The quickest and broadest tax cut ever

THE PRESIDENT: Earlier this week, I signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- the most sweeping economic recovery plan in history. Because of this plan, 3.5 million Americans will now go to work doing the work that America needs done.

I'm grateful to Congress, governors and mayors across the country, and to all of you whose support made this critical step possible.

Because of what we did together, there will now be shovels in the ground, cranes in the air, and workers rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, and repairing our faulty levees and dams.

Because of what we did, companies -- large and small -- that produce renewable energy can now apply for loan guarantees and tax credits and find ways to grow, instead of laying people off; and families can lower their energy bills by weatherizing their homes.

Because of what we did, our children can now graduate from 21st century schools and millions more can do what was unaffordable just last week -- and get their college degree.

Because of what we did, lives will be saved and health care costs will be cut with new computerized medical records.

Because of what we did, there will now be police on the beat, firefighters on the job, and teachers preparing lesson plans who thought they would not be able to continue pursuing their critical missions. And ensure that all of this is done with an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability, I have assigned a team of managers to make sure that precious tax dollars are invested wisely and well.

Because of what we did, 95 percent of all working families will get a tax cut -- in keeping with a promise I made on the campaign. And I'm pleased to announce that this morning, the Treasury Department began directing employers to reduce the amount of taxes withheld from paychecks -- meaning that by April 1st, a typical family will begin taking home at least $65 more every month. Never before in our history has a tax cut taken effect faster or gone to so many hardworking Americans.

But as important as it was that I was able to sign this plan into law, it is only a first step on the road to economic recovery. And we can't fail to complete the journey. That will require stemming the spread of foreclosures and falling home values, and doing all we can to help responsible homeowners stay in their homes, which is exactly what the housing plan I announced last week will help us do.

It will require stabilizing and repairing our banking system, and getting credit flowing again to families and businesses. It will require reforming the broken regulatory system that made this crisis possible, and recognizing that it's only by setting and enforcing 21st century rules of the road that we can build a thriving economy.

And it will require doing all we can to get exploding deficits under control as our economy begins to recover. That work begins on Monday, when I will convene a fiscal summit of independent experts and unions, advocacy groups and members of Congress, to discuss how we can cut the trillion-dollar deficit that we've inherited. On Tuesday, I will speak to the nation about our urgent national priorities. And on Thursday, I'll release a budget that's sober in its assessments, honest in its accounting, and lays out in detail my strategy for investing in what we need, cutting what we don't, and restoring fiscal discipline.

No single piece of this broad economic recovery can, by itself, meet the demands that have been placed on us. We can't help people find work or pay their bills unless we unlock credit for families and businesses. We can't solve our housing crisis unless we help people find work so that they can make payments on their homes. We can't produce shared prosperity without firm rules of the road, and we can't generate sustained growth without getting our deficits under control. In short, we cannot successfully address any of our problems without addressing them all. And that is exactly what the strategy we are pursuing is designed to do.

None of this will be easy. The road ahead will be long and full of hazards. But I am confident that we, as a people, have the strength and wisdom to carry out this strategy and overcome this crisis. And if we do, our economy -- and our country -- will be better and stronger for it.

Thank you.

The Economy and Boston / source: CNN

Pining for Control: South Korea Buying ABM Radars, AMD C2

quoted from the Defense Industry Daily

As North Korea prepares for another intercontinental missile test, South Korea continues to modernize its forces and take steps toward full sovereign control of its defenses.

"Raytheon Begins SAM-X/Patriot Missile Work in South Korea" described one new piece of the ROK's defenses. These PAC-2 GEM+ missiles are expected to be operational in 2010, and fully in space by 2012. South Korea doesn't appear to be aiming as high as Japan, with its license-produced Patriot PAC-3s and long-range naval SM-3 systems, but medium range SM-2 IIIA/B missiles fired from ROKN KDX-III destroyers do offer another limited option for the ROK's coastal cities.

As countries like the UAE have been quick to recognize, turning a series of point defenses into a cohesive system that can respond in time requires long-range detection, and strong regional command-and-control systems. Those contracts are reportedly imminent, as South Korea prepares to field its Air and Missile Defense Cell(AMD-Cell) radars and command system...

