title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: During the Ramesside period kings made further contributions to the Temple at Karnak.  The Great Hypostyle Hall, commissioned by Sety I (19th Dynasty), consisted of 134 sandstone columns supporting a 20-meter-high ceiling, and covering an acre of land.  Sety I decorated most surfaces with intricate bas-relief while his successor, Ramses II added sunken relief work to the walls and columns in the southern side of the Great Hall.  The interior carvings show king-god interactions, such as traditional legitimization of power scenes, processions, and rituals.  Expansive depictions of military campaigns cover the exterior walls of Hypostyle Hall. Battle scenes illustrating chaotic, disordered enemies strewn over the conquered land and the victorious king as the most prominent figure, trademark the Ramesside period.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: The last period of the New Kingdom demonstrates a return to traditional Egyptian form and style, but the culture is not purely a reversion to the past.  The art of the Ramesside period demonstrates the integration of canonized Egypt forms with modern innovations and materials.  Advancements such as adorning all surfaces of tombs with paintings and relief and the addition of new funerary texts to burial chambers demonstrate the non-static nature of this period.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: The Third Intermediate Period was one of decline and political instability, coinciding with the Late Bronze Age collapse of civilizations in the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean (including the Greek Dark Ages). It was marked by division of the state for much of the period and conquest and rule by foreigners. After an early period of fracturation, the country was firmly reunited by the Twenty-second Dynasty founded by Shoshenq I in 945 BC (or 943 BC), who descended from Meshwesh immigrants, originally from Ancient Libya. The next period of the Twenty-fourth Dynasty saw the increasing influence of the Nubian kingdom to the south took full advantage of this division and the ensuing political instability. Then around 732 BC, Piye, marched north and defeated the combined might of several native Egyptian rulers: Peftjaubast, Osorkon IV of Tanis, Iuput II of Leontopolis and Tefnakht of Sais. He established the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of "Black Pharaos" originating from Nubia.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: The Third Intermediate Period generally sees a return to archaic Egyptian styles, with particular reference to the art of the Old and Middle Kingdom. The art of the period essentially consists in traditional Egyptian styles, with the inclusion of some foreign characteristics, such as the particular iconography of the statues of the Nubian rulers of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. Although the Twenty-fifth Dynasty controlled Ancient Egypt for only 73 years, it holds an important place in Egyptian history due to the restoration of traditional Egyptian values, culture, art, and architecture, combined with some original creations such as the in Karnak. During the 25th dynasty Egypt was ruled from Napata in Nubia, now in modern Sudan, and the Dynasty in turn permitted the expansion of Egyptian architectural styles to Lower Egypt and Nubia.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: In 525 BC, the political state of Egypt was taken over by the Persians, almost a century and a half into Egypt's Late Period. By 404 BC, the Persians were expelled from Egypt, starting a short period of independence. These 60 years of Egyptian rule were marked by an abundance of usurpers and short reigns. The Egyptians were then reoccupied by the Achaemenids until 332 BC with the arrival of Alexander the Great. Sources state that the Egyptians were cheering when Alexander entered the capital since he drove out the immensely disliked Persians. The Late Period is marked with the death of Alexander the Great and the start of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Although this period marks political turbulence and immense change for Egypt, its art and culture continued to flourish.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: This can be seen in Egyptian temples starting with the Thirtieth Dynasty, the fifth dynasty in the Late Period, and extending into the Ptolemaic era. These temples ranged from the Delta to the island of Philae. While Egypt underwent outside influences through trade and conquest by foreign states, these temples remained in the traditional Egyptian style with very little Hellenistic influence.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Another relief originating from the Thirtieth Dynasty was the rounded modeling of the body and limbs, which gave the subjects a more fleshy or heavy effect. For example, for female figures, their breasts would swell and overlap the upper arm in painting. In more realistic portrayals, men would be fat or wrinkled.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Another type of art that became increasingly common during this period was the Horus stelae. These originate from the late New Kingdom and intermediate period but were increasingly common during the fourth century to the Ptolemaic era. These statues would often depict a young Horus holding snakes and standing on some kind of dangerous beast. The depiction of Horus comes from the Egyptian myth where a young Horus is saved from a scorpion bite, resulting in his gaining power over all dangerous animals. These statues were used "to ward off attacks from harmful creatures, and to cure snake bites and scorpion stings".


