Closing Velocity

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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US Considers Using UKRAINIAN Missile Defense Radars

Yep, given Obama's recent prostration before the Russians, this will get far:

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine has begun talks with the United States on the possibility of Washington using information gathered by its radars, Interfax Ukraine cited Kiev's envoy as saying on Thursday.

The news is likely to irk Russia, which is highly sensitive to any hint of U.S. military partnership with former Soviet republics.

Washington last week denied it wanted to station U.S. radar systems in Ukraine, after President Barack Obama scrapped a planned missile shield based in central Europe.

Just last week, Washington and Kiev had to furiously backpeddle when US Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Alexander Vershbow first let the cat out of the bag:

WASHINGTON — The United States on Friday sought to reassure Russia that Washington had no plans to deploy radars or weaponry in Ukraine as part of its new missile defense plan.

The Defense Department was forced to clarify its plans after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov voiced concern over the new missile shield and said a report that Ukraine might be part of the system was "rather unexpected."

US Assistant Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow had told reporters on Thursday that Ukraine and other countries have expressed an interest in hosting a radar site for the shield.

But the Pentagon said: "He (Vershbow) did not make any reference to the stationing of US radars or any other missile defense systems on the territory of Ukraine, and no such proposal has been made to the government of Ukraine."

Granted, this news got screaming headlines in the Ukraine and Russia last week, but that was because it appeared the US was simply going to set up its own radars --- with its own personnel --- on Russia's doorstep. That's not the case:

The announcement made headlines in Ukrainian media. Some analysts and politicians were quick to point out that the Ukrainian constitution forbids hosting foreign military facilities. President Viktor Yushchenko was quick to say that the US never made any suggestions on those lines.

Now it appears that, rather than hosting an American radar, Ukraine will offer one it already has to become part of the system. It currently possesses two long-range radars, one in the capital of Crimea, Sevastopol, and another one in the city Mukachevo in western Ukraine. [ed --- see map above]

On the one hand, since Russia itself has repeatedly offered the US use of two of its own missile defense radars at Gabala, Azerbaijan and Armavir (instead of the one planned for Brdy, Czech Republic), one would think Russia would have no problem with the US utilizing a similar arrangement with the Ukraine. On the other hand, one would be dreadfully wrong.

Lest the aura of Nobel prizes have temporarily blinded you, let me remind you that Russia just successfully cowed Obama into giving up long-planned missile defense sites in the territories of two stalwart NATO Allies, the Czech Republic and Poland. Ukraine was a former Soviet Republic (not a satellite), is a NATO aspirant (not a member), and oh yeah, home to the frickin' Russian Black Sea Fleet. Yup, Putin will have zero problem with this Ukrainian radar scheme.

In the meantime, the Ukrainians are enjoying this small opportunity to poke the bear in the eye:

[Ukrainian Ambassador to the US] Shamshur suggested Russia had missed its chance to use information from Ukrainian radars. Russia canceled a post-Soviet radar data sharing deal last year, complaining the installations in Ukraine were outdated.

"We are also talking about the question of using our defense radars across Ukraine's territory, which, as you all know, Russia has declined to use," Shamshur was cited as saying.

The Ukrainians are playing a very dangerous game here, and in an apparent attempt to soothe eastern European fears over his recent retreat, Obama could also provoke Moscow much more intensely than the old Bush missile defense plan ever did.

Indeed, to appreciate the gravity of the Ukrainian situtation, be sure to check out this must read article on the poisonous climate of Russian-Ukrainian relations:

In August, Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, gave his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yushchenko, an unprecedented diplomatic mugging. In a seething letter, and subsequent video message, Medvedev reprimanded Yushchenko for his "anti-Russian" stance. He told him that, as far as Russia was concerned, the pro-western Yushchenko was now a non-person.

After reeling off a list of grievances, Medvedev said he would not be sending an ambassador to Kiev. He also said he was reviewing Russia and Ukraine's 1997 friendship treaty – a hint that Moscow may no longer respect Ukraine's sovereign borders. The message was blunt: whoever wins Ukraine's presidential election in January has to accept Russia's veto over the country's strategic direction.

