¿What If somebody Could Shoot you This Rocket?

Imagine if your neighbors could shoot the deadly M-302 rocket at your home: Type in your home town and it will show you just how far these rockets can reach (http://www.idfblog.com/blog/2014/07/09/what-if-terrorists-could-shoot-this-rocket-at-your-country/)

Share these with your friends and neighbors to show them what living under this threat looks like.

Job opportunity for a THAAD Field Engineer

The successful candidate will function as a field engineer with the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system and will assist the customer in the operation, maintenance, march-order and emplacement of the THAAD Fire Control & Communication (TFCC) system in accordance with established procedures detailed in Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETM). Also would be desirable a prior experience in integrated missile defense systems, knowledge of hydraulics, basic electronic skills, basic mechanical skills, Network/Systems experience in design, installation, configuration, administration and troubleshooting of LAN/WAN infrastructure and security using Cisco routers/Switches, Juniper Firewall. (More details)

Russia gripes about Korea leaning to U.S.’s Thaad

In a statement Thursday, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that deployment of Washington’s missile defense battery “will inevitably negatively affect the regional strategic situation and may stir up an arms race in Northeast Asia,” as well as complicate resolving the nuclear problem on the Korean Peninsula.

It expressed concern over Washington’s move to bring “an American global missile defense system” to South Korean soil. Korea’s new Minister of National Defense Han Min-koo said in an interview on July 20 that the U.S-led Thaad “if deployed on the Korean Peninsula, will be helpful in controlling North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations and strengthening the security posture” in the region.

Moscow expressed alarm that South Korea seemed to be leaning toward deploying an American antiballistic missile system and indicated such a move may fuel an arms race in the region. Russia has opposed U.S. plans to expand its missile defense shield as relations with Washington have plummeted, especially since the start of the Ukraine crisis and the China-Russia gas deal signed last May.

“Such statements cannot but make us alarmed, as the South Korean leadership had earlier stated repeatedly that the country intended to ward off probable missile threats through their own forces,” said Russia’s Foreign Ministry. But the U.S State Department said that the Thaad system is not aimed at Russia: “We have been very clear that it is not aimed at them,” U.S State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a briefing Thursday, “and we will continue talking to them and being transparent with them about why we are doing what we are doing.”

South Korea: China pissed due to the US antimissile plans

Beijing has voiced its concerns over THAAD plans, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang saying last month that “deploying missile defense on the Korean peninsula would not be in the interest of regional stability or strategic balance.”

The plans are justified by a growing missile threat from North Korea against America’s allies South Korea, Japan and military bases. The US military plans to deploy its Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense in South Korea and, according to some media reports, is pressuring Seoul to do so instead of developing a national missile defense system.

"There was consideration being taken in order to consider THAAD being deployed here in Korea. It is a US initiative, and in fact, I recommended it as the commander," General Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander of United States Forces Korea (USFK), said last month addressing a forum hosted by the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, in Seoul. Washington is looking for a region-wide, operational anti-missile defense system, with military experts believing that it would be actually aimed against China’s increasing military presence.

Washington so far has not officially proposed Seoul host its anti-missile system, with the plan being currently internally debated, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin said. While previously South Korean officials maintained that they want to provide protection from possible missile attacks domestically, on Wednesday South Korean acting Defense Minister Kim said he would not object to Korea hosting the American system, as long as Seoul does not pay for it. 

Mitsubishi gets greenlight

The Japanese government on Thursday gave the green light to export a Japanese-made missile component to the United States, marking the first such decision since the country eased restrictions on arms exports this April, local media reported.

Japan's National Security Council (NSC), a body set up under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to speed up decision-making on defense and diplomacy, also decided the same day to conduct joint research with Britain on air-to-air missiles, said Japan's Kyodo News Agency. Thursday's approval will allow Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. to export a high-performance sensor to a U.S. defense company, which will use it in the Patriot Advanced Capability-2 (PAC-2) missile defense system to be exported to Qatar.

