Here is some good news if you are employee of Boeing working on GMD:

 Boeing Co beat out Lockheed Martin to retain its position as the prime contractor for the U.S. long-range missile shield, the Pentagon said on Friday.

The U.S. Defense Department said it was awarding Boeing a $3.48 billion, seven-year contract to develop, test, engineer and manufacture missile defense systems.

A team led by Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Co had vied with Boeing to expand and maintain the Ground-based Midcourse Defense, or GMD, hub of layered antimissile protection.

Boeing partnered with Northrop Grumman Corp to retain the work.

“We believe the government conducted a fair and open competition, making the right decision for the future of the program,” Norm Tew, Boeing vice president and program director of GMD, said in a statement.

Lockheed said it was “honored” to have participated on the bid, a company spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.

The GMD contract’s value to Boeing will have been about $18 billion from January 2001, when it formally became the system’s prime contractor, through the end of this year, Boeing has said.

GMD uses radar and other sensors plus a 20,000-mile fiber optic communications network to cue interceptors in silos at Fort Greely, Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

The shield has been shaped initially to guard against ballistic missiles that could be fired by Iran and North Korea. It is the only U.S. defense against long-range missiles that could be tipped with chemical, biological or nuclear warheads.  [Reuters]

It is amazing the amount of missile defense systems that are going to be operating in the Persian Gulf after this sale along with whats already in place:

 The United States has reached a deal to sell $3.48 billion worth of missiles and related technology to the United Arab Emirates, a close Mideast ally, as part of a massive buildup ofdefense technology among friendly Mideast nations near Iran.

Pentagon spokesman George Little announced the Christmas Day sale on Friday night. He said the U.S. and U.A.E. have a strong defense relationship and are both interested in “a secure and stable”Persian Gulf region.

The deal includes 96 missiles, along with supporting technology and training support that Little says will bolster the nation’s missile defense capacity.

The deal includes a contract with Lockheed Martin to produce the highly sophisticated Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, weapon system for the U.A.E.

Tom McGrath, vice president and program manager for Lockheed Martin’s THAAD program in Dallas, said in a statement it was the first foreign military sale of the THAAD system.

THAAD interceptors are produced at Lockheed Martin’s Pike County Facility in Troy, Alabama. The launchers and fire control units are produced at the company’s Camden, Arkansas, facility.

Wary of Iran, the U.S. has been building up missile defenses of its allies, including a $1.7 billion deal to upgrade Saudi Arabia’s Patriot missiles and the sale of 209 Patriot missiles to Kuwait, valued at about $900 million.

On Thursday, the Obama administration announced the sale of $30 billion worth of F-15SA fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.

Under the fighter jet agreement, the U.S. will send Saudi Arabia 84 new fighter jets and upgrades for 70 more. Production of the aircraft, which will be manufactured by Boeing Co., will support 50,000 jobs and have a $3.5 billion annual economic impact in the U.S.

All the sales are part of a larger U.S. effort to realign its defense policies in the Persian Gulf to keep Iran in check.  [Associated Press]

The Russians appear to have successfully test fired two submarine launched ICBM’s:

- Russia successfully tested on Friday its two new Bulava intercontinental missiles, which experienced several failures in the past.

The Defence Ministry said the 12-meter-long Bulava, or Mace, which Moscow aims to make the cornerstone of its nuclear arsenal, was fired from a submarine in the Arctic White Sea and hit the target, a designated polygon, on Kamchatka peninsula in Russia’s far east.

“The launch was carried out from (the submarine in) submerged position in the White Sea,” ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov was quoted by state-run RIA news agency as saying. “Its warheads reached the polygon (target) on time.”

The missiles carry dummies rather than nuclear warheads as Russia is a signatory of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) which bans all nuclear explosions.

The Bulava had failed half of its previous trials, calling into question the expensive missile program. The previous launch in June from the same submarine was a success though.

A Bulava missile weighs 36.8 tonnes and can travel a distance of 8,000 km (5,000) miles carrying 6-10 nuclear warheads, which would deliver an impact of up to 100 times the atomic blast that devastated Hiroshima in 1945.  [Reuters]

The Russians are once again using the US developed European missile shield for their own domestic political reasons:

During campaign season, it never hurts for a presidential candidate facing a frustrated public to display toughness and resolve in the face of an old and familiar adversary. And it also doesn’t hurt to throw in some shock-and-awe–say, a ballistic missile nicknamed “Satan.”

