Category: missile defense

Article

X-Band Radar in Canada?

Canadians are not totally against defense. Maybe. Two months ago, CBC reported two senior Raytheon employees skulking around the Happy Valley-Goose Bay area in Labrador. … senior officials from the Raytheon Company travelled to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador, on a…

Article

A Potemkin Defense: Integrated Flight Tests Hate Our Freedoms

Arms Control Wonk.com has obtained the full text of the Final Report of the Missile Defense Agency’s Independent Review Team (IRT), first reported by Bradley Graham in the Washington Post. Graham, however, missed the scoop—the IRT perversely recommends reducing future…

Article

Everythin's Bigger in Texas: Sea-based X-band Radar

San Antonio Express-News staff writer Jeorge Zarazua got a chance to climb around the Missile Defense Agency’s gigantic Sea-based X-band Radar (SBX)—a missile defense radar mounted on a self-propelled oil-drilling rig. The SBX is larger than a football field, which…

Article

MDA R2s: Initial Reactions

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has released its Fiscal Year 2006 (FY06) Budget Estimate Overview, complete with descriptive summaries (R2s for those in the know). The R2s provide some answers to our questions: Why did classified MDA spending jump by…

Article

MDA R2s Hung Up

Bear with me for a minute. Go to the DOD Comptroller’s FY 2006 PBR website, click “Defense_Wide Budget Documentation” and mouse over “RDT&E.” You are now looking at the detailed summaries (R2s if you know the lingo) from the President’s…

Article

Like Rashomon, But for Wonks

Four little reporters listened to conference call with the Director of the Missile Defense Agency … The first little reporter, Ann Roosevelt of Defense Daily, went “MDA Director ‘Disappointed’ In Recent Test Problems.” (subscription only, I am afraid) The second…

Article

Patriot Performance in Iraq

Inside Defense has the full text of the Defense Science Board’s Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Patriot System Performance (Not yet available from the DSB website). The report focuses on three fratricide incidents—including the death of…

Article

Hose off, eh?

Canada has decided not to participate in the Ballistic Missile Defense System. The Canadian press reports that the decision began to take shape in mid-February as Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin began to shape his defense budget request. The original…

Article

Life Imitates Art: Another Missile Defense Test Failure

In the popular television program Sex and the City, Trey MacDougal, the husband of a principal character, has a little problem, um, performing under pressure. The Missile Defense Agency’s own Trey, Henry “Trey” Obering III, seems to be having a…

Article

Saving Space Based Interceptors?

Zapping Space-Based Interceptors? Not so fast. MDA Director Henry “Trey” Obering wants to keep as many missile defense programs alive as possible, including programs for space-based missile defense interceptors, despite looming budget cuts. With the Missile Defense Agency facing a…