Obama Kills European Missile Defense Shield

9/17/2009 - The Obama administration moved today to kill the Bush-era European missile defense shield that would have been charged with protecting European nations and US interests in the region from incoming nuclear missiles launched from Iran. The reasoning behind the decision is the current administration believes that Iran's long-range missile capabilities are light years away from coming to fruition and her short- and medium-range missiles deserve top attention.

In place will be a "new missile defense capability" that is purportedly better than the one offered during the Bush administration. Naturally, the cancellation of the old missile shield was greeted with positive reaction from Russia. The old missile defense shield would have positioned launchers and stations inside of the Czech Republic and Poland - two former Soviet satellites.

The new system will reportedly utilize mobile ground-based points and sattelites to help intercept incoming threats. By the US government's own assessment, the new system is actually an upgrade from the previous plan. The interception missiles in the new plan will include use of the Patriot and SM-3 missiles as well as another unnamed implement based out of Alaska and California.

While President Obama has now held his end of the bargain (in terms of easing tensions with Russia) after meetings with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, it only remains to be seen how Russia responds in turn after several recent years of sabre-rattling.

If history is any guide, the decision to drop the missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland could be a grand mistake for these two countries. A Polish ministry official responded with the words "This is catastrophic for Poland". Both the Cezh Republic and Poland fell under the might of, first, Nazi Germany and later, the Communist Soviets. As such, a little security goes a long way in this part of the world. These two countries will now be forced to look to NATO for help.

Good luck.

Senate Votes to Cut F-22 Raptor Production

7/21/2009 - The United States Senate has voted to cut funding on the controversial and expensive Lockheed F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates himself, zeroed in on the expensive Lockheed product to bring the Pentagon budget down to manageable figures.

The vote was 58-40 in favor of the cut.

The Lockheed F-22 Raptor is assembled by parts originating in no fewer than 44 states. As expected, many-an-aerospace job might be affected by the move (an estimated 95,000 jobs). The F-22 is produced in the Marietta plant, which also builds the C-130J Hercules. Though production of the F-22s at the plant will cease come 2012, it will take up production of the newer F-35 Lightning II (Joint Strike Fighter).

A single Raptor runs US taxpayers $150,000,000 in the hole but represents some cutting-edge technology not duplicated anywhere else in the world- yet. The F-22 maintains stealth characteristics revolutionized in the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk (the original Stealth Fighter) and operates supersonically via the propulsion method of "supercruise" - that is, breaking the sound barrier without use of afterburner.

Original production quotas for the USAF were to range about 750 Raptors. It should be noted that the Bush administration tried unsuccessfully to kill the program but was blocked by Congress and the USAF.

Gate's stance on the issue was more in line with appropriating more funding to better assist current operations in hot zones like Iraq and Afghanistan.

At this point, 187 Raptors should make it into service with the USAF.