Washington Times: On Friday, NATO activated its first land-based AEGIS missile defense system at Deveselu, a former Soviet base in southern Romania. A second, similar system is scheduled to become active in 2018 in Poland. AEGIS has been installed on board U.S. Navy ships since 2004. Patrick Auroy, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defense Investment spoke… read more
USNI News: U.S. and Romanian officials will make a “Technical Capability Declaration” for the first Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense site this Friday, a formal announcement that the site has moved from construction to the integration phase – though still short of the goal for the system to go operational by the end of this year.… read more
Defense News: Congress is increasing land-based missile procurement dollars as part of its $573 billion fiscal 2016 defense spending package released Wednesday. “The bill reflects investments in critical missile procurement programs underfunded by the services,” according to a Senate report on the bill. The Army is getting $100 million more on top of its $415 million… read more
The Hill: The Iran deal’s implementation day is quickly approaching, which makes missile defense, especially for Israel and the United States, all the more important. Demonstrating that this reality is not lost on the Israelis, the Defense Ministry announced last week that it had successfully intercepted a long-range ballistic missile with the Arrow 3 defensive… read more
The Spanish government has authorised the renewal of Spain’s main overseas military missions for 2016, including the two Patriot surface-to-air missile (SAM) batteries helping guard NATO ally Turkey’s southern border with Syria. This particular renewal had been in doubt after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in Madrid admitted it had been surprised by the announcement… read more
The Hill: The understandable concerns about renewed terrorist violence in the United States should not obscure the imperative of defending the homeland against higher-end threats such as missile attacks. Adverse international security developments are worsening these threats. In response, Congress needs to work with the Pentagon to strengthen currently available defenses while developing superior future… read more
Reuters: Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) has won a U.S. Army contract worth $1.09 billion to build PAC-3 missiles for the U.S. Army, South Korea, Qatar and Saudi Arabia for use in Raytheon Co’s (RTN.N) Patriot missile defense system, the Pentagon said Monday. The contract runs through June 30, 2019, the U.S. Defense Department said in… read more
DVIDS: SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Capt. Brian Haley is an Attack Operations Chief with the 32rd Army Air and Missile Defense Command at Fort Bliss, Texas. He’s spent the last two weeks training with the 183rd Air Operations Group as part of exercise Virtual Flag, Dec. 2–10, 2015. The U.S. Army assigns a team of highly… read more
Haaretz: The Israel Defense Forces is planning to install Iron Dome missile defense batteries on board its advanced warships to protect the country’s gas drilling platforms. The installation of the interceptors is an interim solution that would remain in place until new ships meant to protect the rigs arrive from Germany in 2019. The ships… read more
Defense News: ANKARA — Turkey’s military and procurement officials are mulling a stopgap, off-the-shelf solution after they scrapped a multibillion dollar air defense contract and decided to build it indigenously. Officials said the military top brass is especially keen for the stopgap solution, citing increasing conventional military threats, especially after Turkey became the first NATO… read more