To create stability and security in the region. The second day of Russian Defense ministers trip to tehran and the meeting with the minister of defense of iran is a meeting that is said to be one of the goals before the expansion of bilateral military cooperation, the arrival of the yak training fighters, the latest of which is a simulation for the pilots of the fourth generation fighters, and after that, iran signed a contract with russia, such as the sukhoi 35 fighter. During that period, a number of mig29 sukhoi 24 fighters and a variety of kiloclass tanks and submarines were delivered to iran, and during the following years, contracts were signed with russia for the purchase of several defense systems, the first of which was the tor m1 defense system. The countrys air defense complex was attached to rin, the badge was s300, which was in 1995 it was delivered to iran, but the military cooperation between the two countries was not limited to the transfer of equipment. Isis was advanc
Cost and the expense. And we used to banter this around in the Cheyenne Mountain on a lot of cold, dark nights on alert and doing an exercise or for real world contingency. And often times, we would sort of come to the conclusion, what is it worth to us . Is it worth seattle . San fransbn, or los angeles, or increasingly now colorado, denver, heartland of america. Potentially in the future eastern seaboard, boston, new york, washington, d. C. Is it worth the investment in f. These systems to pretend to ok protect what we value the most. Thats our homeland, our way of life. I think the answer, my personal answer is yes. And so, im an optimist about this. Not without our challenges. We continue to deal with those challenges. Weve got the best and brightest people. I can tell you. I wish you could meet a lot of them. Phenomenal people working these issues. Im really proud to work with them and be their deputy director. Im humbled to do that. Theyre doing some really important work. And i
Thats our homeland, our way of life. I think the answer my personal answer is yes. And so im an optimist about this. Not without our challenges. We continue to deal with those challenges. Weve got the best and brightest people. I can tell you. I wish you could meet a lot of them. Phenomenal people working these issues. Im really proud to work with them and be their deputy director. Im humbled to do that. Theyre doing some really important work. And i thank you all again for your contribution to this debate debate. Look forward to your questions. Thank you very much. Were going to open up the questions. I think weve heard now repeatedly just how much the how much the conversations changed in the past decade and change. That its no longer a question of whether, but how and what way and talk about if you walked through just many of the systems that were actively deploying. I guess one word that didnt come up is sequestration, that 13letter word. And given everything budget wise, i wonder
Any capability, maybe not designed to catch every single thing that they could lob at us. But long enough to buy our leaders some time to be able to make an assessment and have options, if you will. The nation would have options. So i continue to believe that were on the right path. Thats part of a larger continuum of capabilities. And i dont think we ever want to give up on the idea that we have some capability in the Missile Defense tool kit. All right. I think well take one more question right here. Wait for the mike. Yeah. Im anna wilderman. For the first and only time in history, i attended the 35th reunion of the graduates of the Philippines Science High School 1970, and this is, i call it learning trips, okay . And this is what i learned because theyre assessing, because im an american, okay. And this is a reminder to me by the general, joint chiefs and economic minister, remind the americans that to us zerobased budget is zero, nothing. We dont have anything to spend at the end
They are they are becoming a critical partner for International Cooperation as well. One of our most significant cooperative efforts in codevelopment is with the advanced version of the sm3, the 2a, and that is being produced in japan. South korea is obviously has an immediate proximate stake in preventing missile strikes from north korea. Weve worked closely with south korea to ensure that as an alliance we can maintain the capacity to do that. Ive already talked about some of the things we bring to south korea. Patriot pac 3 batteries to defend both our forces deployed there as well as south korean forces, but south korea is also taking steps to enhance its own air and Missile Defense, including sea and landbased sensors, upgrading its patriot missiles and also pursuing its on indigenous korean air and Missile Defense capability. U. S. And australia, long Cooperation Partnership on Missile Defense research and development, most notably with regard to sensors. In the middle east we ha