterrorism. The vaccine fights bacterial infections and shows potential against plague, anthrax and melioidosis, a subtropical disease. It’s now used for turkeys, but that’s where the adaptation comes in. The agency paid $3.8 million to work on vaccine technology from Syntiron, in use by Syntiron’s parent company Epitopix of Willmar, Minn. The SRP vaccine originated at Willmar Poultry, which formed Epitopix to commercialize it. SRP protects turkeys from E.
Late last year, U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles Davis, director of the Joint Strike Fighter program office, addressed a conference in New York. One key point: “The entire media discussion of JSF has totally missed the story on true F-35 capabilities,” Davis fumed. This is complete nonsense. The critics of JSF comprise a handful of bloggers and approximately two journalists. Davis has never seen the kind of hatchet jobs that the Baltimore Sun or 60 Minutes performed on the B-2 and F-22.
In September, the Sea-Based X-band Radar, a twin-hulled, self-propelled, $900-million platform, successfully tracked a target missile launched from Alaska while operating in the northern Pacific with the destroyer USS Russell. Cued by the radar to the missile’s approach, a ground-based interceptor was fired from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., 17 min. after the target missile was launched.
Israel has seen more armored combat in the last 60 years than any nation, and paid a heavy price for developing effective tactics. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tank crews, not technology, won the day in most engagements against larger foes and, sometimes, more advanced armored technology. They did so with superior tactics and a mobile-minded leadership using rapid engagement, accurate long-range firing, fire-and-movement formations and superb communications.
In late November, NetFires LLC, a joint venture between contractors Raytheon Missile Systems and Lockheed Martin, successfully completed the first two guided test flights of the Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System’s Precision Attack Missile (PAM), part of the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program.
The Eurofighter Typhoon is the world’s biggest fighter program, increasing production to as many as 60 aircraft per year (versus just over 40 for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet). The Royal Air Force declared the fighter combat-ready in 2008 for air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. Germany and Austria also declared the aircraft operational, the latter within nine months of receiving its first jets.
