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Raytheon wins $985M contract to develop hypersonic missiles

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force on Thursday awarded a $985 million contract to Raytheon Technologies to develop and demonstrate scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missiles .

The contract starts to move the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, or HACM, program out of the prototyping phase and into becoming an operational weapon that could be used in combat. It also cuts the number of companies vying to make the weapon from three to one.

Under the deal, the HACM program will take Raytheon’s prototype design and prepare it to be integrated into a fighter aircraft that could then be used in combat, the Air Force said in a release Thursday. Raytheon will also deliver two HACMs, the release said.

The Air Force said HACM will be an air-launched standoff weapon that can hit high-value targets in contested environments and could be fired from beyond the reach of enemy air defenses. The service hopes to have a HACM weapon that could be used in combat by fiscal 2027.

Hypersonic weapons such as the HACM can fly multiple times the speed of sound and can maneuver mid-flight, making them hard for enemies to track and shoot down.

In a future war against an adversary with advanced air defenses, such as China, the weapon could be used to strike valuable targets well within those defenses and otherwise out of reach. A fighter armed with such a weapon could fly to the edge of where the adversary’s defenses could reach and then fire the weapon. Once the HACM’s scramjet pushes the aircraft to about Mach 5, it could then outrun and evade air defenses on its way to the target, without putting the fighter pilot at risk.

“HACM is a powerful example of developing and integrating combat capabilities alongside our partners from the beginning,” Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown said in the release. “HACM will provide our commanders with tactical flexibility to employ fighters to hold high-value, time-sensitive targets at risk, while maintaining bombers for other strategic targets.”

The contract marks the end of more than a year of competition between major defense contractors to prove their concept will work.

The Air Force and Australia teamed up in 2020 to develop air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile prototypes under a bilateral project arrangement called the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment, or SCIFiRE.

In June 2021, the Air Force awarded 15-month SCIFiRE contracts to Raytheon, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin to finish their preliminary designs for a hypersonic cruise missile.

The Air Force said in Thursday’s release the U.S. and Australia will keep collaborating on HACM’s design and development under the SCIFiRE agreement.

Part of this continued collaboration will include using Australia’s test infrastructure for HACM’s first all-up-round flight tests.

A lack of sufficient infrastructure to test hypersonics has been a major hindrance for developing these weapons in the United States, industry officials told Pentagon leaders earlier this year. Lawmakers and DoD officials have sought to expand American testing capabilities to fix this.

Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.

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DARPA taps Raytheon for next phase of air-breathing hypersonic program

By Mikayla Easley

July 17, 2023

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has selected Raytheon and its partner Northrop Grumman to continue the development and maturation of its scramjet-powered hypersonic missile known as the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapons Concept (HAWC).

Raytheon received an $81 million contract to work on the More Opportunities with the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept, or MoHAWC, the Pentagon announced Saturday . The new effort is a successor to the HAWC program — a joint initiative between DARPA and the Air Force to develop and demonstrate an air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile — that wrapped up in January with its final successful flight test.

The follow-on effort aims to continue development, integration and demonstration of technologies to prove the effectiveness and efficiency of air-launched hypersonic cruise missiles, Salvatore Buccellato, DARPA program manager, told DefenseScoop in an email.

“These technologies include advancing hydrocarbon scramjet-powered propulsion operation, upgrading aircraft integration algorithms, and improving manufacturing approaches,” Buccellato wrote.

Under the new contract, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman will build and fly additional HAWC flight vehicles, applying data and lessons learned during the original program to mature the weapon’s design, a company press release said. The team will add manufacturing improvements to the original vehicle’s design and flight tests to “expand its operating envelope while validating system performance models,” the release added.

DARPA’s budget request for fiscal 2024 includes $30 million for MoHAWC. The program’s estimated deadline is January 2026, according to the contract announcement.

MoHAWC is one of the many hypersonic weapons programs currently underway within the Pentagon. Able to travel at speeds of Mach 5 or greater through the atmosphere and maneuver mid-flight, hypersonic missiles are much harder to detect and intercept when compared to conventional ballistic missiles that fly predictable flight paths.

