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The Heritage Foundation‘s Baker Spring has written a web memo titled, “Sustain the Other European Missile Defense Program,” in which he discusses the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) development program.

President Obama appears reluctant to support agreements we made with Poland and the Czech Republic to build missile defense shields, and he’s proposed to cut $1.4 billion from the missile defense program. But what about our joint missile program with Germany and Italy? An excerpt:

“The Germans are covering 25 percent of the cost of the program, while the Italians are covering 16.7 percent. The U.S. is responsible for the remaining 58.3 percent. This cost-sharing arrangement is based on a $3.4 billion contract that was signed by the three countries in 2004.

“The Obama Administration requested a little more than $569 million in research, development, test, and evaluation funding for the program for fiscal year 2010.Generally speaking, Congress is on track to support the Administration’s request. The question is whether the Obama Administration and Congress will support the program in the years after fiscal year 2010. Therefore, Congress should express its desire to see this program continue in fiscal year 2011 and beyond.”

Spring adds that the MEADS program should stay on track. Not only will it reinforce our commitments with Europe, it will ensure mobility of missile defense power for ground forces, 360-degree protection against missile and air threats, and more.

Read the full article here.

(Image source: Army Technology)

 
The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel secretly has been working with Germany developing a nuclear detection system, code-named Project Bluebird. The system is designed to “identify a nuclear-tipped missile speeding toward a target amid a cluster of decoy missiles.”

Iran is considered a “rogue” state, and it is no secret that Israel would be its main target for missile attacks. Consequently, Israel is shoring up its defense systems and has appealed to the U.S. in its quest to deploy the sensor on an unmanned aeriel vehicle.

“It’s not surprising that Israel is working on this…In terms of the political and strategic ramifications, one should not to jump to conclusions or connect the dots where they shouldn’t be connected,” said Emily Landau, director of the Arms Control and Regional Security Program at Tel Aviv University’s Institute of National Security Studies.

Whether Iran ends up developing a viable nuclear weapons system or not, we believe Israel would be wise to continue developing its defense systems. Just in case.

 
The V-2 rocket was an early ballistic missile propelled by a liquid-fuel engine and the first rocket to go into space. Germany launched over 3,000 V-2s during WWII against Allied forces and killed over 7,000 people.