Closing Velocity

Iran To Russia: Don't Welch On Those S-300 Missiles

S-300 on parade in Red Square

As the chances for an Israeli airstrike on its burgeoning nuclear weapons program increase, Iran's leaders are getting antsy:

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A senior Iranian military official complained publicly on Friday over Russia's failure to deliver a missile defence system that Washington does not want Iran to have.

Moscow, which is under Western pressure to distance itself from Tehran, has not followed through on proposals to supply high-grade S300 air defence missiles to the Islamic state.

"We are unhappy with the Russian friends up north," said Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces and a member of Iran's Supreme National Security Council in comments carried on state news agency IRNA.

"Why don't the defensive S300 missiles get permission to be sent for the purpose of Iran's defence, as agreed between the two countries? It has been more than six months since they should have been delivered to Iran by Russia."

He added: "Won't the Russian strategists take into consideration Iran's geopolitical importance in the security of this country?"

In Iranian state media, Firouzabadi goes further in castigating the Russians:

Firouzabadi questioned Moscow's motivation for the delay, adding that under a contract signed between the two countries, the Russian government was expected to supply Iran with the system aimed at boosting the country's defensive capabilities.

"The delivery is more than six months overdue," the top general said, urging Russia to expedite the process of delivery.

Iran's Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Wednesday that Russia had a 'contractual obligation' to provide Iran with the system.

"We have made a deal with the Kremlin to buy S-300 defense missiles," he said, referring to a contract signed between Tehran and Moscow in 2007.

"We don't think Russian officials would want to be seen in the world as contract violators," he added.

Awwww, that's cute --- Islamofascist Iran lecturing Putin's Russia on the finer points of contract law and capitalism.

Meanwhile as Iran screeches about its right to defend itself against Israeli aggression, its terrorist proxy Hezbollah complains about Israel's own defensive posture:

Nasrallah also lashed out at a major missile defense exercise staged recently by American and Israeli forces to test technology that would protect Israel from a missile attack. U.S. military officials have described it as the most complete air missile defense system done anywhere in the world.

"The Americans are coming, for the first time in decades and perhaps the first time since Israel's existence, to be a field partner in any confrontation that Israel might impose on Gaza, Lebanon, Syria or Iran," he said.

Recap:

Russian missile defense systems in Iran? Awesome.

American-Israeli missile defense systems in Israel? How dare they.

Juniper Cobra 2009 Underway: US & Israel Conduct Massive Missile Defense Drills

Aegis BMD Destroyer USS Decatur (DDG-73) at Haifa, Israel

Delayed a week, Juniper Cobra 10 is now in full swing in Israel:

TEL AVIV — A massive air defence drill under way in Israel will join Israeli and US systems to create the world's most advanced anti-missile umbrella to protect the Jewish state, officials said on Thursday.

The Juniper Cobra 10 exercises, the fifth in a series of joint air defence drills between the allies, began this week and comes amid heightened tension between Israel and arch-foe Iran.

Some 1,000 US soldiers will take part in the two-week exercise combining Israeli and US systems to "create the world's most advanced air defence system to protect our citizens and homes from attack," the commander of Israel's Air Defence Corps, Brigadier General Doron Gavish, told reporters.

Unlike past Juniper Cobras, this one will employ the widest spectrum of missile defense assets yet, including the US's Aegis BMD ships, Patriot PAC-3 batteries, THAAD batteries, the mobile X-Band radar currently stationed in the Negev, and Israel's own Arrow 2 batteries. Interoperability between allied systems is the main goal.

While planned well over two years ago, this iteration of Juniper Cobra is seen as an early indicator of how Obama's new European missile defense plan will take shape:

In this series of exercises we continue to advance our understanding of the art and the science of ballistic ."missile defense," Rear Admiral John Richardson, the U.S. officer overseeing Juniper Cobra, told reporters in Tel Aviv.

"This exercise is not directly related to recent announcements about ballistic missile defense in Europe, but the lessons and the insights that we gain from this exercise will certainly relate to developing that capability."