This appears to at least partly explain why on Monday Russia announced that it had successfully tested a short-range interceptor missile; part of its ongoing effort to develop a domestic missile defense system, according to Russia’s RIA News Agency. (The Russian Defense Ministry has provided a video of the missile’s launch on its website.) Russia also announced it is working on the development of a 100-ton ballistic missile slated for release in 2015, Pravda reports. Russia recently held contested parliamentary polls and is due to hold presidential elections in March. Russia watchers note the political backdrop to the announced plans and their part in the wider narrative agenda: resurgent Russia’s determined opposition to American missile defense plans in Eastern Europe.

“In connection with the plans of the United States to develop the air defense system in Europe, in close vicinity to Russia’s borders, and because of the unwillingness of the U.S.  side to provide any guarantees, the Russian Federation continues to take measures to preserve parity in the field,” Pravda reports.

“Russia does not stand against the U.S. missile defense system,” Sergei Karakaev, the Russian Defense Ministry commander of the missile troops, was cited by the paper. “Russia stands against the creation of the missile defense system, which would be directly aimed against Russia to potentially reduce the possibilities of the Russian nuclear containment forces.”  [The Envoy]

Here is an interesting article about North Korea developing a mobile ICBM capacity to threaten the US with:

New intelligence indicates that North Korea is moving ahead with building its first road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile, an easily hidden weapon capable of hitting the United States, according to Obama administration officials.

The intelligence was revealed in a classified Capitol Hill briefing last month. Its existence was made public in a letter to Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta from five House Republicans.

“As members of the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces …, we write out of concerns about new intelligence concerning foreign developments in long-range ballistic missile development, specifically ballistic missiles capable of attacking the United States,” the Nov. 17 letter said.

“We believe this new intelligence reiterates the need for the administration to correct its priorities regarding missile defenses, which should have, first and foremost, the missile defense of the homeland.”

Officials familiar with the intelligence said government analysts believe the missile could be a variant of North Korea’s new Musudan intermediate-range missile, first disclosed publicly in October 2010.

Other intelligence indicates that the new ICBM may be under development at a huge missile testing facility on North Korea’s western coast.

Prior to its mobile ICBM, North Korea’s long-range missiles were the pad-launched Taepodong-1 prototype, and the Taepodong-2 (TD-2) dual-use ICBM and space launcher. The TD-2 was test-launched in April 2009.

‘Direct threat’

Mobile missiles are difficult for tracking radar to locate, making them easier to hide. They also can be set up and launched much more quickly than missiles fired from silos or launchpads.

China’s military recently deployed two new mobile ICBMs, the DF-31 and DF-31A. It is not known whether North Korea’s new mobile missile is based on Chinese technology. China in the past has provided missile technology to North Korea, a fraternal communist ally.  [Washington Times]

You can read a lot more at the link.

It seems like more bluster from the Iranians because I seriously doubt they will want to get in a confrontation with the Turks who I think would respond strongly to any Iranian attack on their country:

Turkey’s foreign minister has conveyed Ankara’s concerns about an Iranian commander’s recent remarks that Tehran will hit NATO’s missile shield in Turkey if threatened, a ministry official said Dec. 1.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu “verbally conveyed our concerns to his Iranian counterpart,” the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Davutoglu met Nov. 30 with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on the sidelines of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation meeting in Jeddah.

The commander of the aerospace division of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards recently said Tehran will target NATO’s missile shield in neighboring Turkey if it is threatened by military action.

“We are prepared to first target the NATO defense missile shield in Turkey if we are threatened. And then we’ll move on to other targets,” Amir-Ali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.

Although Iranian officials have said several times they could retaliate with ballistic missiles against Israel if attacked, Hajizadeh’s remark was the first time the Revolutionary Guards spoke of targeting Turkey.

Turkey has agreed to host an early warning radar system in its southeast as part of NATO’s shield which the United States says is aimed at thwarting missile threats from the Middle East, particularly Iran.

