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Further Reading

Hard.Copy - 06 March 1998

BMDO Wants At Least $50 Million For TMD Plus-Ups In FY98. 
Aerospace Daily, Mar 05, 1998, pp 331-332
BMDO Director LtGen Lester L. Lyles wants to salvage at least $50m of a
proposed $140m theater missile defense increase for FY98 to deal with an
expected threat posed by the Iranian Shahab-3. 
THAAD Glitches Fixed As May Flight Test Nears. 
Aerospace Daily, Mar 03, 1998, pp 315-316
Technical glitches that cause the slip in the THAAD program have been
fixed and the missile is in the final stages of preparation for a May
intercept flight test. The problems were identified as a communication
transponder malfunction and a problem with the thrust vector hardware
control. 
ABL Seen Largely Immune To Missile Countermeasures. 
Aerospace Daily, Mar 03, 1998, p 321
The Pentagon's operational test and evaluation community have some
concerns over the development of countermeasures that could degrade the
performance of the ABL program. 
US, Israel In High-Level Talks Over Third Arrow Battery.
Aerospace Daily, Mar 02, 1998, p 310
The Israeli Ministry of Defense has requested a third battery of Arrow
missile systems. This may be in response to its increasing vulnerability
to Iraq and a growing threat from Iran. 
DoD Five-Year Budget Plan Contains No Long-Lead For NMD.
Aerospace Daily, Mar 02, 1998, pp 310-311
The Pentagon's five year defense budget contains no procurement funds to
buy long-lead items needed for the deployment of a national missile
defense system by 2003. 
US Army Examines MEADS Alternatives To Save Money. 
Aerospace Daily, Mar 05, 1998, p 333B
As the Army is crafting its outyear budget plans it is trying to find
ways to keep the cost of MEADS down. One way is to use the Patriot
Advanced Capability-3 missile as the interceptor for MEADS. This
combination could be fielded faster than some other developmental
efforts under consideration. 
Three Contractors To Build TMD Targets. 
Aerospace Daily, Mar 05, 1998, p 338
Three contractors have been awarded the job of building theater missile
defense targets to the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command. 
US Army Tests New Ballistic Missile Target. 
Aerospace Daily, Mar 05, 1998, p 338
A new ballistic missile target was tested in a launch Monday from
Wingate, NM to White Sands Missile Range, NM The Modified Ballistic
Reentry Vehicle (MBRV-3) was tested to demonstrate launch, in-flight
operation and performance, and to demonstrate short range unitary
reference trajectory. 
Boeing Completes Key ABL Wind Tunnel Tests. 
Aviation Week & Space Technology. Paul Proctor, Mar 02, 1998, p 61
The tests, performed at Boeing's recently upgraded transonic wind tunnel
here, used a 3% scale model of the laser turret and 6% scale model of
the 747-400F transport planned as the ABL platform. The wind tunnel runs
focused on two critical areas: improving and validating the aerodynamic
performance of the aircraft's bulbous nose-mounted laser turret, and the
reducing effect of hot laser gas exhaust on the aircraft's aluminum
airframe and empennage. 
Newsbreaks: Russia Has Abandoned Plans. 
Aviation Week & Space Technology, Mar 02, 1998, p 21
Russia has abandoned plans to employ nuclear warheads on SH-11 Galosh
and SH-08 Gazelle air defense missiles in the ABM system deployed around
Moscow. Experts had warned of the potential damage to Moscow, saying the
detonation of a single warhead could contaminate a 77 square mile area.
Col. Gen. Vladimir Yakovlev, commander-in-chief of strategic missiles
forces, said the ABM system with conventional warheads on the Galoshs
and Gazelles, is combat ready and will shortly be placed on 24-hour
alert status. 
Pentagon Eyes Accelerating Missile Defense Program. 
Defense Daily. Frank Wolfe, Mar 05, 1998, pp 8-9
Department of Defense acquisition chief Jacques Gansler is reviewing
ways that the Navy could field a theater ballistic missile defense
system sooner than the planned date of 2006. 
Gansler Pledges To Field NMD. 
Defense News, Lisa Burgess, George L. Seffers, Mar 02, 1998, pp 4,19
Assistant Secretary of Defense for acquisition and technology, Jacques
Gansler is committed to deploying a national missile defense (NMD)
system. The statement came after criticism that the Pentagon has not
demonstrated a commitment to NMD. 
Annual Breakfast Seminar Series On Missile Defense Kicks Off This Month.
