SpaceDaily.com reports: “The United Arab Emirates is reported to be strengthening its missile defense network and plans to integrate it with other Arab states in the Persian Gulf to counter Iran’s missile might.

Experience shows that is unlikely to happen anytime soon. But even so, the emirates ordered four batteries of U.S. Raytheon Patriot MIM-104 PAC 3 air-defense missiles worth $3.3 billion in 2008.

In September, the U.S. Congress cleared the sale of three Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-ballistic missile systems produced by Lockheed Martin Space Systems. Other key contractors are Boeing, Raytheon and Honeywell.

THAAD is designed to intercept and destroy short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles such as the Soviet-era Scud, up to Iran’s Shehab-3b weapon that currently constitutes Tehran’s strategic missile force.

The THAAD deal could be worth up to $7 billion. The emirates, which are at odds with Iran over its occupation of three strategic islands in the gulf, would be the first regional state to be armed with THAAD.

Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are also looking to upgrade their Patriot PAC 2 systems to PAC 3 standard…” (The United Arab Emirates is following in the footsteps of Saudi Arabia – the destruction of Iran and its nuclear installation.)

SpaceDaily.com reports: “While intelligence assessments consistently paint a grim portrait of thousands of missiles and rockets showering down on Israel’s civilian population and infrastructure in the future, the Jewish state unveils its next-generation missile-defense system.

Arrow III, an interceptor designed to knock out ballistic missiles, has until now been shrouded in secrecy. A full-scale model was put on display at the second annual International Aerospace Conference and Exhibition held in Jerusalem.

In line with the perception that the upgrading of existing systems is a never-ending process in light of changing threats, the engineers who are developing Arrow III have been tasked with achieving a daunting technological feat: creating a booster-rigged kamikaze satellite that will collide with incoming long-range ballistic missiles beyond Earth’s atmosphere with pinpoint accuracy…

Following the aftermath of the 2006 Lebanon war, in which an estimated 4,000 Katyusha rockets and mortars slammed into northern Israel, the country’s best and brightest engineers were recruited in a national mission to come up with countermeasures…

At the government-sponsored conference, missile defense program directors were each given 15 minutes to update an audience of military and civilian professionals on the progression of leading missile-defense systems.

Some are already operational, while other systems are still under development and slated to be operationally ready in the coming years. The Israeli missile-defense concept presented here is described as a multi-tier active air defense (MTAD), a network which aims to provide a comprehensive shield against a multitude of threats on several fronts.

At the lowest tier of MTAD is Iron Dome, which intercepts rockets at ranges of 5 to 70 km. Rafael developed the system in record time ‘about two-and-a-half years from the drawing board to the operational stage,’ said defense officials…” (Israel will definitely use their advanced systems as she and Yahweh God sends fire against Magog [Russia] and her allies – Ezekiel 38, 39; Daniel 11:40; Isaiah 17:1; Ezekiel 38:5-7; Psalm 83:5-7.)

SpaceDaily.com reports: “Russia moved tactical nuclear warheads to within miles of its borders with NATO countries as recently as late spring, complicating US ties with Moscow, a report said as Congress mulled a new arms control treaty.

The Wall Street Journal cited US officials who described the movements and cautioned that they ran afoul of pledges Moscow made as early as 1991 to remove the weapons from outposts near Eastern European NATO allies such as Poland.

US diplomatic cables out of Moscow leaked just before the Journal report highlighted a flurry of negotiations between the two former Cold War adversaries over their nuclear stockpiles, tactical weapons and a controversial US-NATO missile defense system in countries that border Russia.

US Senator John McCain, the top Republican on the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, said the report was cause for concern.

‘It’s very disturbing because it’s a violation of a commitment they made back in 1991, and they did not inform us,’ McCain told AFP.

‘It argues for a strict verification on any treaty, any agreement on which we’re engaged.’

The Russian deployment of the weapons — which unnamed officials said has been expanded several times in recent years — was being seen as an apparent hedge against the US-NATO missile defense system.

…Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned that failure by Russia and the West to agree on a new missile shield for Europe could spark ‘a new round of the arms race’ that would see Moscow deploy new weapons systems…” (We will face Russia at the mid-point of the 7 year campaign of Armageddon – Revelation 16:16; Ezekiel 31:1, 2, 13, and 16. See also the next report.)

BBC News reports: “Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said a new arms race could begin in the next decade if NATO and Moscow fail to agree on a joint missile shield.

In his annual speech to the nation, he said he had advocated a ‘fully fledged joint mechanism of co-operation’ at a recent NATO-Russia summit.

On domestic issues, Mr. Medvedev argued for families of three children or more to stem Russia’s population decline.

Confounding expectations, he did not talk about his own political future.

With less than two years to the next presidential ballot, many believe his powerful predecessor, Vladimir Putin, will seek to return to the Kremlin in his place.

Mr. Putin, who was among the audience for the speech, has been serving as prime minister since leaving office in 2008.

Just a few days before the speech, in his video blog, Mr. Medvedev warned Russia was in danger of ‘political stagnation’ if it did not create a more level playing field for opposition parties.

Analysts have been wondering if this was a deliberate criticism of the political system largely built by Mr. Putin while president.

After the NATO-Russia summit in Lisbon earlier, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced that Russia had agreed to co-operate on NATO’s programme to defend against ballistic missile attacks.

‘For the first time the two sides will be co-operating to defend themselves,’ he said.

…President Medvedev said a joint shield would combine ‘the potentials of Russia and NATO and ensure the protection of all European countries from missile threats’…” (This headline is already in progress in Russia.)