France Announces Its First Successful Missile Interception

choi

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First Qualification Firing of SAMP/T Medium-Range Air-Defence Missile
against Short-Range Ballistic Missile. French Ministry of Defense, Nov. 25,
2010 (translation).
http://www.defense-aerospace.com/article-view/release/120463/eurosam-achieves-europe%E2%80%99s-first_ever-intercept-of-a-theater-ballistic-missile.html

My comment:
(a) Aster (missile family)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aster_(missile_family)
(a family of surface-to-air missiles manufactured by Eurosam, a European
consortium consisting of MBDA France, MBDA Italy (combined 66%) and the
Thales Group (33%); operators include Saudi Arabia and Singapore, besides
France, Italy and UK)

Quote:

"The Aster family was developed to perform three distinct missions: * * *  
Ground-based area defence — Sol-Air Moyenne Portée Terrestre (French for
Ground-based Surface-to-Air Medium Range, SAMP/T) using batteries of Aster
30 missiles. France has demonstrated the feasibility of destroying medium
range ballistic missile.[1]

Reference 1 is this very news.

(b) So far, Besides US, China acknowledged last January an successful
interception of a missile--possibly by a HQ-9 missile (a repeat experiment
failed in summer). India has proclaimed two or three successful
interceptions.

-----------------------Separately
(1) 无法全面仿制 中国继续采购俄武器
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/20101128_Russian_Arms-110932124.html

My comment: The report at best cites 俄罗斯公报, whose Engish or Russian
name is unclear. The only English -language report that I can find is

Russia, China to discuss gas pricing dispute. AFP, Nov. 24, 2010.
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/afp/20101123/tbs-china-russia-energy-diplomacy-ec2362a.html

My comment:
(a) Only the last two paragraphs are pertinent.

"Vedomosti business daily reported on Tuesday that after Defense Minister
Anatoly Serdyukov's recent visit to China, Beijing submitted requests to buy
a range of Russian arms including state-of-the-art S-400 missile defense
systems and Il-476 heavy transport planes.

"Vyacheslav Davidenko, spokesman for Rosoboronexport arms exporter, declined
to either confirm or deny the report.

(b) Vedomosti
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedomosti
(Russia "The Record"; a Russian language business daily; a joint venture
between Dow Jones, the Financial Times and Sanoma, publishers of The Moscow
Times)

This may be what the VOA report calls 俄罗斯公报.

(2) John Markoff, War Machines: Recruiting Robots for Combat;


New York Times (NYT), Nov. 28, 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/science/28robot.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=robot%20military&st=cse

My comment:
(a) Mr. Markoff, is one of NYT's hardware guys.
(b) There is no need to read the report. Just take a look at the graphic,
whose only toy that I am unware of is

(7) SMSS (Squad Mission Support System), Lockheed Martin.

SMSS
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/products/smss/index.html



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