Inside Missile Defense, Mar 04, 1998, p 2
Sen Thad Cochran (R-MS) will kick off the National Defense University
Foundation's annual missile defense breakfast series March 25, to be
followed by a lineup of congressional, administration and Pentagon
officials. The "congressional breakfast seminar series on missile
defense, arms control and proliferation" is co-sponsored by the National
Defense Industrial Association. All seminars are held beginning at
8:00am at the Capitol Hill Club. The complete list of breakfast
speakers, their topics and the dates they will appear is reprinted with
this article. 
DoD Testing Office Tells Congress Of NMD Schedule Risks. 
Inside Missile Defense. Daniel G. Dupont, Mar 04, 1998, pp 1, 6-7
In its annual report to Congress for FY97, the DoD's office of the DOT&E
echoed recent assertions made by GAO that the schedule established for
the Pentagon's NMD Deployment Readiness Program "presents a major
challenge relative to traditional DoD acquisition timelines." "If a
deployment is required by 2003, the NMD program will have to compress
the work of 10 to 12 years into six years. As a consequence, much of the
T&E will be done concurrently, and there will be considerable emphasis
placed on modeling and simulation," the report states. 
Congress May Extend National Defense Panel Through The End Of 1998.
Inside Missile Defense, George Cahlink, Mar 04, 1998, p 17
Congress may ask the National Defense Panel to keep working through the
end of the year and make further recommendations to lawmakers as they
review the defense budget and national military strategy outlined in the
Quadrennial Defense Review. 
DOT&E: THAAD Still An 'Aggressive, High-Risk Effort,' Has Made Progress.
Inside Missile Defense, Daniel G. Dupont, Mar 04, 1998, pp 7-8
In its annual report for FY97, the Pentagon's office of DOT&E says the
THAAD program office "is aggressively finding and fixing problems," and
is "commended for openly discussing them and implementing the
test-fix-test approach." However, the report also notes that THAAD
remains a high-risk program because of its aggressive test schedule. 
Ex-CIA Directors Warn Of Present, Future Threats To National Security.
Inside Missile Defense, Darcia R. Harris, Mar 04, 1998, pp 8-9
Two former Central Intelligence Agency directors, R. James Woolsey and
John Deutch, told the House National Security Committee that it will
take a proactive defense strategy and decisive policy to safeguard the
security of the US in the post-Cold War era. 
Russia's Tactical Nuclear Weapons Are Source Of Growing Concern. 
Inside Missile Defense, Darcia R. Harris, Mar 04, 1998, pp 10-11
Prospects for an arms control treaty or threat-reduction effort aimed
directly at securing and shrinking Russia's tactical nuclear stockpile
are dim, despite warnings from top defense officials and experts that
this is an issue of vital importance. A chart, courtesy of "The Bulletin
of the Atomic Scientists", showing the estimated Russian stockpile of
non-strategic operational forces (Dec 1996) is included in this article.
Special Report: House National Security Committee Staff Memo On FY98
Supplemental and FY99 Defense Budget Challenges. 
Inside Missile Defense, Mar 04, 1998, pp 14-16
As the congressional leadership prepares to debate the Clinton
administration's request for "emergency" funding for the Bosnia and Iraq
operations in the fiscal year 1998 and 1999 budgets, the HNSC on Feb 25
offered the memo included in this article. 
'It's Too Early' To Name START IV Treaty Figures, White House Aide
Contends. 
Inside Missile Defense, Elaine Grossman, Mar 04, 1998, pp 1, 12-13
Although a recent briefing given by the US Strategic Command alluded to
a level for potential reductions in a future START IV nuclear arms
control treaty with Russia, senior National Security Council aide Robert
Bell said last week it is "too early" to develop objective figures. 
Don't Rush NMD System, Says Weapons Test Chief.
Jane's Defence Weekly. Bryan Bender, Mar 04, 1998, p 7
A compressed development schedule significantly limits the BMDO's
ability to fully assess the system performance, said Philip Coyle, the
US DoD's chief weapons tester. He pointed out that "only a single,
system-level flight test is planned" before the 2000 deployment
decision; that neither the GBI nor the communications interface between
the Cheyenne Mountain, CO, early warning facility and the US president
would be tested before 2000; that a system test against multiple threats
was not planned; and that modeling and simulation activities to support
the deployment decision "will have minimal validation by real flight
data." 
Newsmaker Forum: Sen Robert Smith. 
Space News. Warren Ferster, Mar 02, 1998, p 22
In this interview, Sen Robert Smith (R-NH) chairman, US Senate Armed
Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, discusses the importance of
military space programs. He actively supports futuristic military space
projects and ballistic missile defense.