U.S. Sees Iran’s Nuclear Program as Too Advanced to Restore Key Goal of 2015 Pact
Laurence Norman | Wall Street Journal
The Biden administration expects a restored nuclear deal would leave Iran capable of amassing enough nuclear fuel for a bomb in significantly less than a year, a shorter time frame than the one that underpinned the 2015 agreement, U.S. officials familiar with the matter said. Administration officials concluded late last year that Iran’s nuclear program had advanced too far to re-create the roughly 12-month so-called breakout period of the 2015 pact, the U.S. officials said. Despite the change, the U.S. is pushing ahead with talks. A revised deal needs to be reached soon, the officials said, to leave the U.S. and its allies with enough time to respond to an Iranian nuclear buildup.
U.S. Dangles Offer to Russia on Missile Checks at Key NATO Bases
Albaerto Nardelli, Henry Meyer, and Jennifer Jacobs | Bloomberg
The Biden administration has informed the Kremlin it is willing to discuss giving Russia a way to verify there aren’t offensive Tomahawk cruise missiles stationed at sensitive NATO missile-defense bases in Romania and Poland, according to people familiar with the matter. The U.S. proposal is aimed at allaying Moscow’s concerns the launchers could be used to target Russia. One person added any agreement would only happen after discussion with allies, especially Poland and Romania, and would need to be reciprocated with a number of Russian bases housing ground-launched weapons.
US Asks UN to Meet on North Korea Missile That Can Reach US
Edith M. Lederer | Associated Press
The United States called for the U.N. Security Council to meet Thursday on North Korea’s most recent test of an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of reaching Guam, its most significant launch in years that could target American territory. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Sunday’s launch, saying it broke the North’s announced moratorium on such launches and clearly violated Security Council resolutions, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said. The U.N. chief urged North Korea “to desist from taking any further counter-productive actions,” expressing “great concern” that Pyongyang again “disregarded any consideration for international flight or maritime safety,” Haq said Tuesday. Guterres also called for all parties to seek a peaceful diplomatic solution.
Private Pentagon Report Shows Hurdles to Hypersonic Weapons
Anthony Capaccio | Bloomberg
The Pentagon doesn’t have enough wide-open spaces on its missile test ranges to thoroughly evaluate new hypersonic weapons for the U.S., according to the military’s testing office. It also lacks key capabilities to adequately test the threat from incoming versions that adversaries including China and Russia are developing. The hypersonics evaluation, contained in the non-public version of the Pentagon test office’s annual report obtained by Bloomberg News, is a reality check on the Defense Department’s plans to boost spending and speed development of the new weapons that can travel five times the speed of sound and maneuver in flight like a cruise missile.
Rival Presidential Candidates Clash Over THAAD
Joo Kyung-don | Yonhap News Agency
The U.S. THAAD missile defense system has emerged as a hot topic in South Korea’s presidential race, with the main opposition candidate pitching an additional THAAD battery deployment as a campaign pledge and his ruling party rival accusing him of using national security for political gains. The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, was first deployed in South Korea in 2017 to deter North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations. Its base, operated by the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), is in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province. The issue came to the fore after Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) posted a one-line campaign pledge, “Additional THAAD deployment,” on his Facebook page on Sunday after a series of missile launches from North Korea in recent weeks.
Budget Uncertainty ‘Throttles’ MDA’s Development of a Hypersonic Missile Interceptor
Megan Eckstein | Defense News
The Missile Defense Agency’s plan to field an interceptor against incoming hypersonic weapons has hit a funding snag, the agency’s director said Wednesday. MDA in November selected three companies to design a Glide Phase Interceptor that would hit enemy hypersonic missiles during the glide phase, or the flat path they take while en route to their targets. MDA awarded Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Missiles and Defense other transactional agreements for an “accelerated concept design” phase of the program, Defense News reported at the time.