Raytheon served as a prime contractor for DARPA’s original HAWC program and conducted several flight tests of a missile propelled by a Northrop Grumman air-breathing propulsion system. Also called a scramjet, air-breathing engines achieve hypersonic flight by pulling oxygen in from the atmosphere.

“We applied learnings from each successful HAWC flight test to ensure that it is the most sophisticated system of its kind,” Colin Whelan, president of Advanced Technology for Raytheon, said Monday in a statement. “Continuing this important program will expand our knowledge of hypersonic flight and allow us to deliver the critical capability our warfighters need.”

Lockheed Martin also worked on the HAWC program, partnering with Aerojet Rocketdyne. However, Buccellato confirmed to DefenseScoop that Raytheon will be the only performer on the follow-on MoHAWC effort. 

While HAWC was a joint effort with the Air Force, MoHAWC will bring in both the Air Force and the Navy for collaboration “to meet future technology insertion dates for service programs of record,” Buccellato noted.

The Air Force has two different hypersonic programs: the Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) and the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM). After ARRW failed an all-up-round prototype test in March, the service decided to scrap its procurement plans for the weapon and instead focus on the more successful HACM.

Raytheon is also the prime contractor for HACM and received a $985 million contract from the Air Force in September. Like HAWC, the weapon is a cruise missile — which the service has had a bit more success with compared to boost-glide hypersonics such as ARRW . The airframe and engine designs of HAWC are very close to HACM’s, meaning that program will also directly benefit from MoHAWC’s advancements, according to Raytheon.

The Navy, however, has focused its hypersonic development efforts on Conventional Prompt Strike — a sea-launched weapon to be installed on Zumwalt-class destroyers in fiscal 2025 and Virginia-class submarines in fiscal 2028. The sea service is also pursuing the Hypersonic Air Launched Offensive Anti-Surface (HALO) weapon, although Navy program managers have indicated the weapon might not actually reach hypersonic speeds .

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DARPA’s HAWC scramjet missile completes first free flight test

The test was conducted last week in partnership with the US Air Force.

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The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has completed the first free flight test of its scramjet-powered Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) missile.

During the test flight, the Raytheon Missiles & Defense-built HAWC missile was released from an aircraft.

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After a few seconds, the missile’s Northrop Grumman scramjet engine ignited and propelled it at a speed greater than Mach 5.

During this process, the supersonic combustion ramjet engine uses high vehicle speed to forcefully compress incoming air mixed with its hydrocarbon fuel before igniting the speeding airflow mixture to reach hypersonic flight.

The test validates HAWC’s airframe and propulsion system ability to cruise at hypersonic speeds.

The latest step marks a major milestone toward potentially delivering a cruise missile prototype system to the US Department of Defense (DoD) that can travel at more than five times the speed of sound.

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Travelling at these speeds will allow hypersonic weapons such as HAWC to reach their targets more quickly when compared to traditional missiles.

DARPA Tactical Technology Office HAWC programme manager Andrew Knoedler said: “The HAWC free flight test was a successful demonstration of the capabilities that will make hypersonic cruise missiles a highly effective tool for our warfighters.

“This brings us one step closer to transitioning HAWC to a programme of record that offers next-generation capability to the US military.”

In June 2019, Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman signed a teaming agreement to develop, produce and integrate Northrop’s scramjet engines into Raytheon’s air-breathing hypersonic weapons.

Raytheon Missiles and Defense advanced technology vice-president Colin Whelan said: “This is a history-making moment, and this success paves the way for an affordable, long-range hypersonic system in the near term to strengthen national security.

“This test proves we can deliver the first operational hypersonic scramjet, providing a significant increase in warfighting capabilities.”

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Lockheed Martin’s new hypersonic missile can fit inside the F-22

• By Alex Hollings
• July 23, 2024

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Lockheed Martin has released new details about the air-launched hypersonic Mako missile, which promises to be the first hypersonic weapon in the world that can be launched from the internal weapons bay of not just the F-35, but the F-22 Raptor as well.

This new missile has been under development for seven years and has been touted by Lockheed officials as a “multi-mission” weapon system capable of maritime strike, counter-air defense, and a variety of other surface-attack operations. It was originally developed for the U.S. Air Force, but now may find a home with the U.S. Navy instead.

