Israel: Again Threatened...

Tens of thousands of missiles located across the Middle East are ready to strike Israel at a moment’s notice, Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) Brigadier General Hossein Salami threatened on Friday: “Today, more than 100,000 missiles are ready to fly from Lebanon,” adding that in addition there are “tens of thousands of destructive long-range missiles” in the region ready to wipe Israel off the map. (Read more)

Iran still seeking banned items

Iran has pursued a longstanding effort to buy banned components for its nuclear and missile programs in recent months, a U.S. official said on Sunday. This country has one of the biggest missile programs in the Middle East, regarding such weapons as an important deterrent and retaliatory force against U.S. and other adversaries in the event of war. Its efforts to develop, test and field ballistic missiles, and build a space launch capability, have helped drive billions of dollars of U.S. ballistic missile defence expenditure, and contributed to Israel's threats of possible pre-emptive military action against Iranian nuclear installations. (Read more)

Iran Nuclear Talks Turn to Missiles

Intelligence gathered by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, indicated Iran had conducted secret research to affix a nuclear weapon to a long-range Shahab-3 missile.

The U.S. and its allies view Iran's missiles as part of the country's potential nuclear threat, thus a subject for the talks on a permanent nuclear agreement. "They have to deal with matters related to their ballistic missile program," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

But Iran says the missiles are part of its defense establishment and beyond the limits of nuclear talks. In any case, the issue of whether Iran's ballistic missile capabilities will be on the agenda already has exposed a rift between the Americans and Iranians. Last week, Iran's elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, successfully test-fired what state media described as two domestically made ballistic missiles.

The missiles are estimated to have ranges of at least 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) and could be capable of striking Israel and American military targets in the Middle East, though military experts question their accuracy. U.S. officials, however, pushed back on Tuesday at the talks and insisted Iran's ballistic missile capabilities will be addressed as part of any final accord on the nuclear program. "Every issue is on the table as part of the comprehensive negotiations, including Iran's ballistic missile program," said a senior administration official at the talks.

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Raytheon to upgrade AN/TPY-2

Raytheon Company has started upgrading the AN/TPY-2 ballistic missile defense radar's signal and data processing equipment (SDPE) to enable the "brains" of the radar to more quickly and accurately discriminate threats from non-threats and enhance radar performance to protect against missile raids.

An integral element of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS), AN/TPY-2 is a mobile X-band radar that helps protect the U.S., warfighters and America's allies and security partners from the more than 6,300 ballistic missiles that, according to U.S. intelligence estimates, are not controlled by the U.S., NATO, China or Russia. "Raytheon is building on the AN/TPY-2's record of outstanding performance by improving the system because rogue states are constructing more ballistic missiles that have longer ranges and are increasingly more sophisticated," said Dave Gulla, vice president of Global Integrated Sensors in Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems business. "The security of the U.S., our warfighters and our allies depends on having reliable, capable systems like the AN/TPY-2 to help counter the growing ballistic missile threat."

As Tensions with West Rise, Moscow Looks to Asia

The various U.S. ballistic missile defense (BMD) initiatives in Europe and elsewhere have been the most immediate source of Russia-West tensions. Although the Obama administration has twice restructured its BMD deployment plans in ways that should have pleased Moscow, Russian officials continue to depict U.S. missile defenses in Europe as threatening Russia’s vast land-based missile arsenal. In the Middle East, Russia has been arguing that diplomacy rather than missile defenses can best moderate Iranian nuclear and missile ambitions. In East Asia, Russian analysts have implied that the United States is using North Korean missile launches to augment its BMD and other military assets in Asia as well as strengthen its alliances with Japan, South Korea, and other countries in ways that could adversely impact Russia’s security. Although Russians recognize that the U.S. missile defenses in California and Alaska are not presently very effective, they profess to fear that the United States could achieve a revolutionary breakthrough that could render the U.S. homeland considerably less vulnerable to Russia’s nuclear deterrent. (Read more)

Iran's nuclear ambition creating arms race in Middle East?

Watch more:

http://video.foxnews.com/v/2548895993001/irans-nuclear-ambition-creating-arms-race-in-middle-east/

Lockheed Eyes Closer, Stronger Presence in Middle East

The maker of the F-35 fighter jet and Aegis missile systems still lags rivals Raytheon Company, with about 26% of sales from abroad, and Boeing’s defense division, which says about 42% of its backlog is outside the US. Both rivals are targeting 30% foreign revenue. Lockheed has already sold its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system to the UAE, where it has a stake in a large aircraft maintenance and overhaul business. (Read more)