The sensor is a key component of an infrared device at the tip of the missile that identifies and tracks targets, the Nikkei business daily reported in an earlier report. Regarding the joint missile research with Britain, Japan eyes an agreement on the occasion of a "two-plus-two" meeting of their respective foreign and defense ministers that may be held in Britain as early as September. The missile in question is the Meteor air-to-air missile currently under development between Britain and several European countries, including France and Germany. It could be loaded on F- 35 stealth fighter jets that Japan's Self-Defense Forces are planning to introduce, said Kyodo News.

From the Iron Dome to the Humour Dome

The current attacks against Israel are featuring the first real stress test of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, and also again a real stress test of Israeli sense of humour in a real environment of cyberwar.

Iron Dome is designed to track missiles launched from neighboring territory and, if they are judged to be a threat to civilian population, shoot them down. The system has had remarkable success, saving innumerable lives and, almost as important, giving Israel’s leaders space to exercise forbearance in responding to the enemy missile bombardment.

But cyberwar also seems to be a component in the current conflict: Recently, the facebook site of a very well known Israel’s Pizza Restaurant was taken over by enemy hackers, offering a blood curdling threat to Israeli pizza lovers: “Today will strike deep in Israel, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, Ashkelon, Ashdod more than 2000 rockets. We’ll start at 7. Counting back towards the end of Israel … Be warned!”. But Israelis, used to this kind of threats, do not mind at all: One response stated, “Hey, please reserve a missile for me with jalapenos, green olives, extra cheese, and mushrooms. You have my address. Tell the delivery boy to activate the alarm when it is arriving, so I know to put my pants on.”

Undeterred, the enemy hackers doubled down. They posted a picture of Israelis taking shelter from the missile bombardment in a sewer pipe with the caption, “The right place for every Israeli – the sewer pipe, hahaha!” An Israeli commenter countered with a message that stated, “You know who lives in sewers? And what they eat?” He posted a cartoon of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles enjoying their favorite meal, a pizza. The company added its own rejoinder that taunted the hackers. “You cannot defeat….The Israeli hunger for pizza!” Score another for Israel, undefeated in battle and in humor.

NK: Kim Jong Un supervises rocket launches

Kim personally gave the order to launch the rocket barrage from a site close to the South in an apparent act of defiance that puts a personal face of its leader to actions provoking its neighbors.

North Korea routinely fires short range missiles or rockets into waters off its east and west coasts, but state media rarely shows Kim supervising drills so close to South Korea and has only in recent weeks shown the young leader present at short-range ballistic missile and rocket launches.

North Korea has threatened a fourth nuclear test in violation of U.N. sanctions and has test-fired short-range missiles and rockets four times in the past two weeks. Anyway, "Our government takes the firm stance that we will mercilessly retaliate if North Korea fires missiles or artillery south of its border with the DMZ." South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said at a news briefing.

Photos carried by North's main newspaper showed mobile rocket launchers firing projectiles beside an inter-Korean railway that heads into a mountain range which North Korea has declared a special tourism zone and was once open to South Korean tourists. Satellite imagery and photos released by state media show the rockets were fired several kilometers north of a popular South Korean tourist observatory near the inter-Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

The roar of rockets and the burning trails from the Soviet-era projectiles on Monday could be seen rising from clouds of smoke between mountains on the North Korean side, footage filmed by staff members at the observatory. "They know South Korean officials will report their missile launches so they've decided to seize the initiative and announce it themselves," said Michael Madden, an expert on the North Korean leadership.

US Nuclear Missiles: So aged as ignored

The Minuteman is no ordinary weapon: This missile can hit the enemy across the globe, as quickly as you could have a pizza delivered to your doorstep.

The “Big Sticks,” as some call the 60-foot-tall Minuteman III missiles, are just plain old. But the Air Force asserts with pride that the missile system, more than 40 years old and designed during the Cold War to counter the now-defunct Soviet Union, is safe and secure.

