Raytheon tested RAM Block 2 missiles

Raytheon Company's  Rolling Airframe Missile Block 2 successfully completed two guided test vehicle flights within one week, demonstrating the system's upgraded kinematic performance, guidance system and airframe capabilities.

Raytheon is building 35 RAM Block 2 missiles during the design and development test period and expects low-rate production to begin in 2012.

"To have a double success during two separate tests within days of each other is a significant accomplishment and proves our design upgrades," said Rick Nelson, vice president of Raytheon Missile Systems' Naval Weapon Systems product line. "The aggressive path we charted for RAM Block 2 will provide our customers with the most sophisticated ship self-defense missile available."

The RAM Block 2 upgrade includes a four-axis independent control actuator system and an increase in rocket motor capability. These and other upgrades increase the missile's effective range and deliver a significant improvement in maneuverability. The improved missile also incorporates an upgraded passive radio frequency seeker, a digital autopilot and engineering changes in selected infrared seeker components.

Robust International Fleet Self-defense System

RAM is a supersonic, lightweight, quick reaction, fire-and-forget missile providing defense against anti-ship cruise missiles, helicopter and airborne threats, and hostile surface craft. The missile's autonomous dual-mode, passive radio frequency and infrared guidance design provides a high-firepower capability for engaging multiple threats simultaneously. Produced in partnership by Raytheon and RAMSYS of Germany, RAM is aboard more than 100 ships as an integral self-defense weapon for the navies of Egypt, Germany, Greece, Republic of Korea, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

RAM Contribution to Warfighters

Provides defense for U.S. Navy carriers, amphibious ships and Littoral Combat Ships.

Is able to defeat targets by using next-generation radars today.

All-weather, low-cost self-defense system against aircraft and anti-ship missiles.

Sea Ceptor : Royal Navy's next generation missile defence system

The Royal Navy's next generation missile defence system will be capable of intercepting and destroying supersonic enemy missiles.

Known as Sea Ceptor, it will be able top travel at Mach 3 with cutting-edge technology that allows it to tackle multilpe targets simultaneously, protecting an area of around 500 square miles over land and sea.

The £483 million contract to develop it is being awarded to UK industry. Sea Ceptor’s ability to intercept missiles at sea will be developed under a demonstration contract with MBDA (UK) that is expected to last for five years. This contract will sustain around 500 jobs in MBDA and its supply chain, in key locations across the UK such as Stevenage, Filton and Lostock.

The introduction of this cutting edge missile system will not only ensure that the Royal Navy will be able to continue protecting our interests wherever they may be, but is also highly significant in sustaining and developing the UK’s skill in building complex weapons.

This new weapon system will equip our frigates to deal with the type of sophisticated missile threat expected in the coming decades. Investment in advanced defence technology, such as Sea Ceptor, is vital to ensure the Royal Navy’s continued ability to defend the UK’s interests wherever necessary.”

Sea Ceptor has been designed for initial use on the Type 23 frigate to replace the Sea Wolf air defence system when it goes out of service in 2016.

It is planned to be used on the Type 26 Global Combat Ship. Its flexible design also means that it could in future be adapted for use by the Army and RAF.

S-400 to Belarus

S-400 Triumf is able to intercept all the modern means of air attack, including the subtle planes, unmanned aircraft, ballistic and cruise missiles. S-400 is capable of tracking its targets at ranges of over 600 km. The system can use both the anti-aircraft missiles of the S-300system and its own. The S-400 is armed with regular and ultra-distance missiles. Thrusters, installed on the rockets, allow them to maneuver at an altitude of 35 km at overloads above 20 units.

The current Russian State Armaments Program for 2011-2020 stipulates that the company Almaz-Antei will produce S-400 to re-in 28 anti-aircraft missile regiments.

In 2013, the Group also plans to finalize a new set of S-500. Russia's armed forces leadership hopes that S-500 will be the basis of a missile defense. The Russian forces air and space defense will be able to get this complex (ten systems) no earlier than 2015.

Belarus ordered Russia’s new anti-aircraft missile systems S-400 Triumf. According to the commander of the Air Force and Air Defense Forces of Belarus, Major-General Sergei Lemeshevski, procurement will be conducted within the framework of agreements on the establishment of a common regional air defense system, the creation of which started in 1995 by the CIS countries.

In turn, the deputy director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation of Russia, Konstantin Biryulin, said that a certain moratorium is set abroad on the sale of the Russian Triumf to ensure personal needs in this system. So, it is currently in limited service with the Russian Armed Forces.

