IRAN
Iran Nuclear Weapon to Take Year or More, Obama Says
Michael Shear and David Sanger, The New York Times – March 15, 2013
President Obama told an Israeli television station on Thursday that his administration believed it would take Iran “over a year or so” to develop a nuclear weapon, and he vowed that the United States would do whatever was necessary to prevent that from happening. Less than a week before his first visit as president to Israel, Mr. Obama pledged to continue diplomatic efforts, but he promised that the United States would keep all options on the table to ensure that Iran did not become a nuclear threat to its neighbors.
Analysis: Obama won’t trip over Netanyahu’s Iran “red line”
Dan Williams, Reuters – March 15, 2013
President Barack Obama visits Israel next week at the onset of spring – the “red line” previously drawn by his host, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to trigger an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites. But an Israeli-Iranian war, Washington’s nightmare as it tries to scale back defense commitments abroad and avoid a draining Gulf oil crisis, does not appear trip-wire imminent.
NORTH KOREA
North Korea Sees South and U.S. Behind Cyberstrikes
Choe Sang-hun, The New York Times – March 15, 2013
North Korea, a country paranoid about perceived threats from the outside world, said on Friday that it had found new foreign invaders: hackers from the United States and its allies shutting down the North’s Web sites, the country’s main tool of spreading propaganda abroad.
North Korea launches missile: Source
Yonhap News Agency, Global Post – March 15, 2013
North Korea fired off short-range missiles into the East Sea on Friday amid heightened tension following its February nuclear test, a military source in Seoul said. “A North Korean military unit on drill test-fired two shots of short-range missiles, presumed to be KN-02 missiles, into the East Sea” the source said.
In TV interview, Obama alludes to dialogue with North Korea
Park Hyun, The Hankyoreh – March 15, 2013
On Mar. 13 (EST), US President Barack Obama appeared on TV and delivered a direct message to North Korea. The message expressed the forward-looking position that if North Korea takes measures to establish trust by ending nuclear testing and missile launches, the US will respond in kind.
MISSILE DEFENSE
US to beef up missile defence after North Korea’s provocative nuclear threats
Daily New & Analysis – March 15, 2013
The Pentagon is beefing up America’s missile defense in the wake of provocative nuclear threats from North Korea. Pentagon is also all set to deploy 14 additional ground-based interceptors at missile silos in Alaska and California, congressional and US officials have said.
Raytheon’s Datalink: A New Naval Standard for the Standard?
Defense Industry Daily – March 14, 2013
On September 2011, Raytheon announced external link successful testing for a prototype dual-band datalink, allowing ships that use either Lockheed Martin’s SPY-1 external link/ AEGIS external link system, or Thales Nederland’s APAR external link radars, to employ the full range of long-range Standard Missiles for air defense.
