Bulgaria:  Sofia Signs U.S. Agreement to Destroy Cold War Missiles

Bulgaria and the United States signed an agreement Friday to destroy Bulgaria’s stockpile of former Soviet ballistic missiles (see GSN, May 10).

Under the agreement, Bulgaria is expected to destroy 100 SS-23, Scud and Frog ballistic missiles, said U.S. Ambassador James Pardew.  Bulgaria’s stockpile of SS-23 missiles is believed to be the last in existence, Pardew said.  The United States will fund the missile destruction effort, which is expected to cost several million dollars, he added.

Bulgaria’s plans to scrap its Cold War-era missile stockpile should help it improve relations with Western alliances, Pardew said.

“They [the missiles] no longer have regional military value, they are an unnecessary cost to Bulgarians and they represent an obstacle to Bulgaria’s strategic goals of joining Western defensive and economic structures,” he said (Associated Press/Philadelphia Inquirer, June 2).

The destruction effort is expected to be completed by November, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a press statement (U.S. State Department release, May 31).

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Israel:  Jerusalem Alone in Launching Rockets West

In an attempt to prevent missile technology from falling into the hands of Arab enemies, Israel launches its space rockets westward rather than eastward, the only country to do so, Aviation Week & Space Technology reported today (see GSN, May 29).

Usually engineers launch rockets eastward into equatorial orbit, enabling the velocity of the Earth’s rotation — 900 miles per hour — to aid rocket boosters, according to Aviation Week.

When Israel launches its space rocket — called Shavit and based on the country’s Jericho ballistic missile — as it did last week, the rockets are launched westward to prevent rocket stages from landing in hostile Arab nations.  In effect, Israel launches its satellites backward in a retrograde west-to-east orbit around the Earth, according to Aviation Week.

Israel ensures that its rockets fly over the Mediterranean, leaving the region over the Straits of Gibraltar.  This method prevents rocket stages from landing in Arab territory but also reduces the weight of the payload that the Shavit can carry, Aviation Week reported (Aviation Week & Space Technology, June 3).

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