NATO officials have concluded the alliance’s final report on the NATO Missile Defense Feasibility Study, releasing it to NATO armament directors last week. It represents nearly four years of analysis on how to defend the alliance’s forces and territory from all kinds of ballistic missile threats. The 10,000-page study was developed by an international collection of industries, led by the American company Science Applications International Corp. There was no official release of study details, but NATO has said that it expects to field a capability to protect troops against short and medium range ballistic missiles by 2010.
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…