This doesn’t usually happen. Honest. MDA Director Henry “Trey” Obering (right) attributes the failure of IFT-13C to a “very minor computer software glitch.” Noah Shachtman, however, has posted a fantastic analysis from former DOD Director of Operational Test and Evaluation…
Program Budget Decision (PBD) 753 is a 26-page memorandum dated December 23. Marked “For Official Use Only: Unauthorized Release of the Following Program Budget Decision is Prohibited,” the document appeared in the press about two weeks later. PBD 753 outlines…
I somehow missed the Post’s Al Kamen kicking Rick Lehner and MDA in the jimmy on Monday: Opponents of the Bush administration’s Star Wars missile defense system jumped all over Wednesday’s failed launch, saying the setback showed the administration was…
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more or less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean different things.” “The question…
As you probably already know, the Missile Defense Agency’s Integrated Flight Test (IFT)-13C failed today. I’ve got a post on the subject, Performance Anxiety: Missile Defense Booster Fails to Rise to the Occassion, over on DefenseTech.org. That post notes that…
Integrated Flight Test (IFT)-13C was aborted “after the interceptor missile experienced an anomaly shortly before it was to be launched.” The target, perhaps representing a North Korean ICBM hurtling toward a U.S. city, performed flawlessly. Let’s be clear: This test…
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that “The Bush administration is beginning a broad review of its Russia policy that could lead to a more confrontational approach toward Moscow over its treatment of neighboring countries and its own citizens…” The…
Taylor Dinerman writing with a crayon over at The Space Review says: “In the case of boost-phase weapons, the debris will fall back on the nation that launched the missile.” Fall back? What kind of non-ballistic trajectory is that missile…
TASS reports that the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces tested an ABM interceptor at its Sary-Shagan facility in Kazakhstan on Monday. A spokesman for the Strategic Rocket Forces told TASS “All the tactical and technical performance characteristics of the missile were…
In March 1969, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird was asked “Did the deployment by the Russians of their antiballistic missile system around Moscow and Leningrad encourage us to negotiate or didn’t it encourage us to retaliate …” Laird replied, “I…
