1999 Space News

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August 1999 Space News

BMD Update 27 August 1999 -- Article Citations From Published Journals And Newsletters
STAR WARS MISSILE TEST DRAWS INTERNATIONAL OPPOSITION The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space is organizing an international effort on September 13-15 to oppose the revitalized Star Wars plans of the Clinton administration and the U.S. Congress.
Missile Defense Skeptical Revival By James T. Hackett Washington Times August 26, 1999 -- MIT professors George Lewis and Theodore Postol, are at it again with an article entitled "Why National Missile Defense Won't Work" in the August issue of Scientific American. This time their co-author is John Pike, who runs a public affairs campaign against missile defense for the Federation of American Scientists.
THAAD Successes Spur Faster Missile Defense Development American Forces Press Service 26 August 1999 -- After scoring two successive hits with a prototype Theater High-Altitude Air Defense System, DoD is poised to speed up development of the anti-missile system.
Nuclear option: Aid for Russia? By Greg Schneider Baltimore Sun August 27, 1999 -- Congressional office weighs U.S. help with 6 warning satellites; Degraded system dire risk. "Their early warning network is in pretty bad shape," said John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists. "My view is, we've got to do something here because it's an accident waiting to happen."
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Letter to The Honorable Tom Daschle, Democratic Leader August 24, 1999 CBO learned that Russia has finished constructing seven additional early-warning satellites, but it is unable or unwilling to devote the resources necessary to launch them. This letter examines the policy implications and cost of having the United States pay to launch six of those satellites--enough to give Russia 24-hour coverage of U.S. missile fields.
USASMDC flies payload on MMIII flight test 20 Aug 99 - A specialized set of National Missile Defense (NMD) target payloads designated as Radar Credible Target-1 (RCT-1) was successfully launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, as an Associated Operation on the Minuteman III Operational Test (OT) Mission GT-170GM.
BMD Update 20 August 1999 -- Article Citations From Published Journals And Newsletters
Pentagon Gives THAAD a Boost - $15.4 Billion Weapon to Forgo More Prototype Testing By Bradley Graham Washington Post Friday, August 20, 1999; Page A02 -- "The tests done so far haven't said much about how the system would perform in combat, so doing one more wouldn't have made much difference," said John Pike, a defense analyst with the Federation of American Scientists. "I may be prepared to cut the Pentagon more slack on this one because I have such low expectations about what they'll be able to eventually deliver."
DoD News Briefing Major General Peter Franklin, USA Deputy Director, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization Thursday, August 19, 1999 -- We had hardware issues with the missiles up until Flight Test 10. When those hardware issues were solved, Flight Test 10 and Flight test 11 performed nominally. We have directed the Army to cancel the remaining project definition risk reduction flights or PDRR flights, and prepare for engineering, manufacturing and development.
THAAD PROGRAM ADVANCES TO EMD PHASE August 19, 1999 -- The Army recently conducted two successful intercept tests by the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) has authorized the Army to move into the next phase of the THAAD program, the Engineering Manufacturing and Development (EMD) phase. This will result in the cancellation of THAAD flight test 12.
DoD News Briefing August 17, 1999 -- We are in the process of deploying significant assets to the Pacific to monitor a test should one occur by the North Koreans. General Shelton felt that the collection assets we either have or will have on scene are perfectly adequate to meet our needs. And THAAD had not been integrated into the collection plan. So he felt that the assets we will have on the scene are perfectly adequate to meet the needs.
DoD Examines Joint Task Force Concept for Civil Support American Forces Press Service 17 August 1999 -- The Defense Department is looking at changing the way it provides support to local and state agencies during terrorist incidents and natural disasters.
BMD Update 13 August 1999 -- Article Citations From Published Journals And Newsletters
PAC-3 INTERCEPT TEST TO BE CONDUCTED AT WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and the U.S. Army plan to conduct an intercept test flight of a Patriot Advance Capability (PAC-3) Missile at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., Thursday, Aug. 19 at 6:45 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time.
Major assembly begins for first 747-400F airborne laser (AFPN) 11 Aug 1999 -- Air Force and industry officials helped a Boeing-led industry team kick off the start of major assembly for the first Airborne Laser flying platform -- a 747-400 freighter -- at the Boeing assembly plant here.
Airborne laser receives largest optical-quality domed window ever made (AFPN) 9 Aug 1999 -- Airborne laser officials here announced Aug. 9 that they have accepted delivery of the largest optical-quality domed window ever manufactured.
U.S. Navy proves Kinetic Warhead's capability for Theater Wide Missile Defense NAVSEA Wire Service 99-23 (August 9, 1999) U.S. Navy successfully tested a surrogate Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Kinetic Warhead for its theater wide missile defense system. The test was the last in a series of four developmental sled tests conducted at the High Speed Test Track at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.
BMD Update 06 August 1999 -- Article Citations From Published Journals And Newsletters
ANTHRAX VACCINE MONEY - Voice of America 05 August 1999 -- Pentagon officials say they have agreed to a huge price increase for the vaccine that is supposed to protect millions of U-S service personnel against threatened germ warfare attacks. The economic problems follow the refusal of hundreds of service members to get inoculations against deadly anthrax.
DOD RESTRUCTURES ANTHRAX VACCINE PRODUCTION CONTRACT August 5, 1999 -- The Department of Defense announced today that it has restructured its contract with BioPort Corp., manufacturer of the anthrax vaccine, to provide a higher per-dose contract price and advance payments to the company.
Background Briefing Subject: Anthrax Vaccine Contract Briefing Thursday, August 5, 1999 -- The main topic today is the renegotiation of a contract with Bioport, the company that makes the anthrax vaccine, and this is all on background attributable to either senior Army or defense officials. Anthrax, if you want to use a biological weapon of mass destruction, is the weapon of choice. It's sturdy. It's easy to find. It's easy to grow in massive quantities. There were three major key elements that we renegotiated. One was an increase in price from $4.36 to $10.64. The total value of this contract now, from the beginning of September of '98 to December of 2005 is $49.8 million.
Lockheed Martin-led THAAD team achieves second target missile intercept Lockheed Martin Aug. 2, 1999 - For the second time in less than two months, the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) weapon system, managed by Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space, intercepted a target missile over White Sands Missile Range, NM.
Experimental anti-missile system scores a hit Cable News Network August 2, 1999 -- "It's a lot easier to hit one of our own targets on a test range than it is for them to actually intercept nuclear- tipped missiles in a combat environment," said John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists
THAAD INTERCEPT TEST SUCCESSFUL August 2, 1999 -- The 11th flight test for the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) defense missile system was a success today when it intercepted the Hera target missile
Guardsmen Training to Aid Civil Leaders in WMD Crises American Forces Press Service 02 August 1999 -- About 220 National Guardsmen from across the nation are training here through mid-August to help civilian authorities rapidly react to potential terrorist incidents involving weapons of mass destruction.
U.S., Russia To Develop A Joint Missile Defense By Jonathan Weisman, Baltimore Sun August 1, 1999 -- In the wake of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, suspicions are rife within Russia that the Americans would join such an alliance only to undermine Russia's national security. "It's much easier for an American to describe such a thing than a Russian to understand why he would be interested in doing something like this," Pike said.