Hypersonic missiles are weapons that are capable of achieving sustained speeds in excess of Mach 5 while maneuvering. But while speed may draw most of the headlines, it’s the combination of velocity and unpredictable course changes that make these weapons so difficult to intercept.

“Mako does not travel in a pure arcing ballistic flight path. It is a true hypersonic weapon that operates and maneuvers in a high-altitude hypersonic regime,” Paul Sudlow from Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control previously told Sandboxx News. “Its high speed and maneuverability enable it to penetrate advanced air-defense systems, engaging targets at or below hypersonic speeds, depending on mission requirements,” he added.

Adding the Mako missile to America’s stealth fighters

The Mako missile was developed under the auspices of the Air Force’s Stand-In Attack Weapon program. A total of some $35 million was awarded to Lockheed Martin in three separate developmental contracts (associated with developmental phases  1.1 ,  1.2 , and  1.3 ). The aim was to field a weapon that could effectively engage China’s anti-access/area denial assets in the Pacific – so the weapon has to be quick, powerful, and survivable.

Hypersonic missiles are traditionally too large to fit inside the internal weapons bays of stealth fighters. This is because they usually require a large rocket motor and sufficient fuel stores to carry them to high speeds and altitudes. They then separate from the booster and continue on unpowered or under an alternate form of propulsion (as is the case with the Air Force’s scramjet-powered Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile).

The Mako missile’s ability to be launched from within America’s stealth fighters dramatically increases the potential vectors the weapon can attack from, substantially complicating matters for air defenses tasked with identifying and intercepting inbound threats. Intercepting a maneuvering Mach 5+ weapon launched from a fighter or bomber you can see on radar might be an extremely difficult proposition today for even the most advanced air defense systems, but intercepting one from seemingly anywhere would be even harder.

As Sudlow told Sandboxx News today, this high-speed weapon is also designed to allow for stealth aircraft, like America’s 5th-generation fighters, to fly out ahead, locate a target, and then relay that target data back to Mako-armed 4th-generation fighters carrying Lockheed Martin’s Sniper Networked Targeting Pod for engagement. This will allow older 4th-generation platforms to play a vital role in combat operations, even against targets in highly contested airspace, and further increase the destructive capabilities of 5th-generation jets.

To this end, Sudlow also confirmed that the Mako missile has already been fit-checked to be carried externally by the F/A-18 Super Hornet, EA-18G Growler, F-15E Strike Eagle, F-16C Fighting Falcon, and even the P-8A Poseidon. In effect, Lockheed Martin designed this weapon to be carried by nearly any aircraft in the U.S. arsenal carrying fairly standard 30-inch lugs.

That means the Mako missile could be another new long-range weapon in the Navy’s arsenal, alongside its recently revealed AIM-174B air-to-air missile . Both Mako and the AIM-174B are believed to offer ranges well into the hundreds of miles, meaning these two weapons could provide a significant long-range one-two punch against air- and sea-based targets. Lockheed Martin even says the Mako missile could be fired from the vertical launch tubes on the Navy’s warships if equipped with a booster, similar to what’s been done with the AGM-158C LRASM.

Nevertheless, in the long run, this weapon could find its way back to the Air Force – assuming the Navy opts to put Mako into production. This could see it carried by 4th-generation fighters supporting forward F-22 or F-35 operations, or even see it carried internally by the F-22 Raptor itself – which is still the stealthiest fighter ever to reach service.

The weapon can also be carried internally by the Air Force’s F-35As and Navy and Marine Corps F-35Cs. The only American stealth aircraft that can’t fit this new missile is the vertical landing F-35B, as its internal storage capacity is limited by the presence of the aircraft’s lifting fan.

Named after the fastest shark in the sea

Mako was originally developed as a part of the U.S. Air Force’s  Stand-In Attack Weapon  (SiAW) program. That effort aimed to field an air-launched weapon meant specifically to counter elements of anti-access area denial defenses like air defense radar platforms, surface-to-air missile systems, and anti-ship missile launchers. That contract ultimately went to Northrop Grumman for a new missile system derived from its radar-hunting AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile-Extended Range (AARGM-ER).

But Lockheed Martin recognized that its entry to the competition could have much further reaching implications than the suppression of enemy air defenses alone. As such, the company is pitching this new missile design to the Navy as a multi-purpose air-to-surface weapon.

