Wednesday’s Roll-up of Missile Defense News

Two items of note for today’s summary — France may be seriously studying missile defense and Russia’s at it again (re. European Phase Adaptive Approach – PAA). Parlez-vous la Défense de Missile Balistique ? A recent 65-page study on BMD, written by three members of Parliament at a think tank linked to the National Assembly…

Flightdeck Friday: MIA Edition – Missing WWII Airman Returns Home

The ‘MIA Returned’  series of posts has sort of grown on its own accord and as such, has become one of our favorties.  For new readers, whenever the remains of American servicemen are recovered and positively identified through a complex and rigorous DNA process, the DoD’s POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) issues a short announcement of that fact,…

Witness to History: The INF Treaty 20 Years Later

  The clock in 1987  If you are any kind of student of national security policy and haven’t familiarized yourself with George Washington University’s excellent National Security Archives project, you really need to do so.  Case in point is their latest project, the release of previously secret Soviet Politburo records and declassified American transcripts of…

Europe and Defense Funding: An Asymptotic Line

(Flightdeck Friday will be a bit delayed this week as we are "experimenting" with "transformational capabilities" to provide you, dear reader, with an "unparalleled experience" – ungh, did we just write that?  IOW, YHS has been trying mightily to get something to work – it hasn’t and so he’s behind the power curve.  We’ll have…

Russian FM on US Missile Defense Plan and Europe

Well, we’ve heard from Putin, Ivanov and Baluyevsky and now the Foreign Minister weighs in via an article published in London’s Financial Times yesterday under the title “A crucial debate on Europe’s anti-missile defences.” (read the full article here) Several points are laid out which may be taken as the official Russian position and of…