NFIRE Status Update
Looks like MDA is just as confused by the brackets around the $68.0 M for NFIRE as anybody else. Here’s what I can figure out: MDA will remove the Kill Vehicle (KV) from NFIRE satellite, leaving just the Tracking Sensor…
Category: missile defense
Missile Defense and 21st Century Threats: Terrorism or China?
President Bush took a cheap shot at missile defense skeptics today: I think those who oppose this ballistic missile system really don’t understand the threats of the 21st century. They’re living in the past. The Kerry campaign answered with a…
CBO report on Boost Phase
The Congressional Budget Office has released a new report on boost phase missile defense. Some notable revelations: 1. About $ 700 M of the 7.6 M for BMDS Interceptors program over the next five years will be for space-based interceptors…
Kadish on Missile Defense
Defense News asked Former MDA Director Ron Kadish “What do you tell critics who say this [missile defense] system will not be effective?” Kadish demurred, saying “I can give answers, and very-well calculated and technical answers, about the effectiveness of…
Its baaaaack!
After some digging around, I’ve learned that the brackets around the 68.0 M for NFIRE in the Senate Appropriations Committee Report mean the funding has been preserved, setting up a fight in conference. Even an old wonk can learn new…
Linguistic Gymnastics with the Missile Defense Agency
Two space-based missile defense items, today. NEAR FIELD INFRARED EXPERIMENT Theresa Hitchens noticed an interesting choice of words in the letter that the White House sent to the Senate Appropriations complaining about various recissions in the Defense Appropriations report. You…
Congress kills NFIRE
Both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have killed NFIRE. Guess I don’t need to finish my NFIRE Fact Sheet. If you want to see the cuts yourself … House Appropriations Committe Report, page 332, line 71.Senate Appropriations Committe Report,…
Lies, damn lies and statistics: Reagan and the Cold War
The American Forces Press Service published a Reagan retrospective, entitled “Reagan’s National Security Policy Targeted Soviet Threat”, that closes with this comment: History shows that 1980s Soviet military expenditures made in an attempt to keep up with the Americans eventually…
Near Field IR Experiment Will Hit to Kill
MDA now hopes the NFIRE KV will collide with its target during the “simulated” engagement with a ballistic missile. This would, as ABC News reported, be “the first real step” towards the “unprecedented weaponization of space.” The anonymous Pentagon official…
Kill the NFIRE, No Matter What Oberg Says
Jim Oberg is wrong to dismiss the controversy over the Near Field Infra Red Experiment, which will test a Missile Defense Agency kill vehicle in space, as the result of “careless usage of provocative terminology” by the Missile Defense Agency…