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U.S. defense contractor Raytheon announced that it’s creating a land-based version of the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) for Israel, a system that would help our ally defend against Iran. (Source)

Part of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, the SM-3 is a ship-based anti-ballistic missile. Last week an SM-3 successfully hit its target in space.

Discussed at the recent missile defense conference in Huntsville, Alabama, the land-based version of the SM-3 could be in operation by 2013. Raytheon’s Michael Booen told Reuters, “If the program goes through to production and is deployed globally with international allies, the potential value … will be more than $1 billion.”

Reuters reports that the cost of developing the SM-3 for Israel would be “very low.” Additionally, the Pentagon may use SM-3 systems as alternatives to missile shields in Poland and the Czech Republic. In fact, the Pentagon would be wise to develop the systems with these countries in mind. At this point, the fate of shields in the region are in doubt. Missile defense expert Riki Ellison said Russia may be more favorable to SM-3 systems than missile defense shields.

>> Defense contractors Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing are vying for a missile defense deal that could bring in $200 million a year.

Reuters reports that all three contractors want the chance to operate and sustain the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system (GMD). John Holly, a Lockheed senior executive, said his company has “the right skills and the capability.”

Boeing’s GMD director of operations and sustainment said his company “is the lowest risk option for the work because of this experience and success on the program.”

>> Russia is gearing up for a new kind of space race with the U.S. A commander in the Russian air force said his country will develop a defense system that will counter the “threat” of our space-based missile defense capabilities. We may have the ability to hit any Russian target from space by 2030, and Russia’s response is to build a competing rocket.

A Russian general said, “The development of air and space offensive weapons by foreign states demonstrates that by 2030 radical changes will take place in the exploration of air and space as an integral sphere of armed struggle.”

With George Bush out of office, any plans to produce a weapon with such capacities are in doubt. The U.S. and Russia are in talks to renegotiate START, and if previous compromises are any indication, Russia may not have to worry about the development of a space-based target-hitting weapon. (Source)

>> A Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) successfully hit its target in space. Part of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, the SM-3 destroyed a short-range ballistic missile. (Source)

 
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is studying a new missile defense system with the capacity to launch the SM-3, an anti-ballistic missile system deployed on the Aegis-equipped destroyer. (Source)

In case of an attack, and the SM-3 (500-kilometer radius) fails to shoot down missiles in the air, PAC-3 (10 kilometer-radius) can serve as a back-up to intercept missiles before they hit the ground. An excerpt:

“[I]n an effort to make better use of SM-3s, the new system being considered would allow missiles to be launched from both the ground and the sea at the initial intercept stage, sources said…The MDA has recently developed technology that would allow a system that combines antiballistic missiles such as SM-3s with various radar networks used in other systems.”