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U.S.-Russia: Negotiators Near Joint Satellite Agreement The United States and Russia are close to finalizing a memorandum of understanding on jointly building and operating two experimental satellites to track ballistic missile launches, Jane’s Defense Weekly reported today (see GSN, July 2). Officials are developing the satellites through the Russian-American Observation Satellite (RAMOS) program created in 1992 to help facilitate U.S.-Russian missile defense cooperation. One component of the project is to evaluate the effectiveness of tracking missile bodies as opposed to missile plumes, Jane’s reported. “We are in active negotiations ... with the Russians over closing an agreement on the RAMOS program,” U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, said last month. The memorandum would create the legal framework for constructing the satellites — which officials expect to launch in 2007 and 2008 — and operating them for two to five years, according to Jane’s. The United States plans to fund the more than $300 million project and to provide the necessary infrared sensors and other cameras, Jane’s reported. Russia plans to build and launch the satellites and to provide control systems for a joint U.S.-Russian operations center to be located in Moscow (Michael Sirak, Jane’s Defense Weekly, Nov. 6). For further information, see:
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