Turkish officials insist that the shield targets no specific country.  [Defense News]

I am not surprised that Iran is making threats against Turkey, but I would be surprised if they actually carried any of them out because I think the Turks would have little patience for Iranian meddling especially on the Kurdish issue:

The war of words between Iran and Turkey over the latter’s decision to host NATO’s early-warning radar system may hint at a new crisis looming on the horizon between the two neighbors, with the Kurdish terrorist organization, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in play as a possible trump card by Iran against Turkey.

Iran may resort to a terror threat using the outlawed PKK against its neighbor Turkey because of the latter’s decision to host NATO’s early-warning radar system, experts warned, adding that the move may boomerang on Iran. Hasan Köni, professor of international law at ?stanbul-based Kültür University, said Iran might use the PKK as leverage in the short run against Turkey. “I do not believe that they will go to a great length in doing so because of the boomerang effect of the terror that might hit back at Iran in the future,” he told Today’s Zaman.

There has been a wave of threatening statements from top Iranian civilian and military leaders in recent weeks, all blaming Turkey for agreeing to host NATO’s early-warning radar system on its soil, warning of unspecified consequences.

On September, Turkey agreed to go ahead with a NATO plan to set up an early-warning radar system in Malatya’s Kürecik town, which is in the east of the country.  [Today's Zaman]

You can read a lot more at the link.

The Russians still seem to be playing domestic politics in regards to their reaction to the NATO missile shield:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday formally inaugurated a new missile alert radar station in the nation’s Baltic enclave and said the system was a strong response to U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in Europe, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 28).

Medvedev allowed, though that the large radar site in the Kaliningrad region could be incorporated into NATO’s planned missile defense system if the sides can reach a deal to collaborate on the project.

“I hope that our partners will perceive this move as the first signal of our country’s readiness to respond in kind to the threats, which the missile defense system poses for our forces,” he said.

Russia has been engaged for a year in discussions with NATO and the United States regarding the missile shield. Moscow objects to Obama administration plans to over the course of the decade field increasingly advanced sea- and land-based missile interceptors around Europe as a declared bulwark against a feared ballistic missile attack from Iran. The Kremlin believes the interceptors would be aimed at Russia’s long-range nuclear missiles; Washington has repeatedly denied this claim.

Last week, the Russian president warned the Kremlin might pull out of the New START nuclear arms control pact with the United States and send Iskander missiles to the Kaliningrad territory, which abuts several NATO states, if a deal with the Western military bloc cannot be reached on missile defense. Negotiations have run aground over differing views about what cooperation should entail; Moscow favors a unified approach while NATO wants two independent but linked antimissile systems.

In addition, Russia wants a legally binding pledge that the missile shield will not be aimed at its strategic nuclear forces.

“We can’t be satisfied with oral assurances that the system isn’t aimed against Russia. Regrettably, such oral statements don’t guarantee the protection of our interests,” Medvedev said (Associated Press/New York Times, Nov. 29).

Washington-based issue specialists, however, said there is little chance the White House would cave to Russian demands on missile defense in Europe, the New York Times reported.  [Global Security Newswire]

You can read more at the link but I wonder what type of radar this is?

From Space Flight Now:

A Long March rocket blasted off with a Chinese reconnaissance satellite Tuesday on an unannounced mission to collect imagery of strategic sites around the world.

The Yaogan 13 remote sensing satellite took off at 1850 GMT (1:50 p.m. EST) Tuesday from the Taiyuan launching base in Shanxi province of northern China. Launch occurred at 2:50 a.m. Wednesday Beijing time.

The two-stage Long March 2C rocket placed the payload in a sun-synchronous orbit with an average altitude of about 300 miles, according to satellite tracking data.

The launch was successful, according to the the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.

The Yaogan series of satellites gather optical and radar reconnaissance imagery for Chinese military and intelligence agencies. Yaogan 13 may carry a synthetic aperture radar sensor to peer through clouds for all-weather, night-and-day image collection.  [Space Flight Now]

You can read more at the link.

Here is a pretty good video from Hawaii News Now about the SBX which is currently in port at Pearl Harbor: