Russia launches production of new MiG-29M/M2 fighter

The Sokol aircraft plant, based in Nizhny Novgorod, central Russia, is to launch production of the MiG-29M/M2 Fulcrum fighter plane.

The first aircraft to be produced is planned to be completed in the second quarter of 2010.

MiG's general director, Anatoly Belov, said the new aircraft will use the most advanced technology, specifically the Zhuk-M onboard radar and cutting-edge avionics.

The plane's integrated weapon control system is built around the Zhuk-M airborne radar, an IR search and track system and a helmet-mounted target designation system.

The fighter has the capability to detect air targets at ranges of up to 120 km and has the potential to attack four targets simultaneously.

Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) Battery Activation

The activation of the first Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) ballistic missile defense interceptor missile unit of the U.S. Army was recognized during a ceremony at Fort Bliss, Texas. THAAD is a missile defense system developed by the Missile Defense Agency, a joint service organization within the Department of Defense.

The ceremony marked the establishment of an operational Army unit that will include soldiers who are undergoing new equipment training on THAAD and who will ultimately work to field the system.

Alpha Battery/4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 11th Air Defense Brigade, 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command, will receive 24 THAAD interceptors, three launchers, a fire control and communications unit and a radar. The commander of the new battery is Capt. Curtis Zervic. Soldiers in the newly established battery have been training on the THAAD equipment since last month and will continue their training through the middle of 2009.

THAAD has undergone several years of rigorous testing, designed to push the system into increasingly stressful and operationally realistic scenarios. Since the current round of testing began, THAAD has intercepted every target it has flown against. When fielded, the mobile THAAD system will be the only defensive weapon that can destroy incoming ballistic missiles both inside and just outside the earth’s atmosphere.

It will provide protection to deployed troops around the world, and other important assets and population centers against short to medium range ballistic missiles in the terminal, or final phase of flight.

THAAD is an element of the layered, integrated Ballistic Missile Defense System designed to protect the United States, our allies and friends against all types of ballistic missiles in all phases of flight.

The prime contractor for the THAAD missile defense element is Lockheed Martin.

Thales UK Unveils New Lightweight Multirole Missile

Thales UK revealed its new Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM) on 2 June, drawing heavily on the earlier Starburst and Starstreak surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) to develop a low-cost weapon system aiming to engage a wide range of air, land and sea targets.

The new laser beam-riding missile would be able to defeat a "sensible target set" including rigid inflatable boats (RIBs), jet skis and small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as well as most targets regularly encountered on modern battlefields, from bunkers and light vehicles up to and including tracked armoured personnel carriers, with a relatively light, flexible warhead.

In essence, the new missile is built within the same basic airframe footprint as Starburst, so it can fit in the same canister as a Starburst/Starstreak missile, and features four flip-out, movable forward fins and four more fixed fins at the back. Unlike the helical-flightpath, fixed-fin concept taken with Starstreak, the point-accuracy that Thales was seeking with the LMM requires the missile to fly a much more traditional path down the centre of the laser beam, steered by the fully controlled forward fins. The control actuation for this uses low-cost off-the-shelf components, brushes and DC motors.