And what is ground zero of all this Russian animosity? Why, the Crimea --- site of one of those Ukrainian missile defense radars:

The flashpoint, Gorbulin says, is Crimea, the lush peninsula beloved by 19th-century Russian writers and Soviet tourists. It is Ukraine's only Russian-majority province. It is also the home of Russia's Black Sea fleet – anchored just around the coast from Yalta in the historic port of Sevastopol. Under the terms of a lease agreement with Ukraine, Russia is supposed to vacate the base in 2017. But it doesn't want to.

In recent weeks, pro-Kremlin newspapers have been speculating that Crimea might soon be "reunited" with mother Russia, solving the fleet issue. The best-selling Komsomolskaya Pravda even printed a map showing Europe in 2015. The Russian Federation had swallowed Crimea, together with eastern and central Ukraine. Ukraine still existed, but it was a small chunk of territory around the western town of Lviv.

Georgia is peanuts compared to the Ukraine ... especially now that the Russians are considering nuclear first-strikes against neighbors even during a conventional war.

With the humiliating betrayal of allies coupled with this clueless thwacking of a Ukrainian hornet's nest, Obama appears to be blindly stumbling into what may become a very ugly European crisis.

Video: Launch of STSS Missile Tracking Demo Satellites

Years behind schedule, the two demo satellites for the next generation of hostile ballistic missile tracking satellites --- the Space Tracking & Surveillance System (STSS) --- rocketed from the Cape this morning:

Unlike the Cold War workhorse DSP satellites which only provide ICBM launch detection, STSS satellites will give us a significant upgrade to target discrimination during the midcourse phase of flight:

With its roots in the old "Star Wars" program, the goal of the $1.5 billion Space Tracking and Surveillance System mission is to demonstrate the ability to detect and track enemy missiles from launch, through the so-called mid-course phase of flight to atmospheric entry, providing more accurate targeting data for interceptors.

"The purpose of these satellites is to enable acquisition and precision tracking from space, tracking of a sufficient quality to enable an interceptor to close the fire control loop, that is, to be able to determine a fire control solution based on information from space," said Rear Adm. Joseph Horn, deputy director of the Missile Defense Agency.

The results of the demonstration mission, he added, "will guide our decisions on the development of an affordable, continuously available, operational, precision-track space sensor constellation."

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Befuddled Czech Mayors Wonder Where The Radar Money Went

After organizing and joining the professional protester circuit, a group of Czech mayors recently marched on the EU demanding an end to the planned X-Band missile tracking radar in the Czech Republic:

“Our Government has been ignoring the voice of the 70% of Czech citizens, dozens of Czech mayors and most recently the regional parliaments, who are all calling for the end of Czech participation in the US Missile Defense project,” said Jan Neoral, one of the leaders of the League of Mayors against the Radar. “We are now turning to MEPs to help stop this project that threatens stability and peace in Europe.”

With ratification of the radar treaty stalled in the Czech Parliament, the mayors have effectively gotten what they wanted --- no radar. But now they're wondering, "Hey, what about all that money you promised us?!":

The Czech municipalities in Brdy, in the surroundings of the planned U.S. radar base, fear that they will not receive the promised state subsidies now that the radar project may be frozen, the daily Lidove noviny (LN) reported Thursday.

The future of the subsidies of 250 million crowns that the previous centre-right coalition government of Mirek Topolanek promised to 21 Brdy municipalities in 2007 is uncertain after the fall of Topolanek's cabinet and with regard to the questions around the missile defence project.

In typical socialist Euroweenie fashion, they of course still expect their subsidies:

The municipalities have so far received only 13 million crowns of the total sum that was to be spent on the infrastructure and repairs of old buildings.

Thanks to the promised state subsidies, the Brdy municipalities have launched various projects and others are being planned for which they urgently need millions of crowns, the paper writes.

The mayors are now worried about the remaining subsidies, and this is why they want to soon ask the new interim government of Jan Fischer to release the money, the paper writes.