“For the U.S. Navy, this is a multi-mission, highly capable system, highly survivable, affordable, so you’re going to hold many targets at risk with one weapons system that’s ready now,” Rick Loy, Senior Program Manager at the company’s Missile and Fire Control division told  Naval News .

Its name, Mako , is derived from the world’s fastest shark, the Shortfin Mako, which is capable of swimming as fast as 45 miles per hour (74 kilometers per hour). It’s a fitting name for a weapon that’s capable of screaming across the sky at better than 3,836 miles per hour.

At 13 feet, the missile is, appropriately enough, about as long as a Mako shark might grow. At 1,300 pounds and about 13 inches in diameter, this broadly capable missile is only about an inch longer than the AIM-120 AMRAAM that America’s stealth fighters were designed to carry; though Mako comes with significantly more heft, at nearly twice the AMRAAM’s diameter and more than three times the weight.

Designed in a ‘digital engineering ecosystem’

This new Mach 5+ missile was among Lockheed Martin’s first to be designed from the ground up entirely within a digital environment, which is in keeping with broader Pentagon efforts to use digital design and testing to reduce the real-world costs associated with testing and design revisions. By designing and then testing the weapon in the digital world first, Lockheed Martin can produce a much more mature design at the onset of operational testing.

Likewise, despite the high level of capability promised by this new weapon, Lockheed went out of its way not to invent any unnecessary components. Instead, when possible, it pulled from several already-fielded systems with existing and proven supply chains to reduce the number of variables that could potentially affect a production order. As Lockheed Martin’s press materials point out, the firm also brought manufacturing engineers in at the earliest stages of development to help streamline the sometimes messy transition from advanced prototyping to serialized production.

Lockheed Martin has not been specific about the guidance system carried inside the Mako, but that could be by design. The weapon’s original intended mission set for the Stand-in Attack Role suggested the use of a multi-mode seeker that would likely include anti-radiation (radar-hunting) capabilities alongside GPS/inertial guidance and potentially a millimeter-wave radar seeker to boot, allowing the weapon to close with just about any target on the surface of the earth whether moving or stationary. Yet, as Lockheed Martin has pointed out in promotional materials, the Mako was specifically designed with modularity in mind, allowing for the “rapid integration of mission-specific elements like warheads and seekers.”

Further, Lockheed specified that this modular design fully embraces the concept of open system architecture, meaning the Pentagon would not be beholden to the firm for future upgrades or updates. This is in keeping with force-wide Pentagon initiatives to field a new generation of weapon systems and platforms that are easier (and cheaper) to upgrade over decade-spanning service lives that are common for many of today’s military technologies.

Making hypersonics affordable?

One of the biggest challenges facing the laundry list of hypersonic weapons in active development for the U.S. military is cost. In 2021, the Defense Department projected that some of America’s hypersonic missiles may cost as much as $106 million per weapon – more than the purchase price of a brand-new F-35 – leading many to argue that these missiles simply aren’t economically viable. As a result, significant efforts to reduce the overall cost of these weapon systems have been underway for some time, with more recent assessments out of the Congressional Budget Office now projecting the per-unit cost of another Lockheed Martin-sourced hypersonic missile, the AGM-183 ARRW, at roughly $15-$18 million a piece.

And Mako continues this pursuit of cost savings by leaning into new additive manufacturing – or 3D printing – technologies. The Mako missile’s guidance section and fins are all produced through this additive manufacturing process, which Lockheed claims is ten times faster than traditional production methods while coming in at just 1/10 the cost.

Lockheed Martin has not disclosed the price point for this weapon, but it would certainly be predicated on projected order size, which would be impossible to assume at this point, with no contract yet in place for any branch to purchase this new weapon.

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Fighters now carry unprecedented firepower in the sky.

• This month, the U.S. Navy revealed that the SM-6 missile is now operational on Super Hornet fighter jets.
• SM-6 was originally designed as a ship-based air defense missile—now, it’s the world’s longest-range air-to-air missile.
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Earlier this month, the aviation world was rocked with the revelation that the SM-6 air defense missile, previously used to arm warships, had made its way to arm Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike fighters. The result was suddenly the world’s longest-range air-to-air missile, outdistancing its Russian and Chinese counterparts by a wide margin. The missile’s success will likely lead to other pairings that take advantage of America’s deep arsenal of high-tech weapons.

