Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 4. April 2005 / Time Line April 4, 2005
Version 3.004/04/2005
Partiet, Feministisk initiativ, grundlægges i Sverige.
04/05/2005
QDR to Address Transformation of U.S. Nuclear Arsenal
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 5, 2005 - Today's U.S.
nuclear arsenal is too outdated and costly to maintain for use
in deterring threats in the post-Cold War era, a senior officer
told a Senate subcommittee April 4.
"It is our intent to have the upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review
address nuclear issues and the associated infrastructure to
determine transformation requirements for our nuclear capabilities
in the 21st century," Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright explained to
members of the Senate Strategic Forces Subcommittee.
Cartwright heads the U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force
Base, Neb., which oversees U.S. military global strategic planning,
including nuclear deterrence.
In the aftermath of the Cold War, President Bush and Russian
President Vladimir Putin pledged to substantially reduce nuclear
stockpiles over the next 10 years upon their signing of the Moscow
Treaty in May 2002. The U.S. is decommissioning its larger,
multi-nuclear-warhead-carrying Peacekeeper intercontinental
ballistic missiles as part of terms of the treaty.
However, nuclear weapons remain an important component of U.S.
national security policy, Cartwright observed, "particularly for
reassuring allies and friends of U.S. security commitments,
dissuading arms competition, deterring hostile leaders who are
willing to accept great risk and cost, and for holding at risk
those targets that cannot be addressed by other means."
By 2012, America's nuclear stockpile "will be reduced by nearly
one-half" since President Bush took office, Ambassador Linton F.
Brooks pointed out to committee members. Brooks, who accompanied
Cartwright to the hearing, is the administrator of the National
Nuclear Security Administration.
Brooks cited a recent Nuclear Posture Review that says America's
remaining nuclear weapons are rapidly aging, causing high
maintenance and security costs. He noted that Cold War-era nukes
were designed for maximum destructive power and therefore cause too
much collateral damage for some envisioned future uses.
The "legacy" stockpile, Brooks added, is also environmentally
unfriendly, ineffective against deeply buried targets, and
unsuitable for destroying chemical and biological weapons.
Older nuclear weapons systems do not have "new precision-guidance
technologies from which our conventional systems have fully
benefited," Brooks explained. Nor, he added, are older nuclear arms
"geared for small-scale strikes or flexibility in command, control
and delivery."
04/05/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of
Defense
Raytheon Co., Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded an $11,229,083
cost-plus-fixed-fee modification under previously awarded contract
(N00024-02-C-5421) to exercise options for technical and production
support for Evolved SEASPARROW Missiles (ESSM) and MK783 Mod 0
missile shipping container, including design agent tasks for the
ESSM and associated test and handling eq uipment supporting
production. Work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz. (38 percent),
Rocket Center, W.V. (8 percent), Camden, Ark. (5 percent),
Minneapolis, Minn. (1 percent); Germany (13 percent), Australia (8
percent), Canada (7 percent), The Netherlands (6 percent), Norway
(6 percent), Spain (4 percent), Turkey (2 percent), Denmark (1
percent), Greece (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by
October 2006. Contract funds in the amount of $117,000 will expire
at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems
Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Sunnyvale, Calif., is being awarded
a $41,684,110 cost-plus fixed-fee contract modification to provide
for eight-month stretch out to the transformational satellite
communications system definition/risk reduction phase due to a
reduction in funding for fiscal years 2005 and 2006. Fiscal Year
2005 funding was reduced by $90 million from $202 million to $112
million (45 percent). Fiscal Year 2006 funding was increased by $50
million (25 percent) from $200 million to $250 million. The replan
accommodates the funding reduction and also incorporates
development of information assurance products for transmission
security and telemetry tracking and command crypto. The
transformation communications satellite system will provide
unprecedented satellite communication with internet-like capability
that extends the Global Information to deployment/mobile users
worldwide and deliver an order of magnitude increase in capacity.
At this time, $4,000,000 of the funds have been obligated. This
work will be complete by December 2006. Solicitation began
September 2004, and negotiations were completed March 2005. The
Headquarters Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air
Force Base, Calif., is the contracting activity (FA8808-04-C-0023,
P00009).
Jacobs Sverdrup, Fort Walton Beach, Fla., is being awarded a
$30,000,000 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract. The
objective of this statement of work is to describe the specialized
Scientific and Technical Assistance (S&TA) required by the
National Air and Space Intelligence Center to validated threat
representations of electronic warfare, information warfare,
information operations, space/counterspace, ballistic missile
threats and to provide conceptual modeling and testing support.
This S&TA involves coordinating activities to assure that
correct data and models are used, testing of threat representations
is performed, threat-to-simulator/simulation comparative analysis
is performed, and a validation report is prepared. At this time,
$100,000 of the funds have been obligated. This work will be
complete by September 2010. Solicitation began December 2004 and
negotiations were completed April 2005. The Headquarters
Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio,
is the contracting activity (FA8633-05-D-2059).
Northrop Grumman Space and Mission Systems, Clearfield, Utah, is
being awarded a $7,000,000 cost-plus award-fee contract
modification to provide for the upgrade purchase of the auxiliary
power supply test suite in support of the Intercontinental
Ballistic Missile Flight Controls and Propulsion Replacement
Program. At this time, $3,500,000 of the funds have been obligated.
This work will be complete by June 2007. The Headquarters Ogden Air
Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting
activity (F42610-98-C-0001).
04/05/2005
Boeing Team Completes
Sea-Based X-Band Radar Integration
April 5, 2005
The Boeing-led Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) industry team has
integrated the SBX radar onto its sea-going platform in Corpus
Christi, Texas, marking a major integration milestone in the
program.
"The integration of the massive Sea-Based X-Band Radar is a
critical step in further advancing the nation's defense against
ballistic missile threats by delivering to the government a
revolutionary sensor capability," said Boeing Vice President and
GMD Program Manager Paul Hoff. "The addition of such a large-scale
radar gives us increased confidence in the overall GMD system and
added flexibility for defense of the nation." SBX's floating
platform, a modified oil-drilling vessel, measures 240 feet wide
and 390 feet long. It includes a power plant, bridge and control
rooms, living quarters, storage areas and the infrastructure
necessary to support the massive X-band radar. The X-band radar,
sitting on top of the vessel, is the most sophisticated phased
array, electro-mechanically steered X-band radar in the world,
consisting of thousands of antennae driven by transmit/receive
modules, according to Boeing.
As prime contractor for the GMD program, Boeing is responsible for
the development and integration of the GMD system components,
including the SBX; ground-based interceptor; battle management,
command, control and communication systems; early warning radars;
and interfaces to the Defense Support Program early warning
satellite system. Raytheon built the SBX radar.
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