Indian Purchase of Arrow Missile Interceptor Awaits U.S. Approval

While U.S. officials have approved Israel’s sale of ground- and air-based radars to India, New Delhi’s request to purchase Arrow missile interceptors has not yet received U.S. support, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Yosef Lapid said yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 5).

On a visit this week to India, Lapid advanced a deal to sell three airborne Phalcon radar systems, saying the deal could be closed in “a few weeks or months.”  India has already acquired Israeli ground-based Green Pine radars that would provide precise guidance for the Arrow interceptors, if India can win U.S. approval to buy them.

U.S. officials “are studying this issue and the moment they remove this obstacle, the door will be open (to sell it to India),” said Lapid.

He said that the United States has the “legal right” to reject such a sale, but that Washington has not objected to the warming relationship between India and Israel (Times of India, Sept. 11).

Back to top

U.S.-Canadian Missile Defense Talks Advance

Canadian Defense Minister John McCallum said U.S.-Canadian talks on missile defense cooperation  are “proceeding well,” the Toronto Star reported today (see GSN, June 2).

U.S. and Canadian officials met three times this summer to discuss Canada’s potential role in a continental missile defense system, according to the Star.

“I’m hoping that sometime in the fall we might be able to come back to [the] Cabinet.  But we are talking about very important issues and I’m not going to rush it,” he said.

McCallum did not say what role Canada might play in the system or whether any missiles could be based on Canadian soil (Bruce Campion-Smith, Toronto Star, Sept. 11).

Back to top

Japanese Defense Minister Warns of North Korean Missile Threat

Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba has warned that North Korean ballistic missiles could quickly hit targets in Japan, highlighting the need for a Japanese missile defense system, the Sydney Morning Herald reported today (see GSN, Sept. 2).

Ishiba is leading efforts to have Tokyo approve plans for a missile defense system, according to the Herald.  He has requested almost $2 billion to develop such a system, with a goal of having it operational by 2006.

During a speech in the central Japanese city of Nagoya, Ishiba warned that a North Korean missile could hit the city within eight minutes.

“We currently have no means of intercepting them,” Ishiba said.  “Should they carry chemical and biological weapons, tens of thousands of people would die,” he said (Shane Green, Sydney Morning Herald, Sept. 10).

Back to top

Missile Defense Agency Will Choose Kinetic Interceptor This Year

To advance its boost-phase missile defense efforts, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency intends to pick the winning design for its kinetic energy interceptor by the end of this year, Jane’s Defense Weekly reported this week (see GSN, Aug. 21).

Boeing and Lockheed Martin have joined forces to compete for the contract and are facing off against a joint Northrop Grumman and Raytheon team.

Simultaneously, agency officials have decided to slow the pace of the interceptor’s development by about two years to allow the technology to mature, according to Jane’s.  Once the winning team is selected, it will be asked to provide a prototype, with some operational capability, by 2011.

Program officials said that depending on an enemy missile’s range, its boost phase can last for 180 to 300 seconds.  To reach the missile in this time, the interceptor will need to be “big,” according to Terry Little, the agency’s KEI program director.

It will probably be “much more like a small (ICBM) than a traditional surface-to-air missile,” he added (Michael Sirak, Jane’s Defense Weekly, Sept. 10).

Back to top

About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines

HOME  |  CONTACT US  |  GET INVOLVED  |  SITE MAP