Feb 15/09

The Korea Times reports that South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) is likely to select Israel's EL/M-2080 Green Pine radar systems, buying 2 radar sets by 2010 in a WON 300 billion/$215 million deal. Green Pine radars are an integral component of Israel's own national missiles defense system, where they are used in conjunction with Patriot PAC-2 GEM+ missiles and Boeing/IAI's longer-range Arrow-2 Interceptors. They may also become part of India's emerging ABM system.

Greem Pine radars have a claimed detection range of 500km/300miles, which can be extendted to 800km/480miles in the most modern versions. Just one of those "Super Pine" radars cold cover all of North Korea from a position well behind the armistice's front lines.

The ballistic missile early warning radars are a part of the ROK's planned Air and Missile Defense-Cell (AMD-Cell), a missile defense command-and control center that will play a key role in monitoring, tracking and intercepting incoming cruise and ballistic missles from North Korea. AMD-Cell will reportedly be interoperable with US Forces Korea's own threater missile defense system.

An anonymous source told the paper that the USA's Forward-Based X-Band Radar-Transportable (FBX-T) was denied due to export restrictions, which the French M3R radar failed to meet all requirements. Overall:

"The DAPA concluded negotiations with foreign bidders over the selection of the early-warning radar systems last week and believes the Israeli radar is the most suitable for the country's theater missile shield in terms of price and capabilities."

Israel and South Korea have had limited defense ties over the years, but those ties appear to be growing. South Korea has begun buying Israeli UAVs, and Israelis considering South Korea's T-50 jets as its future advanced flight trainers.

Cardinal Kim's Office and Room at Hyehwa-dong, Seoul

Laser Designators for RQ-7 Shadow UAVs

quoted from The Defense Industry Daily

"CENTCOM Looks to Boost ISR Capabilities in 2008-2009" discussed the growth of local US military surveillance/strike capabilities, and SecDef Robert Gates' strong support for more attention to the needs of the counterinsurgency fight. Surveilance is part of that, but it needs to be backed by action. "Mortars from Aircraft? The Shadow Knows..." and "Task Force ODIN: In the Valleys of the Blind..." discussed pending and emerging approaches that tie UAVs, manned propeller planes, artillery, and helicopters into a cohesive, fast, and flexible solution for finding, identifying, and capturing or killing opponents.

Another piece of that puzzle is about to fall into place. The US Army's RQ-7 Shadow UAVs are currently too small to carry weapons, but their surveillance turret's laser rangefinder can designate GPS locations for JDAMs and related bombs, Excalibur 155mm artillery shells, and GMLRS 227mm rockets. That's useful, but maximum unarmed effectiveness requires a lightweight laser designator that would add the ability to actively mark targets for weapons like Helfire missiles, laser-guided 70mm rockets, or Paveway bombs. That way, the small and relatively cheap RQ-7s could mark targets for any component of Task Force ODIN.

The first challenge is making a full laser rangefinder and designator that's powerful enough, but still small enough and light enough to fit on the Shadow UAVs. The second challenge involves making that solution part of Army systems that stretch beyond the Shadow UAVs carring it

Feb 12/09

Texton subsidiary Army Armaments Incorporated(AAI) in Hunt Valley, MD receives a $9.3 million cost plus fixed fee contract modification, exercising options for additional engineering hours re,ated to these Shadow UAV modifications. These servies are related to low-rate initial production of Laser Designators, Tactical Common Data Link(TCDL) interoperability, and integration with the Army's Universal Ground Control Station and Universal Ground Data Termianl.

Work will be performed in Hunt Valley, MD, with an eatimated completion date of April 30/09. One bid was solicited and one bid received by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL (W58RGZ-08-C-0033)

Texans report fireball in sky, sonic booms

quoted from CNN News

Sonic booms and st least one fireball in the sky were reported in Texas on Sunday, less than a week after two satellites collided in space and a day after the Federal Aviation Administration asked U.S. pilots to watch for "falling space debris," authorities said.

There were no reports of ground strikes or interference with aircraft in flight, FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said.

Herwig told CNN the FAA received no reports from pilots in the air of any sightings but the agency recived "numerous" calls from people on the ground from Dallas, Texas, south to Austin, Texas.

Video shot by a photographer from News 8 TV in Austin showed what appeared to be a meteor-like white fireball blazing across a clear blue sky Sunday morning. The photographer caught the incident while covering a marathon in Austin.