Taliban negotiators meet with U.S. officials in Qatar

Afghan Taliban negotiators are meeting with U.S. officials in Qatar for a series of discussions aimed at building trust between the two sides ahead of the upcoming peace talks. Maulavi Qalamuddin, who once led the group's religious police, said Sunday the delegation includes several former officials, as well as a former secretary to the Taliban's leader Mullah Omar.

Qalamuddin said the talks include the possible release of Taliban prisoners from the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He added the delegation traveled to Qatar from Pakistan, a possible sign that Islamabad might support the peace process.

Pakistani officials have declined to comment on the country's role in contacts between the Taliban and the United States. But a Foreign Ministry spokesman ((Abdul Basit)) has reiterated that Islamabad will continue to make contributions toward achieving peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Also on Sunday, Pakistan said Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar will travel to Afghanistan on Wednesday to discuss the war on terror and political reconciliation efforts aimed at ending the 10-year armed conflict.

Khar is expected to meet with her Pakistani counterpart, Zalmai Rassoul, and make a "courtesy call" on President Hamid Karzai. The efforts aimed at promoting peace and reconciliation suffered major setbacks recently.

Last September, Afghanistan's top peace negotiator and former President, Burhanuddin Rabbani, was killed in his home in Kabul by a suicide bomber posing as a Taliban envoy. Afghan officials said the attack was planned in Pakistan and carried out by a Pakistani citizen. Islamabad has denied any involvement in the killing.

In November, the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a cross-border U.S. airstrike near the Afghan border dealt another blow to reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan. Following the raid, Pakistan suspended cooperation with U.S. and NATO forces, which led to shutting down NATO supply lines through its territory to Afghanistan and ordering the United States to vacate an air base in southwestern Baluchistan province.

Islamabad said the restoration of the ties is contingent on approval by Pakistan's parliament, which is due to meet early next month.

Taiwan buys advance AN/SSQ-53F sonobuoys to counter Chinese Subs

The Republic of China Navy (Taiwanese Navy) has ordered 440  highly advance AN/SSQ-53F sonobuoys from the United States  to improve its anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities.

Taiwanese Navy will recieve 440 AN/SSQ-53F directional frequency and ranging (DIFAR) sonobuoy in a deal worth US$335,000. The AN/SSQ-53F are used by the United States navy from its maritime patrol aircraft and helicopters to listen for enemy submarines by gathering emissions created by them when they move underwater.

The Republic of China Navy will deploy these latest sonobuoys long with 12 refurbished P-3C Orion  turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft which will start arriving later this year.

Combination of the P-3C Orion  turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft and  AN/SSQ-53F directional frequency and ranging (DIFAR) sonobuoy will be used to keep a close eye on the ever  growing fleet of conventional and nuclear submarines.

Russian T-50 Pulls out for S. Korea Competition

Russia will not enter Korea’s advanced jet acquisition project as none of its aircraft manufacturers including Sukhoi expressed their intent to join the heated competition. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) listed Sukhoi’s T-50 PAK-FA in July last year as one of the four contenders to have expressed an interest in joining the open bidding worth 8.29 trillion won ($7.3 billion) along with Boeing, Lockheed Martin and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS). 

A representative from Swedish company Saab, which has been searching for additional export orders for its Gripen multirole fighters, successfully filed an application for the mandatory session along with Boeing, Lockheed Martine and EADS. 

DAPA announced that only those participating in the explanatory session slated for today will be eligible to participate in the FX-III, the third and final phase of the multi-billion dollar fighter jet procurement program. The state-run arms procurement agency made it clear that the request for proposal (RFP) detailing the FX-III requirements will only be distributed to participants of the explanatory session. 

Officials at the Trade Representation of the Russian Federation in Korea acknowledged that Sukhoi has pulled out of the race, considering that the aircraft manufacturer had not sought Moscow’s approval, nor his agency’s help to participate in the fighter bid. 

Sukhoi lost in the FX-I bid, the first phase of Korea’s fighter program in the early 2000s, due largely to concerns over the interoperability of its proposed SU-35 fighters with the Air Force’s existing fleet of American aircraft. The Russian aerospace firm refrained from making any official comment over the possibility of competing in the FX-III, through which Korea wants to purchase 60 high-end aircraft with stealth capability in October this year. 

Meanwhile, Shin Myung-ho, a representative from Saab, confirmed his company has yet to make a decision on whether to compete with the two U.S. defense giants and the European consortium.  

Korea has purchased 60 F-15s from Boeing, which won both the FX-I and II projects in 2002 and 2008.  Seoul plans to receive proposals from the four possible bidders, for the FX-III project by June 18 and carry out testing and evaluations until September before selecting the winner in October. 

Seoul eliminated two key compulsory requirements initially set for FX-III in an attempt to allow more companies to enter the competition for the nation’s largest-ever arms deal.

J-20 goes into the vertical climb