¿Safe and secure? Mmm... The Minuteman has indeed been updated over the years and remains ready for launch on short notice, but the items that support it have grown old. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said the Air Force will find $50 million in this year’s budget to make urgent fixes, and will invest an additional $350 million in improvements over the coming five years. Even that, she said, is unlikely to be enough and more funds will be sought.

Since its initial deployment in 1970, the Minuteman III missile itself has been upgraded in all its main components. But much of the rest of the system that keeps the weapon viable and secure has fallen on hard times. One example is the Huey helicopter fleet, which escorts road convoys that move Minuteman missiles, warheads and other key components. It also moves armed security forces into the missile fields in an emergency, even though it’s too slow, too small, too vulnerable to attack and cannot fly sufficient distances. And It’s also old: The seven Hueys flown daily at Minot were built in 1969. The yearly cost of keeping them running has more than doubled over the past four years, according to Air Force statistics – from $12.9 million in 2010 to $27.8 million last year. “Obviously we need a new helicopter, based on the mission,” said Maj. Gen. Jack Weinstein, who as commander of 20th Air Force is responsible for the operation, maintenance and security of the full fleet of Minuteman missiles.

A look at the Minuteman III

The Air Force's nuclear missiles have stood ready for war on short notice for more than 50 years.

Americans tend to assume the missiles are safe, but ¿Do they remember they exist? Let us look, in brief, at the Minuteman III missiles and their mission

The Air Force operates just one type of land-based nuclear missile, the Minuteman III. It is a class of weapon known as an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM. The U.S. has 450 of these missiles, each with a single nuclear warhead attached. The missiles are guided to a target by a self-contained navigation system that uses motion and rotation sensors to track and update the missile's position and orientation.

Each Minuteman 3 missile is based in its own underground silo "hardened" with concrete to withstand an enemy nuclear strike. At the heart of the silo are the men and women who command the missiles. They are called missileers and are junior officers - lieutenants and captains, typically ages 22 to 27. Two missileers operate an underground launch control center, which is responsible for 10 missiles. The missileers do 24-hour "alert" shifts, then hand off to a replacement crew. Because the missiles are meant to be ready for combat on short notice, the launch capsules are manned without interruption, 365 days a year.

There are three Air Force ICBM bases: Malmstrom in Montana, F.E. Warren in Wyoming and Minot in North Dakota. Each base operates 150 missiles, divided into three squadrons of 50 missiles each. The force is commanded by a two-star general who heads the 20th Air Force. He answers to a three-star general at Air Force Global Strike Command at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana who is responsible not only for the ICBMs but also for the B-2 and B-52 bombers that have a nuclear mission as well.

Minuteman III missiles are the third generation of Minuteman missiles. The first generation went into service in October 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis. The Minuteman II became operational in 1966, and the current version was declared operational at Minot in December 1970, according to an official Air Force history of the ICBM. No ICBM has ever been launched other than for testing. The Obama administration has decided to take 50 of the 450 Minuteman 3 missiles off active duty by February 2018, but it is committed to preserving their role as part of the "triad" of strategic nuclear forces, along with bombers and nuclear-armed submarines.

Russia to upgrade MAWS

It came to light recently that the last geostationary satellite of the Oko-1 ballistic missile early detection system had gone out of commission. The loss of the satellite weakened the outer space segment of the Missile Attack Warning System (MAWS), which is one of the main elements of the country's strategic defense system.

According to a source close to the Ministry of Defense, the lack of geostationary satellites is being compensated for by new horizon radar systems known as Voronezh-M and Voronezh-DM. Located in the Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Irkutsk, and Krasnodar regions, these stations operate in two frequency ranges: the meter range (Voronezh-M) and the decimeter range (Voronezh-DM). They create a radar field, which makes it possible to easily detect space objects and effectively prevent missile attacks. The new system will perform at a higher level, and will track not only ballistic missiles, but tactical ones as well.