Just one month later, on the eve of the multinational Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises in Hawaii, another photographer caught a Super Hornet at Joint Base Hickam-Pearl Harbor with two of what the Navy now calls the XAIM-147B—the air-launched SM-6. In an email to FlightGlobal , the service confirmed that the XAIM-174B was “operationally deployed” with the fleet, meaning it’s ready for combat, a step much further along than observers outside the Navy originally believed.

Adapting the XAIM-147B to arm fighter jets has a number of advantages. For starters, the missile was already developed and ready to go, and the Navy also already had a concept of operation, or how it would use the missile in combat. Lastly, there was already a production line set up to build what was then called the SM-6, shaving months or even years off the time it takes to get the missiles to the fleet.

This leap in capability was only possible because the U.S. military already had a missile, developed for other platforms, that could be adapted to fighter jets. America’s military-industrial complex's vast pool of weapons means this sort of adaptive innovation will almost certainly happen again.

HARMs and “FrankenSAMs”

The war in Ukraine, and the need to supply the Ukrainian military with equipment to beat back the Russian army, has resulted in similar surprise adaptations of American equipment. American HARM anti-radar missiles, designed during the Cold War to hunt down Soviet air defense radars, were adapted to ex-Soviet Su-27 “Flanker” and MiG-29 “Fulcrum” fighter jets flown by Ukraine’s Air Force. Though they were once thought totally incompatible, someone somehow made the combo of Soviet and American avionics systems fit like a glove.

In another example, Czech and Polish engineers successfully integrated American missiles with Ukraine’s aging Buk air defense systems. The upgraded Buks, nicknamed “ FrankenSAMs ,” are armed with Sea Sparrow missiles, designed to protect American warships from air attacks, and Sidewinder air-to-air missiles to take down Russian drones and other aerial threats.

One of the most dramatic adaptations was Ukraine’s use of Stinger missiles to shoot down Russian cruise missiles. The FIM-92 Stinger is a short-range, shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile designed to engage fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. In August 2023, a Ukrainian air defense crewman shot down a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile. The Kh-101 is a subsonic missile designed, much like the American Tomahawk, to fly low and evade enemy air defenses. That puts it in the engagement envelope of missiles like Stinger. While it was theoretically possible, no one predicted such an engagement might actually happen.

What’s Next?

The Russia-Ukraine war caught most of the world by surprise, and as a result, Ukraine’s allies have scrambled to arm the country with a hodgepodge of both new and old weapons. A Chinese invasion of Taiwan, however, is widely predicted. What kind of innovative weapons could the U.S. develop and deploy to help beat back a Chinese attack?

A Chinese invasion would succeed or fail based on its ability to deliver large numbers of troops across the 121-mile wide Taiwan Strait. Sea mines, laid in the path of the invaders, would both sink troop transports and throw a monkey wrench in the People’s Liberation Army’s timetable, as it struggled to identify, avoid, or clear the minefields. In peacetime, however, mines are a hazard to civilian ships, especially in and around ports whose capture would be vital to the war effort.

One possible solution is a rocket-delivered sea mine that combines two existing American weapon systems. The U.S. Navy’s Quickstrike mine is an ordinary aircraft bomb fitted with a ship-detecting fuze. The Saab/Boeing Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) is an ordinary aircraft bomb fitted with the JDAM satellite guidance package, pop-out glider wings and rocket motor. GLSBD is launched from M142 HIMARS rocket trucks made famous in Ukraine and has a range of up to 93 miles.

The combination of Quickstrike and GLSDB would make for a potent new weapon system: an instantly deployable minefield that could be laid moments after Taiwanese officials sounded the alarm. A platoon of four HIMARS rocket trucks could lay up to 24 mines in a minute or less, creating an instant no-go zone for the Chinese Navy.

A rocket-delivered minefield would also eliminate the risk standing minefields pose to civilian shipping in peacetime, seeding the field only when absolutely necessary. Thanks to GPS, the Taiwanese Army would know exactly where the mines are, ensuring they could be retrieved once the war was over.