As Homer said to Flanders in the classic "Mr. Plow" episode, "I'll take your money ... but I won't plow your driveway."

Video: Next Generation Missile Tracking Satellite Launch

Successfully launched by a massive Delta II yesterday from Vandenderg AFB, the Missile Defense Agency's experimental Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS)-Advanced Technology Risk Reduction mission is the first step in greatly expanding our ability to track hostile ballistic missiles:

MDA officials were especially tight-lipped about the spacecraft, saying some aspects were classified. However, they did say the $400 million mission should extend for a year.

“MDA is pursuing a space-based sensor layer to detect missile launches, provide continuous target tracking, and pass track data to missile defense interceptors with the accuracy and timeliness necessary to enable successful target interception,” the agency said.

Currently, our missile defense satellite fleet consists primarily of Defense Support Program (DSP) launch detection birds --- but there's not much else up there to provide real-time high fidelity tracking once the hostile missile has left the pad. Ground based sensors like Thule and the SBX are currently the tracking workhorses. With STSS we'll get a brand new set of space-based eyes that will provide much earlier tracking data, and two more are scheduled to go up this summer:

The Vandenberg blastoff is a preview for a rocket launch this summer from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., carrying two STSS demonstration spacecraft for MDA.

Aaaaaand of course, there's something oh so morally wrong about defending ourselves:

The missile-defense launch brought a handful of protesters to Vandenberg’s main gate, Air Force officials said. The protest apparently lasted less than an hour.

UPDATE: For some hard core background on STSS, read this article.

Thule: Welcome To The Top Of The World

 BMEWS Radar at Thule Air Base, Greenland

Great article in the Daily Mail on one of the unsung sentinels of US missile defense, the early warning radar at Thule Air Base, Greenland:

As we drive on, a disturbing buzzing and popping starts to come from the engine. The controls on the dashboard join in and the vehicle begins to judder. Our journey into this empty wasteland is starting to feel like an episode of The X Files.

'It's the radar,' she explains, pointing ahead of us, not very reassuringly. 'It does strange things to the electrics.'

I politely ask what the radar is likely to do to my insides.

'Best not to jump in front of it,' she warns.

When we reach the summit, there it is, standing guard - one of the most important and advanced pieces of American military hardware in the world, a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) radar. The size of a ten-storey building and glaringly hi-tech, the radar stands perched like a silent sentinel scanning the skies for anything coming over the top of the world.

Until its recent prominence as a critical part of our budding global missile defense system, Thule was best known as the site of one of the few "Broken Arrow" crises during the Cold War.

During the sixties, the US had an operational plan "Chrome Dome" whereby a dozen nuclear-armed B-52s were always on airborne alert to counter any Soviet first strike. Though unnamed, Chrome Dome is the central plot device in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove:

One of the underlying missions of Chrome Dome was "Hard Head" patrols over Thule, where one of these special B-52s would maintain visual contact with the airbase and its crucial radar. If the crew lost contact or saw a mushroom cloud over Thule, then they would proceed to attack the USSR with their nuclear package.

On January 21, 1968, one of these B-52s crashed on the frozen sea ice off Thule, scattering its four H-bombs. And one hydrogen bomb remains unaccounted for.

After the Thule accident, Chrome Dome was terminated.

So Thule has evolved from its Cold War roots. Once a guardian against --- and sacrificial tripwire for --- Mutually Assured Destruction, it is now on watch for limited ICBM threats from rogue nations.

And to all the chilly Thule airmen and contractors (coincidentally I recently received an email from a Closing Velocity fan up there), a hearty thanks and keep up the good work.

Stay warm...yet frosty.

UPDATE: The reader I mentioned above sent me a link to his photo album of life at Thule, including this incredible shot of an approaching storm:

Check out his whole album here, including some great shots of Greenland wildlife and the dramatic seasonal changes up there.