Admiral Richardson also goes on the dispel the scuttlebutt of the US leaving its missile defense hardware behind in Israel after Juniper Cobra is finished:

None of the American materiel used in the drill will remain in Israel after it winds up in mid-November, they said. But the United States does have a small military garrison at a strategic radar, X-band, stationed in Israel's southern Negev desert.

"The Israel Defense Force can defend Israel alone," Gavish said. "But it is good to know that U.S. capabilities are available."

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Israeli Arrow II Not Launched In Latest Intercept Test Off CA

Details are sketchy right now, but it appears we have a "D'Oh!"on this joint Israeli-US test:

In a test involving three U.S. missile interceptors, Arrow tracked a target missile dropped from a C-17 aircraft, the Pentagon said in a statement. The Israeli system also exchanged data on the target in real-time with elements of the U.S. missile defense system, the statement said.

"Not all test conditions to launch the Arrow Interceptor were met and it was not launched," the Pentagon said.

The US interceptors "invovled" were a Patriot PAC-3, a THAAD, and the USS Benfold, an Aegis BMD destroyer. It appears that the Israeli Arrow II was the planned shooter and all the other assets were on station to exchange sensor and tracking data, which MDA claims met their objectives, including a simulated intercept by Benfold (PDF of MDA's release here).

Interoperability between our allied systems is very important, so it's not a total wash. I would like to know why the Arrow II stayed in its launcher, though.

Video: Trogloditic Nomads Launch Advanced Missile, Unnamed "Top Scientists" Hardest Hit

But...but...just yesterday we were told by unnamed "top scientists" that the woefully benighted Iranians were too backward to ever develop a Europe-striking ballistic missile:

The solid-fuel Sajjil-2 surface-to-surface missile is a new version of the Sajjil missile, which Iran said it successfully tested late last year and has a similar range. Many analysts said the launch of the solid-fuel Sajjil was significant because such missiles are more accurate than liquid fuel missiles of similar range, such as Iran's Shahab-3.

"Defense Minister (Mostafa Mohammad Najjar) has informed me that the Sajjil-2 missile, which has very advanced technology, was launched from Semnan and it landed precisely on the target," state radio quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. He spoke during a visit to the city of Semnan, 125 miles east of the capital Tehran, where Iran's space program is centered.

Video of the primitive Rube Goldberg contraption at which we should be pointing and giggling, according to Top Scientists^tm:

Israel isn't giggling:

Israel said that the new test should be a source of concern for European countries as it meant Iran now had a missile that put them in range as well as the Jewish state.

"In terms of strategic importance, this new missile test doesn't change anything for us since the Iranians already tested a missile with a range of 1,500 kilometres (nearly 950 miles)," said Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon.

"But it should worry the Europeans," Ayalon told public radio.

"The Iranians are also trying to develop a ballistic missile with a range of 10,000 kilometres (6,250 miles) that could reach the coast of the United States."

Nothing to see here, move along:

The study published by the nonpartisan EastWest Institute also said Iran is making advances in rocket technology and could develop a ballistic missile capable of firing a 2,200-pound nuclear warhead up to 1,200 miles "in perhaps six to eight years."

Try six to eight hours after these unnamed Top Scientists^tm published their report. And nonpartisan, my ass.

Israeli BMD Arrow 2 Shoots Down Mock Iranian Missile

Israeli Arrow 2 interceptor launch (undated photo)

As the US guts its own missile defense programs, Israel scores a hit in its latest BMD test:

The Arrow 2 ballistic missile defense system was successfully tested in southern Israel Tuesday morning, when it destroyed a missile simulating an Iranian Shihab 3.

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US Troops In Israel? Safe

With Hamas stirring up the hornet's nest in Gaza, I was thinking about the safety of the American troops manning our recently deployed Forward Based X-Band Transportable (FBX-T) missile defense radar. No worries --- they're out in the Negev Desert ... somewhere:

Hamas-backed militants continued to fire rockets into Israel on Monday, but the U.S. European Command military personnel stationed in the Jewish state are well removed from the areas being targeted, a EUCOM spokesman said.

Since September, a EUCOM team that includes soldiers, airmen and Marines has been working to help Israel set up an early warning radar system aimed at providing protection in the event of a missile attack from Iran.