YJ-12: A big headache for US Navy

Robert Haddick, an American military analyst, unveiled recently why the PLA YJ-12 missile may be "the most dangerous threat to the US Navy". Among other reasons, Haddick mentions the maximum range as one of the key points to bear in mind, because the YJ-12 has an operational maximum range around 400 kilometers. This range represents really a threat, due to the SM-6 has a range of 240 kilometers, and the Harpoon has 315 kilometers, depending on the launching platform. 

Read more at: http://warontherocks.com/2014/07/chinas-most-dangerous-missile-so-far/

Kim guides rocket firing

North Korea said Monday that leader Kim Jong Un guided the test launches of tactical ballistic rockets aimed at U.S. and South Korean forces, the second such launch drill reported in state media in three days.

It’s Kim’s second reported inspection of firing drills in recent days. KCNA didn’t say when and where the training occurred, but the rockets the country said it fired were likely the suspected Scud missiles that South Korea says the North launched on Sunday as there were no other reported missile and rockets launches by the North on the day.

North Korea has in recent days criticized alleged South Korean artillery firing drills near a disputed maritime boundary in the Yellow Sea that has been the scene of several bloody skirmishes between the rival nations in recent years. North Korea regularly test-fires missiles and artillery, both to refine its weapons and to express its anger over various developments in Seoul and Washington. 

On Monday, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim guided the drills, which involved precision-guided missiles and shells, and that he expressed satisfaction over the results. Outside analysts say North Korea has developed a handful of crude nuclear devices and is working toward building a warhead small enough to mount on a long-range missile, although most experts say that goal may take years to achieve.

APKWS-II Gets US Deal

UK defence giant BAE Systems has been chosen to further develop its 'anti-insurgent' missile system for the US military.

The Naval Air Systems Command said it intends to enter into sole source negotiations with the US subsidiary of the British firm to develop the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS II).

The project expands integration into the arsenal used on aircraft, including the A-10 'Warthog'. The existing semi-active laser-guided APKWS system is designed as a cheaper alternative to the Hellfire missile, at around a third of the cost - $30,000 (£17,000).

The Hellfire has become renowned for use on Predator and Reaper drones and was originally designed to target armoured vehicles. The APKWS is designed to destroy lightly armoured and "soft" vehicles, moving or stationary, in urban locations. It can be armed with high explosives or flechettes - steel darts - in the warhead.

Earlier this year trials were carried out firing the missile from the A-10 and the new missiles hit within inches of their target. It is based on a 2.75 in (70 mm) rocket with guidance 'canard' lead fins, and the new version has improved laser control for accurate targeting. The original development plan for the precision weapon began in 2002 and the first version has been in full production for three years and used in war zones such as Afghanistan.

It has been fired from more than a dozen aircraft types and been sold to US allies including Jordan, for use on its airborne gunships. BAE Systems programme manager Joe Tiano told Sky News: "Our APKWS laser-guided rocket has a long history of success in theatre and in testing on multiple platforms including the A-10, and we look forward to exploring additional opportunities for integration on the A-10."

DGA Chief: Airbus-Safran Joint Venture Must Exclude Missile Work

The head of the French arms-procurement agency, DGA, on July 1 warned French industry that their ballistic missile and nuclear deterrent teams, often in the same offices as the launch vehicle engineers, will not be permitted to join the proposed new consolidation of French and European rocket builders. (Read more)

Scuds... or Fireworks

A Scud missile displayed in Raqqa, Syria, this week by ISIS is “more propaganda than operational” – meaning it is unlikely to pose a military threat, for some reasons that may be convenient to know, just to calm the non-israeli people that may be alarmed:

1. First of all, the missile need fuel (We will not say which one). ¿Do they have? If they do not have fuel, they have no Scud to throw. 
2. Second, the fuel tank of the missile must be filled. And it is not easy. ¿Do they know how to fill it? If they do not have the know-how and tooling to fill it, they have no Scud to throw.
3. Last, but not least, Scud missiles are not fireworks. ¿Do they know how to launch it? If they do not know how, they have no Scud to throw.

¿And what about israeli people? Israeli people has no reason to fear the Scud, as even if the Scud is launched towards Israel, it will never hit any populated place.