As China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran all ramp up aggressive activities, there is no shortage of threats to the U.S. and its allies, from ballistic missiles to invasion fleets. Many of these threats may not need entirely new weapon systems to counter them. A little imagination could turn a pair of existing weapons, like Super Hornet fighters and the SM-6 missile, into the military equivalent of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: two great tastes that go great together ... and also manage to deter a war from actually happening.

Kyle Mizokami is a writer on defense and security issues and has been at Popular Mechanics since 2015. If it involves explosions or projectiles, he's generally in favor of it. Kyle’s articles have appeared at The Daily Beast, U.S. Naval Institute News, The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, Combat Aircraft Monthly, VICE News , and others. He lives in San Francisco.

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Treasury targets prc-based procurement network supporting dprk ballistic missile and space programs.

WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned a network of six individuals and five entities based in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), involved in the procurement of items supporting the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) ballistic missile and space programs. In flagrant violation of multiple United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolutions (UNSCR), the DPRK has continued to conduct launches using ballistic missile technology, including a recent failed effort to place a military satellite into orbit in late May 2024. Moreover, the DPRK has supplied ballistic missiles to the Russian Federation, which continues to target civilian population centers and infrastructure in Ukraine, sustaining Russia’s brutal and unprovoked war.

For its part, Russia has vetoed the renewal of the UN Panel of Experts tasked with monitoring for violations of DPRK-related UNSCR sanctions, making it easier for the DPRK and other actors to evade UN sanctions. Today’s action reaffirms that the relevant UNSCRs remain in full force and reiterates the United States’ commitment to countering sanctions evasion and strengthening efforts for enforcement.

“The DPRK’s continued development and proliferation its of ballistic missile technologies—in violation of UN sanctions—is both irresponsible and destabilizing for both the region and the international community,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. “The United States remains committed to using our tools to enforce these international sanctions, including disrupting the illicit procurement networks that provide key inputs for these technologies and holding accountable those who seek to enable these activities.”

Today’s action was taken pursuant to Executive Order 13382 (E.O. 13382), which targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their supporters. This action builds on OFAC’s  June 15, 2023 designation of Choe Chol Min, a Beijing-based representative of the DPRK’s Second Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS). OFAC designated Choe Chol Min pursuant to E.O. 13382 for acting or purporting to act for or on behalf of SANS, an entity whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13382. SANS was designated by the U.S. Department of State on August 30, 2010, pursuant to E.O. 13382 for materially contributing to the DPRK’s WMD programs; it was also designated for a UN asset freeze on March 7, 2013. SANS has subordinate defense-related procurement and proliferation entities that it uses to obtain commodities and technology to support the DPRK’s defense research and development programs.

DPRK PROCUREMENT OF FOREIGN ITEMS

The DPRK’s ballistic missile and space programs rely on foreign-sourced materials and components that it cannot produce domestically. To procure these materials and components, the DPRK uses an extensive network of procurement agents overseas, including officials who operate from DPRK diplomatic missions or trade offices, as well as third-country nationals. The DPRK also leverages foreign-incorporated companies to purchase items in support of its ballistic missile and weapons production. These companies consolidate and repackage items for onward shipment to the DPRK, concealing the true end-user from the manufacturers and distributors of the items. 

SANS representative Choe Chol Min has worked with DPRK weapons trading officials, PRC nationals, and other associates to purchase and procure a range of items, including items known to be materials used in the production of DPRK ballistic missiles. Choe Chol Min received procurement requests from the DPRK and coordinated with associates to fulfill those orders.

THE SHI QIANPEI NETWORK

Shi Qianpei is a Chinese national and key facilitator for Choe Chol Min. Shi Qianpei worked with Choe Chol Min to procure various items, including metal sheets that are known to be used in the production of North Korean missiles, according to the  North Korea Ballistic Missile Procurement Advisory . 

Choe Chol Min also worked to procure sensitive electronics through Shi Qianpei. Shi Qianpei’s employees Du Jiaxin and Wang Dongliang assisted with the procurement efforts. Chen Tianxin , Shi Qianpei’s wife, acted as his business partner and was involved in his procurement activities for Choe Chol Min. Shi Anhui is Shi Qianpei’s father and has also been involved in aiding DPRK procurement activity. As late as 2023, Shi Qianpei fulfilled procurement requests from Choe Chol Min for electronic devices, including the acquisition of items likely intended to support the DPRK space and satellite program. 

