The Air and Space Forces conducted a successful test launch of a "new modernized interceptor of the Russian missile defense system" at the Sary-Shagan test site. According to a VKS spokesman, the new interceptor has better accuracy and range and extended service life.
China has successfully carried out another test of an anti-missile intercept system, the Defence Ministry said on Tuesday, describing it as defensive and not aimed at any country.China has been ramping up research into all sorts of missiles, from those which can destroy satellites in space to advanced nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles, as part of an ambitious modernization scheme overseen by President Xi Jinping.The Defence Ministry said in a brief statement the “ground-based midcourse anti-missile intercept technology” had been tested on Monday within China’s borders.“The test reached its expected goals,” the ministry said. “This test was defensive and not aimed at any country.”It provided no other details.
The Russian Aerospace Forces will receive a modernized missile defense system in the near future, Colonel Andrei Cheburin announced.
"I’m sure that in the short-term perspective we will receive an upgraded missile defense system," Cheburin told RSN Radio.
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday pledged Russia would build weapons that could pierce any anti-missile shield as he accused the United States and its allies of looking to shackle Moscow's nuclear capabilities.
"As we have repeatedly said, we will focus... on offensive systems capable of overcoming any anti-missile defence systems," Putin said at a government meeting on the defence industry in the Black Sea city of Sochi.
Russia has been locked in a feud for years over NATO plans to build a missile-defence system in Europe that it says is aimed against Iran but Moscow says is really directed at Russia.
"References to the Iranian and North Korean nuclear missile threats are a cover-up," Putin said.
The "true intentions" of the missile shield were aimed "at neutralising the strategic nuclear potential" of Russia, he said.
The US Air Force is considering a Lockheed Martin proposal to adapt technology used for a ground-based missile defense system to protect fighters under attack in the air.
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has invited proposals for a miniature self-defense munition concept study, seeking to develop a concept for a weapon to be dispensed from a fighter jet, hone in on an incoming missile and destroy it with a direct hit.
By replacing chaff, flares and directional infrared lasers, the so-called miniature self defence munition (MSDM) could revolutionise the concept of defensive countermeasures for tactical aircraft, says Frank St. John, vice-president of tactical missiles and combat manoeuvre systems at Lockheed’s Missile and Fire Control division.
“To kinetically engage as a countermeasure something that’s fired at you is an attractive possibility,” St. John says, “rather than just confuse or jam something that’s been fired at you.”
Lockheed has been studying the concept using internal funding for about three to four years, St. John says.
It seeks to leverage the active millimetre wave radar developed for the PAC-3 missile segment enhancement (MSE) programme. It repackages the sensor in a miniature munition powered by a small rocket motor.
In Lockheed’s concept, the pilot is alerted to an incoming missile and dispenses an MSDM, which hones into the target using the radar sensor, St. John says. It is a hit-to-kill weapon, and so lacks a warhead.
The miniature interceptor could dramatically increase the internal load-outs of fighters such as the F-22 and F-35, he says. It could replace the storage space now claimed for small diameter bombs. Alternatively, three of the miniature interceptors could replace one Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM, he says.