On Saturday, the FAA told pilots through its routin notification systems that "a potential hazard may occur due to re-entry of satellite debris into the earth's atmosphere." The notice did not specify a time or location.

Herwig said most of the reports the FAA received came in about midday Sunday in an area of Texas from Dallas south to Austin.

He said he was not certain where the information that sparked the FAA notification came from, but it was "probably from NORAD," or the North America Aerospace Defence Command, which tracks man-made objects in space. Calls to NORAD headquarters in Colorado were not immediately returend.

Lisa Block, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said her agency had received calls from residents surprised by sonic booms about 11 a.m. She said calls came from an area from Dallas to Houston.

Last week, the Russian and U.S. space agencies said two satellites, one Russian and one American, collided about 496 miles(800 kilometers) above Siberia, Russia.

The collision on Tuesday produced two large debris clouds, NASA said. The satellites collided at 6.2miles(10kilometers) per second, producing 500 to 600 pieces of space debris, the U.S. Strategic Command said.

An EUM Bellwether? India/US Arms Deals Facing Crunch Over Conditions

quoted from the Defense Industry Daily

When countries export weapons, they frequently set associated conditions. Rules against reselling the gear without permission would be a basic condition for obvious reasons, and more advance restrictions on technology tranfer, sharing of details about the weapon with other countries, and related codicils are also common. Some western countries will also place restrictions on what the purchaser can do with the weapons as part of these "End Use Monitoring"(EUM) agreements.

Indonesia turned to Russia as a supplier, for instance, after Britain created problems when the country moved to use its British=made Scorpion light tanks against a separatist insurgencyin Aceh. Chad encountered trouble from Switzerland after its Pilatus-7 turboprops were reported to have been armed for use aginst Sudanese-backed forces. A problem that the opposing Sudanese forces don't have with their new Chinese and Russian jets.

During the Cold War, regimes always had the option of playing Western suppliers off against the Soviet Union. With the USSR's collapse, that option disappeared for a while, but the re-emergence of Russia's weapons industry, and the development of competitive arms industries in countries like China, South Korea, Brazil, and India, is changing the global equation again.

EUMs are likely to be affected by this trend, as the leverage to apply them declines. The question is which items are deal-breakers that must be retained by western countries, and which will be allowed to quietly fall by the wayside. That decision will be different in different countries, of course. Meanwhile, the strains created in India by standard American EUMs appear likely to provide an early indicator. India is a leading edge case for a number of reason ...

Gluf States Requesting ABM-Capable Systems

quoted from the Defense Industry Daily

A 2007 US National Intelligence Assessment[redacted NIE summary] believes Iran's nuclear program has stopped, but others, including the United Nations and Israel are more skeptical.
Intelligence is always a very uncertain and ambiguous exercise, and occasionally features assessments like the somewhat infamous NIE whose 1962 judgment was that there were no Soviet missiles in Cuba.
Uncertainty creates perception of risk, and perception of risk lead to behaviors aimed at reducing that risk. Iraq is no longer a missile/WMD threat, Iran's regular and Revolutionary Guards air forces remain relatively weak, and Iran's ballistic missiles based on North Korean designs lack accuracy. Still, even a lucky conventional missile could create issues in some Gulf states if it hit important oil-related infrastructure, or hit the larger and more nebulous target of business confidence.

Arms spending is an incomplete but very concrete way of tracking a state's real assessment of threats and priorities. It's becoming clear that Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, have stepped up their defence spending in recent years. Those expenditures cover a range of equipment, but anti-ballistic missile capabilities appear to be rising to the top of the priority list.

In June 2008, over $10 billion worth of December 2007 Patriot missile upgrade requests in the UAE and Kuwait shone a spotlight on the region's new defense priorities. The latest news involves additional order requests from the UAE for THAAD theater defense missile systems, and additional Patriot PAC-3 related equipment. the requests dovetail with the UAE's moves to become a command-and-control leader within the [Arabian] Gulf Cooperation Council, and are part of a top to bottom moderniztion of the UAE's air defense systems, which appear to be shifting strongly toward American equipment.

A multi-billion dollar Patriot missile contract seems to be locking in that shift, and recent developments in the UAE underscore the strategic logic at work in the regionl. One of those developments is a major spares and support contract to accompany their December 2008 Patriot missile order