• Shi Qianpei   is being designated for providing, or attempting to provide, financial, material, technological or other support for, or goods or services in support of, Choe Chol Min, an individual whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13382.  
• Du Jiaxin, Wang Dongliang, Chen Tianxin, and Shi Anhui   are being designated for providing, or attempting to provide, financial, material, technological or other support for, or goods or services in support of, Shi Qianpei, an individual whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13382.  

Beijing Sanshunda Electronics Science and Technology Co., Ltd . (Beijing Sanshunda), Qidong Hengcheng Electronics Factory (Qidong Hengcheng), and Shenzhen City Mean Well Electronics Co., Ltd (Shenzhen City Mean Well) are companies used by Shi Qianpei and his associates to procure items and materials on behalf of Choe Chol Min. 

Chen Tianxin is the legal representative, chief executive officer, and manager of Beijing Sanshunda. Chen Tianxin is also the legal representative and chief executive officer of Beijing Jinghua Qidi Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (Beijing Jinghua Qidi), a company in which Wang Dongliang serves as a board member. 

Shi Anhui is the legal representative, manager, and sole shareholder of Qidong Hengcheng. Shi Anhui is also the legal representative and majority owner of Shenzhen City Mean Well, a company in which Shi Qianpei is a member of the board of supervisors. 

• Beijing Sanshunda and Beijing Jinghua Qidi   are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13382 for being owned or controlled by, or acting or purporting to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Chen Tianxin, a person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13382.  
• Qidong Hengcheng   and Shenzhen City Mean Well   are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13382 for being owned or controlled by, or acting or purporting to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Shi Anhui, an individual whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13382. 

Han Dejian is a supplier of metal alloys sheets via his company,  Yidatong Tianjin Metal Materials Co., Ltd.  (Yidatong). Shi Qianpei relied on Han Dejian for his metal material orders. As late as 2023, Shi Qianpei received procurement requests for metal alloys from Choe Chol Min that were then fulfilled by Han Dejian. 

• Han Dejian is being designated for providing, or attempting to provide, financial, material, technological or other support for, or goods or services in support of, Shi Qianpei, an individual whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13382. 
• Yidatong   is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13382 for being owned or controlled by, or acting acted or purporting to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Han Dejian, an individual whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13382.

Han Dejian and Yidatong were previously sanctioned by the U.S. Department of State  on May 20, 2024 pursuant to the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act (INKSNA). INKSNA provides for the imposition of measures on entities or individuals for the transfer to or acquisition from Iran, Syria, or North Korea of equipment or technology controlled under multilateral export control lists or otherwise having the potential to make a material contribution to the proliferation of WMD or cruise or ballistic missile systems.

SANCTIONS IMPLICATIONS

As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons. 

In addition, financial institutions and other persons that engage in certain transactions or activities with the sanctioned entities and individuals may expose themselves to sanctions or be subject to an enforcement action. The prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any designated person, or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person. 

Non-U.S. persons are also prohibited from causing or conspiring to cause U.S. persons to wittingly or unwittingly violate U.S. sanctions, as well as engaging in conduct that evades U.S. sanctions. OFAC’s  Economic Sanctions Enforcement Guidelines provide more information regarding OFAC’s enforcement of U.S. sanctions, including the factors that OFAC generally considers when determining an appropriate response to an apparent violation.

The power and integrity of OFAC sanctions derive not only from OFAC’s ability to designate and add persons to the SDN List, but also from its willingness to remove persons from the SDN List consistent with the law. The ultimate goal of sanctions is not to punish, but to bring about a positive change in behavior. For information concerning the process for seeking removal from an OFAC list, including the SDN List, please refer to  OFAC’s Frequently Asked Question 897 here .  For detailed information on the process to submit a request for removal from an OFAC sanctions list, please click here.

Click here for more information on the individuals and entities designated today.

The war in Ukraine has 'opened Pandora's box' in Europe, and now new strike weapons are on the way, nuclear-weapons expert says

• The US plans to deploy long-range weapons in Europe, and its allies are bolstering their arsenals.
• The war in Ukraine has opened "Pandora's box" for these capabilities, a nuclear-weapons expert says.
• NATO and Russia are entering dangerous territory with risk of escalation.

