Twin FMS deals support ballistic missile defence in Saudi Arabia and UAE
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are requesting missile defence equipment from the US under the FMS programme.
Space payloads usually cost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars and their loss can be a huge setback for their operators. Launcher reliability is often quoted in excess of 99.9%; that might sound excellent but any failure is problematic.
To get a reasonable fraction of the lift off mass into orbit, the systems, particularly the engines, have to be run close to failure. There is little margin for faults in either manufacture or assembly.
On 4 July, the 13th Electron mission from Rocket Lab failed after first-stage separation. The rocket was carrying an experimental imaging satellite built by Canon,
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Saudi Arabia and the UAE are requesting missile defence equipment from the US under the FMS programme.
India's new defence budget sees slow but steady growth for the coming year, despite the tensions it is experiencing with China and Pakistan.
Strategic competition and climate change were highlighted as the primary security threats for New Zealand in a recently issued report.
Latvia's Minister of Defence has stressed the need to raise the military budget amid ongoing Russian aggression.
The US GAO has released a report pointing out that the MDA's cost estimates for systems that detect, track and defeat missiles are incomplete.
The Polish MoD has introduced organisational reforms as it strives to make defence procurement processes smoother — but without broader political consensus, attempts at reform could fall flat.