No, We Can't: US Military Requests SBX Radar During North Korean Missile Launch, DENIED

SBX at Pearl Harbor, Going Nowhere

One of the immutable criticisms leveled at US missile defense by its skeptics is the lack of "operationally realistic testing." Until our ballistic missile defense system (BMDS) is perfected with 100% realistic testing, it is foolish to prematurely deploy it, they say.

But when given the extraordinarily rare opportunity to actually use OUR BEST MISSILE DEFENSE RADAR in a situation as operationally realistic as you can imagine, the Obama Administration orders the Sea-Based X-Band radar to stay tied to the dock at Pearl Harbor:

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates denied permission for the U.S. Northern Command to use the Pentagon's most powerful sea-based radar to monitor North Korea's recent missile launch, precluding officials from collecting finely detailed launch data or testing the radar in a real-time crisis, current and former defense officials said.

While other sensors were on station to monitor the launch, SBX could have collected priceless intelligence about North Korea's rapidly maturing missile technology:

SBX, deployed in 2005, can track and identify warheads, decoys and debris in space with very high precision. Officials said the radar is so powerful it could detect a baseball hit out of a ballpark from more than 3,000 miles away, and that other radars used by the U.S. would not be able to provide the same level of detail about North Korea's missile capabilities.

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, who until recently headed the Missile Defense Agency, said the SBX would have gathered data other U.S. systems could not.

"The sea-based X-band radar is clearly without a doubt the most powerful and capable sensor in all of our missile defense inventory," he said. "It is three or four more times powerful than other radars" in Asia, including Aegis-equipped ships, a Cobra Dane early warning radar in Alaska and a small X-band radar in northern Japan, he said.

Gen. Obering noted that the SBX was used by the U.S. Strategic Command to track a falling satellite and guide U.S. sea-based missile interceptors that destroyed it in February 2008.

And President Obama did not "listen to his commanders on the ground":

Jamie Graybeal, Northcom public affairs director, confirmed to The Washington Times that Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, the Northcom commander, requested the radar's use but referred all other questions to the Pentagon.

Why did Obama refuse Gen. Renuart's plea?

One current and two former specialists in strategic defenses said the [Obama] administration rejected the request because it feared that moving the huge floating radar system would be viewed by North Korea as provocative and upset diplomatic efforts aimed at restarting six-nation nuclear talks.

So using the SBX to simply observe a very provocative missile launch was itself deemed too damned provocative by Obama? And that it would have derailed disarmament talks? You mean those talks that have utterly fallen apart anyway?:

North Korea on Tuesday ordered international nuclear inspectors out of the country and said it would "never again" take part in denuclearization talks, dealing a harsh, early setback to the Obama administration's hopes of disarming the defiant regime.

Brilliant. Effin' brilliant.

The opportunity to pursue (now)demonstrably hopeless talks with Kim Jong-Il was deemed more valuable than collecting operationally realistic data and improving our defense against a growing threat. And the Hopes of naive diplomats outweigh urgent requests from military commanders. Change you can believe in.

UPDATE: Welcome, HotAir.

ArmsControlWonk takes a rather peculiar view on this: parking the SBX out in international waters on the other side of Japan is somehow more provocative and dangerous than skirting RC-135S Cobra Ball recon planes along North Korean airspace.

Ummm, WHAT?

Just days before launch, North Korea threatened to shoot down any US spy planes. And indeed, back in 2003, a Cobra Ball was intercepted by four North Korean MiGs in international airspace over the Sea of Japan. I'd say Kim perceives Cobra Balls as kinda-sorta provocative. Call me crazy.

In any case, two Cobra Balls were on station during this latest missile test, according to the Mainichi Daily. And lest there be any confusion, I'm glad they were there.

I just wish the SBX had been recording this launch as well. Better data = better missile defense.

Palin Finally Recognizes Alaska's Vital Missile Defense Role

Literally within minutes of Sen. McCain's selection of her as his VP candidate last August, I recommended that Gov. Sarah Palin fully embrace her state's status as THE strategic linchpin in our nascent defense against long range ballistic missiles. Palin's national security and foreign policy chops were quite weak at the time, and she could have used Alaskan-based missile defense as an expeditious credibility builder, especially when compared to her inexperienced opponent (and missile defense skeptic) Sen. Obama:

• Fort Greely: With 21 long range Ground-based Interceptors, Greely is the largest operational missile defense base on the planet.