In its brutal war against Ukraine, Russia has used theater ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as one-way attack drones, to hammer Ukrainian cities, and there's been a recognition that Russia could fight the West with capabilities the latter has let atrophy.

These deep strikes and other elements of the war have been eye-opening for Europe and the US, opening "Pandora's box" for more military capabilities, an expert in nuclear weapons and arms control told Business Insider. New weapons and deployments are coming, raising concerns of escalation not seen since the Cold War .

Earlier this month, the US and several NATO allies announced multiple plans relating to long-range strike capabilities.

First, the US said it would place new long-range fires in Germany beginning in 2026 with episodic deployments "as part of planning for enduring stationing of these capabilities in the future." The conventional weapons include the SM-6, the Tomahawk, and developmental hypersonic weapons, "which have significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe."

Not long after, several European nations signed a joint initiative to develop new ground-launched cruise missiles . At the time, France's defense minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said it was "clearly a segment we don't have." Poland, Germany, and Italy also agreed to the plan and said they intended to bring in more allies.

These plans signal the US and some of its biggest European allies are all in on long-range weapons, and some officials are directly attributing the moves to what's happening on the battlefield in Ukraine. "The war in Ukraine shows that long-range strikes are a key issue for the defense of Europe," Lecornu posted on X .

The war has exposed vulnerabilities and capability gaps for Europe in the face of Russian aggression.

"These countries knew that long-range weapons were important even before Russia invaded Ukraine, but Russia's war in Ukraine has opened Pandora's Box to more and more military steps," Hans Kristensen, the director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, said.

Conventional long-range strike capabilities are useful for engaging targets deep within enemy territory . They can make a huge difference operationally and strategically, especially if used to cut off enemy logistics and command centers. Their presence is threatening enough to potentially deter aggression.

A challenge is that these weapon systems risk escalation, both in their presence and use. Kristensen said there was a risk of "tit-for-tat escalation posturing." These weapons can also be used at a moment's notice, and they can cause confusion for a nuclear power uncertain of the payload.

For decades, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the US and Russia prohibited the development of ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers in order to prevent either side from escalating tensions into full-blown conflict. The treaty was an important landmark in keeping these weapons off the European continent — but the US withdrew in 2019 after it accused Moscow of violating the 1987 pact by developing, testing, and fielding the SSC-8/9M729 missile system.

Moscow denied the allegations and later pulled out of the treaty as well, immediately opening the floodgates for both sides to ramp up the development of new missiles.

Deep-strike weapons

Poland, Germany, France, and Italy's new long-range missile plans follow work in the US to quickly develop new long-range strike systems. The US tested its first previously banned missile the same month it withdrew from the INF treaty.

Among the systems in the works, Typhon, which uses a ground-based launcher to fire the SM-6 and the Tomahawk, is a top priority. The Army's Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon is also in the works, though it's facing some delays and funding issues.

The efforts within Europe to develop new long-range strike weapon systems signal an important change in thinking. For decades, European states ignored the larger shift toward a need for stand-off deep-strike capabilities, cutting surface-to-surface missile programs and larger defense spending across the board.

Right now, with concerns of further Russian aggression against NATO members running high and the conflict in Ukraine continuing with no end in sight, "the wind is in the sails of the defense hawks and the defense industry to persuade leaders to buy new weapons to demonstrate they're doing something to stand up to Russia," Kristensen said.

There's been a noteworthy shift for many European nations toward bolstering their own domestic defenses rather than relying on the US. But it's not necessarily all about Russia. Part of that, Kristensen said, could be anxieties around how US support for NATO could change under a second Donald Trump presidency .

"It is entirely expected that European countries will develop their own weapons, initiatives that have become more important with the prospect of a President Trump reducing the US commitment to Europe," he said.

Trump has repeatedly criticized the NATO alliance , often complaining that many nations don't pull their weight in the group's collective defenses, and has even suggested he'd let Russia attack members who don't pay their share of the budget.

Correction: July 23, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the Nuclear Information Project's director on first reference. He is Hans Kristensen, not Hans Director.

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