...

In November, the U.S. radar was in its final round of tests. The system is reportedly capable of tracking a baseball-size object from a distance of 2,900 miles. It is expected to help Israel by enabling it to more rapidly activate its missile-defense system in the event of an attack. At the time, a EUCOM official said the radar should be operational by mid-December.

Such a radar wouldn’t be helpful against the short-range rockets being used by Hamas-backed militants.

Israel Shares Intelligence With NATO About Iranian Missile Threat

On the heels of NATO reiterating its unanimous support for European missile defense, Israeli intelligence visited Brussels:

The information was delivered as part of an intelligence assessment that was prepared in connection with the possibility of deploying an American missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, said the diplomats.

The intelligence was transferred by a team of experts from the Israel Defense Forces, who came to Brussels earlier to debrief their counterparts from NATO, said the diplomats, adding that the focus of the Israeli delegation was on Iranians' efforts to develop the Shahab-4 missile, with a strike range of 3,000 kilometers.

Again, this is the threat European missile defense addresses ... not Russia.

Ahmadinejad's Tehran Times: Concerned About American Welfare, Radars

Why oh why are you heartless Americans spending scarce dollars on defending Israel from the missiles of an unnamed mortal enemy when your own citizens are hurting so? I feel your pain:

"If it were proposed that this fraction of the tax revenues should be allocated to reduce the pains in the hearts of one thousand (US) owners of foreclosed properties in the working class neighborhoods of Chicago or to improve the educational quality of the pathetic school systems in the South Bronx, Bed Stuyvesant of Brooklyn or Spanish Harlem, no doubt the same senators who unanimously voted for the (radar's deployment) would have rejected it outright with no hesitation or mercy."

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(Originally posted at Perfunction; original comment threads are over there)

US Deploys Troops, Missile Defense Radar To Israel

In a move to defend against the growing Iranian ballistic missile threat, about 120 US troops will be permanently stationed in Israel for the first time to man a new Forward Based X-Band Transportable (FBX-T) radar:

U.S. European Command (EUCOM) has deployed to Israel a high-powered X-band radar and the supporting people and equipment needed for coordinated defense against Iranian missile attack, marking the first permanent U.S. military presence on Israeli soil.

The Raytheon-built FBX-T system is the same phased-array radar that was deployed to northern Japan with the U.S. Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) in 2006. The high-powered, high-frequency, transportable X-band radar is designed to detect and track ballistic missiles soon after launch.

Its ancillary gear included cooling systems, generators, perimeter defense weaponry, logistics supplies and dozens of technicians, maintenance specialists and security forces to operate and defend the U.S. installation.

Unlike the massive, permanent radar we are planning for the Czech Republic, the FBX-T is a mobile X-band radar that can be deployed to hot spots. The one in Japan would provide tracking/targeting of North Korean launches, while this one would cue intercepts against Iranian missiles.

By deploying this radar and giving Israel increased access to our Defense Support Program (DSP) launch detection satellites, Israel will be able to engage incoming missiles much earlier with its own Arrow II interceptors:

It would let Israel's Arrow II ballistic shield engage an Iranian Shehab-3 missile about halfway through what would be its 11-minute flight to Israel.

With the Shahab-3's blistering flight time, shaving minutes off the engagement time significantly increases both the battle space and data quality for Israel's Arrow interceptors.

Beyond the tactical impact of this deployment, there are greater strategic implications --- it reduces the likelihood of unilateral Israeli airstrikes against Iran:

A U.S. government source said the X-band deployment and other bilateral alliance-bolstering activities send parallel messages: "First, we want to put Iran on notice that we're bolstering our capabilities throughout the region, and especially in Israel. But just as important, we're telling the Israelis, 'Calm down; behave. We're doing all we can to stand by your side and strengthen defenses, because at this time, we don't want you rushing into the military option.'"

UPDATE: Welcome, HotAir and Commentary (thanks, Abe).

For a handy report on the current state of US missile defense, check out this 5 part NPR series from last week.

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(Originally posted at Perfunction; original comment threads are over there)