• Sea-Based X-Band radar (SBX):this state-of-the-art floating radar's home port is Adak Island.

• Cobra Dane radar:Also in the Aleutians on Shemya Island, Cobra Dane has been a vital missile defense radar since the Cold War.

• Clear Air Force Station radar: Another crucial sensor used for detecting inbound ICBMs.

• Kodiak Launch Complex: Several missile defense target missiles have been launched from Kodiak Island, including the one obliterated in last December's successful GBI test.

But I paid very close attention to Palin during the campaign and, obviously, even closer attention to missile defense as a campaign issue --- and never did the two intersect. Until now.

With missile defense budget cuts now in motion --- and Fort Greely's planned deployment of 40 interceptors being capped at the current 21 --- Palin finally emerges from her cocoon:

“I am deeply concerned with North Korea’s development and testing program which has clear potential of impacting Alaska, a sovereign state of the United States, with a potentially nuclear armed warhead,” Governor Palin said. “I can’t emphasize enough how important it is that we continue to develop and perfect the global missile defense network. Alaska’s strategic location and the system in place here have proven invaluable in defending the nation.”

Governor Palin stressed the importance of Fort Greely and the need for continued funding for the Missile Defense Agency. The governor is firmly against U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ proposed $1.4 billion reduction of the Missile Defense Agency. Greely’s isolated location in Alaska as well as its strategic location in the Pacific allows for maximum security and development of the country’s only ground-based missile defense complex.

That's all fine and well now, but Palin could have made this slamdunk case about 8 months ago. Instead, she let herself get permanently tarred with the SNL-written "I can see Russia from my house!" as shorthand for her national security (in)experience.

What A Perfect Place For A BMD Base, Part III

RIP: Azerbaijan's Air Force & Missile Defense Chief

Remember the 2007 Russian offer to give the US access to an old Soviet early warning radar in Azerbaijan in exchange for the US keeping BMD out of Eastern Europe? Well, the chief Azeri negotiator on that deal --- and head of the Azeri Air Force --- was just assassinated in his driveway:

"At approximately 8 a.m. (0400 GMT) at the entrance to his home the head of the air force and missile defense system was shot in the head and later died of his wounds in hospital," a source in the Interior Ministry said.

...

Rzayez was the Azeri representative in stalled negotiations between Russia and the United States on use of the Qabala radar station in northern Azerbaijan.

Russia had offered Washington access to data from the Soviet-built radar station, which it leases from Azerbaijan, as an alternative to U.S. plans to station elements of its missile defense shield in eastern Europe.

Motives and suspects are unknown, though several different scenarios are swirling about:

• Rzayez's air defense portfolio has been responsible for huge defense expenditures during Azerbaijan's recent oil boom. A big money deal gone bad? See next... 
• Not unlike several former Soviet states, Azerbaijan has to deal with a vacuum-filling cadre of oligarchs, organized criminals, and power-wielding apparatchicks (cough-justlikePutin'sRussia-cough). Any number of conspiracies could spring from this festering political swamp.
• As mentioned in my first link above, Azerbaijan is on the jihadi hit list. Azeri's serve alongside the US in Afghanistan and, until recently, Iraq as well.
• And of course, lingering still-declared states of war sometimes become dangerous for military personnel like Gen. Ryayez (go figure) --- Azerbaijan is still officially belligerent with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.

So again, why oh why would we ever doubt the sincerity of Putin's Azeri radar offer? Looks like a swell place to deploy a linchpin missile defense asset!

UPDATE: Welcome, Jawas.

Obama To Ban Terrifying Space Weapons, Space Shuttle, Astronauts

Potential War Criminal

In seeking an international ban on the "weaponization of space," President Obama's naive confidence in the power of half-baked words is on full display:

Enacting a global ban on space weapons could prove even harder.

