WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- US, Japan boost BMD partnership
Top-level U.S. and Japanese officials have agreed to boost their information-sharing on ballistic missile defense.
The agreement was reached in ministerial security talks in Washington between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the U.S. side, and Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and Defense Agency Director General Yoshinori Ono representing Japan in the so-called "two-plus-two" talks, officially known as the Japan-U.S. Security Consultative Committee
An interim report issued Saturday reflected agreement between the leaders on deepening the U.S.-Japanese alliance and developing more integrated cooperation between the Self-Defense Forces and U.S. forces, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported.
At a joint press conference after the meeting at the U.S. Defense Department, Ono said the realignment consultations marked a "historic process" that would upgrade the bilateral alliance. He said the Japanese government was ready to expand the Japanese Self Defense Forces' role to engage in joint defense activities with U.S. forces.
The 14-page interim report, titled "Japan-U.S. Alliance: Transformation and Realignment for the Future," calls for the establishment of a Japan-U.S. Joint Operations Center. It also proposes shifting the Air Self-Defense Force's Air Defense Command Headquarters from Fuchu to Yokota, both areas of western Tokyo, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.
The report calls on both countries to step up arrangements for information sharing and joint information-gathering activities concerning missile defense systems.
America's new state-of-the-art X-Band early warning radars are to be brought to Japan and will be jointly operated with Japan's FPS-XX next-generation anti-missile radar system to establish a potent missile attack warning network, the newspaper said.
Sharing defense information could allow a U.S. Aegis-equipped destroyer to launch an interceptor missile based on radar information provided by Japan.
In addition, U.S. Patriot-3 missiles are to be deployed in Japan, according to the report.
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SAIC chases NATO BMD contract
A team led by Science Applications International Corporation, the NATO prime contractor for missile defense architecture and requirements analysis, announced in Brussels last week that it intends to pursue the NATO active layered theater ballistic missile defense (ALTBMD) systems engineering and integration contract, scheduled for an invitation for bid in March 2006.
SAIC's team is comprised of U.S. and European air and missile defense development companies as well as companies with large-scale systems integration capabilities. It also involves defense research organizations who are leaders in the distributed integration of missile defense weapon systems and command and control capabilities.
If selected, SAIC says its team will provide systems engineering support to NATO's ALTBMD program organization in Brussels, Belgium, and will design, develop and operate a test-bed in Europe that will help integrate and test missile defense capabilities from NATO and member nations.
SAIC's European partners include France's Thales Group and European Aeronautics and Defense Space; Germany's Industrieanlagen-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH; Britain's QinetiQ; and the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, as well as SAIC's U.K. subsidiary, SAIC Ltd. The Raytheon Company (U.S.) and ThalesRaytheonSystems, a transatlantic joint venture between Thales and Raytheon, complete the team.
George Singley, president of SAIC's Transformation, Training and Logistics Group, described the project as "one of the most technically complex and militarily important programs NATO will ever undertake.
"Our multinational consortium is committed to effectively integrating TMD assets from individual NATO allies with NATO's command and control capabilities in an architectural solution tailored to the Alliance's unique needs," he said.
SAIC is the largest employee-owned research and engineering company in the United States, with annual revenues of$7.2 billion and more than 43,000 employees in over 150 cities worldwide.
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Russia gives S-300s to Belarus for air defense
Russia will provide Belarus with the first S-300 missile systems next March, a senior Belarussian officer told the official Russian RIA Novosti news agency Tuesday.
"Four missile systems will be sent to equip four air defense divisions by next fall," said Igor Azarenok, a commander of Belarus' Air Force and air defense troops. He said the missiles would help improve the country's defense fourfold, and its air defense by 20 percent, and also enhance the joint air defense system of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
"The air defense partnership of CIS countries pioneers real integration and helps establish close military ties between former Soviet republics," Azarenok said. The two countries concluded a contract on S-300 supplies on Sept. 10.
Belarus was part of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union for hundreds of years until the collapse of communism and it is on the direct path of invasion and air attack against the Russian capital Moscow from the west.
Although Belarus President Alexander Lukashenka runs one of the most repressive regimes in any former Soviet republic, he continues to enjoy exceptionally close political and military ties with Russia, reflecting the strategic importance of his small republic to the Kremlin.
