South Korea will start to deploy its locally-designed Pegasus surface-to-air missiles in December. The missiles are mounted on a tracked vehicle developed by Daewoo. The French-built turret mounts eight missiles ready to fire. The turret includes tracking and surveillance radars and day/night electro-optical devices. The missile has a range of 10km, traveling at Mach-2.6. It carries a high-explosive warhead activated by a proximity fuze. Pegasus missile systems will be grouped with Flying Tiger twin 30mm self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, using the same Daewoo chassis. --Stephen V Cole

The MEADS (Medium Extended range Air Defense System, a combined US-German-Italian program using Patriot and Hawk missiles) has finally received the $9.5 million in transition funds needed to carry forward. The money was delayed five months by various arguments among the parties (and within the US Congress) over how much technology the US would transfer to Europe and how many Europeans would get top jobs in the program. The program is expected to involve $3 billion in orders from the three partner nations and up to $17 billion from other NATO countries and export customers.--Stephen V Cole