For instance, it was difficult to define exactly what constituted a "weapon" because even seemingly harmless weather tracking satellites could be used to slam into and disable other satellites, said two U.S. officials involved in the area who were not authorized to speak publicly.

If the prospect of kamikaze Roker Death Stars is not diabolical enough, how about this frightening scenario described by General Kevin P. Chilton, US STRATCOM Commander:

Let’s say you build a craft capable of pulling alongside a satellite, extending a robotic arm, and plucking the satellite’s solar panels off, thereby disabling it. Would you consider that a space weapon?

A roaming orbital nightmare gleefully plucking the solar wings off innocent satellites like they're so many helpless insects?! Chilton continues:

Well, if so, that would mean the U.S. space shuttle is a space weapon.

Oh.

And what about the chilling specter of specially trained government agents firing unguided kill vehicles at unsuspecting targets?

Yes, that was an accident and I'm being silly. But there's no denying that after decades of spacewalking and orbital repair missions, NASA's astronauts indeed have the requisite EVA skills to be exceptional satellite saboteurs, aka space weapons.

So let's put aside President Obama's lazy wordsmithing for a moment and assume he's talking about this kind of sneaky orbital activity (h/t: Danger Room):

In a top secret operation, the U.S. Defense Dept. is conducting the first deep space inspection of a crippled U.S. military spacecraft. To do this, it is using sensors on two covert inspection satellites that have been prowling geosynchronous orbit for nearly three years.

Since the U.S. is now demonstrating the ability to do such up close rendezvous and inspection of American spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit, it means USAF now has at least a "call up capability" to do the same to non-U.S. spacecraft like those from Russia and China.

The operation, at nearly 25,000 miles altitude, reveals a major new U.S. military space capability, says John Pike who heads GlobalSecurity.Org, a military think tank.

"There is not much we do in space any more that is really new, but this is really new," Pike tells Spaceflightnow.com.

So very small (500 lbs.) and stealthy, the tiny pair of DARPA-funded MiTex inspection satellites are sure to perk up antennae in Beijing:

A U.S. Defense Dept. analyst speaking on deep background says although a visit to a non-U.S. satellite is doubtful, the demonstration will cause concern, especially among Chinese government military analysts in Beijing. He said they will see the capability as a new U.S. intelligence tool that could theoretically also enable a sneak anti-satellite attack in geosynchronous orbit.

Read the whole thing--- lots of intriguing details about the MiTex mission, including how they were dispatched as "first responders" from the other side of the planet to inspect the ailing defense satellite.

Which brings us to our perennial topic: missile defense. The crippled "ghost ship" the MiTex twins are examining? None other than the recently launched, 2.5 ton DSP 23 missile-warning satellite I reported on going dark last November.

So while Obama's dimly vague definition of "space weapons" happens to encompass Space Shuttles and their spacewalking crews, his ban would in reality prohibit a mission like MiTex's --- a mission to examine an indispensable space asset used to detect and defend against actual, currently-deployed "space weapons."

Which space weapons? These:

Regarding the development and fielding of space-based elements, Obama has stated he will not "weaponize" space, but the ballistic missiles he has pledged to counter are space weapons. Since they fly through space, it should not surprise him that the most effective and cost-effective defenses against them will be space-based. Missile defense needs to go to space because that is where the missiles are during their flights.

Ever since the very first ICBM rocketed out of the atmosphere, space has been weaponized. "Oh, McKittrick, you're picking nits --- they're talking about weapons in orbit!" Well, a nuclear-tipped ICBM --- the most devastating weapon man has ever frickin' invented --- indeed operates in space. It ejects its thermonuclear warheads and countermeasures, makes targeting adjustments and proceeds to its holocaust ... from space. And exactly like a Chinese ASAT missile or a dual-use Space Shuttle, all ICBMs originate from terra firma.

In conclusion, Obama really needs to be semantically nailed down on his term "space weapons" before his ban is seriously considered.

Just Words.

(h/t: Instapundit for the Reuters story)