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Discoveries made since the end of the 19th century surrounding the (now submerged) ancient Egyptian city of Heracleion at Alexandria include a 4th century BC, unusually sensual, detailed and feministic (as opposed to deified) depiction of Isis, marking a combination of Egyptian and Hellenistic forms beginning around the time of Egypt's conquest by Alexander the Great in 332–331 BC. However, this was atypical of Ptolemaic sculpture, which generally avoided mixing Egyptian styles with the Hellenistic style used in the court art of the Ptolemaic dynasty, while temples in the rest of the country continued using late versions of traditional Egyptian formulae. Scholars have proposed an "Alexandrian style" in Hellenistic sculpture, but there is in fact little to connect it with Alexandria.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Marble was extensively used in court art, although it all had to be imported and use was made of various marble-saving techniques, such as using a number of pieces attached with stucco; a head might have the beard, the back of the head and hair in separate pieces. In contrast to the art of other Hellenistic kingdoms, Ptolemaic royal portraits are generalized and idealized, with little concern for achieving an individual portrait, though coins allow some portrait sculpture to be identified as one of the fifteen King Ptolemys. Many later portraits have clearly had the face reworked to show a later king. One Egyptian trait was to give much greater prominence to the queens than other successor dynasties to Alexander, with the royal couple often shown as a pair. This predated the 2nd century, when a series of queens exercised real power.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: In the 2nd century, Egyptian temple sculptures began to reuse court models in their faces, and sculptures of a priest often used a Hellenistic style to achieve individually distinctive portrait heads. Many small statuettes were produced, with the most common types being Alexander, a generalized "King Ptolemy", and a naked Aphrodite. Pottery figurines included grotesques and fashionable ladies of the Tanagra figurine style. Erotic groups featured absurdly large phalli. Some fittings for wooden interiors include very delicately patterned polychrome falcons in faience.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: The Fayum mummy portraits are probably the most famous example of Egyptian art during the Roman period of Egypt. They were a type of naturalistic painted portrait on wooden boards attached to Upper class mummies from Roman Egypt. They belong to the tradition of panel painting, one of the most highly regarded forms of art in the Classical world. The Fayum portraits are the only large body of art from that tradition to have survived.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Mummy portraits have been found across Egypt, but are most common in the Faiyum Basin, particularly from Hawara (hence the common name) and the Hadrianic Roman city Antinoopolis. "Faiyum portraits" is generally used as a stylistic, rather than a geographic, description. While painted cartonnage mummy cases date back to pharaonic times, the Faiyum mummy portraits were an innovation dating to the time of the Roman occupation of Egypt.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: The portraits date to the Imperial Roman era, from the late 1st century BC or the early 1st century AD onwards. It is not clear when their production ended, but recent research suggests the middle of the 3rd century. They are among the largest groups among the very few survivors of the panel painting tradition of the classical world, which was continued into Byzantine and Western traditions in the post-classical world, including the local tradition of Coptic iconography in Egypt.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Egyptian art is known for its distinctive figure convention used for the main figures in both relief and painting, with parted legs (where not seated) and head shown as seen from the side, but the torso seen as from the front. The figures also have a standard set of proportions, measuring 18 "fists" from the ground to the hair-line on the forehead. This appears as early as the Narmer Palette from Dynasty I, but this idealized figure convention is not employed in the use of displaying minor figures shown engaged in some activity, such as captives and corpses. Other conventions make statues of males darker than those of females. Very conventionalized portrait statues appear from as early as the Second Dynasty (before 2,780 BC), and with the exception of the art of the Amarna period of Ahkenaten and some other periods such as the Twelfth Dynasty, the idealized features of rulers, like other Egyptian artistic conventions, changed little until the Greek conquest. Egyptian art uses hierarchical proportions, where the size of figures indicates their relative importance. The gods or the divine pharaoh are usually larger than other figures while the figures of high officials or the tomb owner are usually smaller, and at the smallest scale are any servants, entertainers, animals, trees, and architectural details.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Ancient Egyptian artists rarely left their names. The Egyptian artwork is anonymous also because most of the time it was collective. Diodorus of Sicily, who traveled and lived in Egypt, has written: "So, after the craftsmen have decided the height of the statue, they all go home to make the parts which they have chosen" (I, 98).


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Symbolism pervaded Egyptian art and played an important role in establishing a sense of order. The pharaoh's regalia, for example, represented his power to maintain order. Animals were also highly symbolic figures in Egyptian art. Some colors were expressive.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: The ancient Egyptian language had four basic color terms: "kem" (black), "hedj" (white/silver), "wadj" (green/blue) and "desher" (red/orange/yellow). Blue, for example, symbolized fertility, birth, and the life-giving waters of the Nile. Blue and green were the colors of vegetation, and hence of rejuvenation. Osiris could be shown with green skin; in the 26th Dynasty, the faces of coffins were often colored green to assist in rebirth.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: This color symbolism explains the popularity of turquoise and faience in funerary equipment. The use of black for royal figures similarly expressed the fertile alluvial soil of the Nile from which Egypt was born, and carried connotations of fertility and regeneration. Hence statues of the king as Osiris often showed him with black skin. Black was also associated with the afterlife, and was the color of funerary deities such as Anubis.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Gold indicated divinity due to its unnatural appearance and association with precious materials. Furthermore, gold was regarded by the ancient Egyptians as "the flesh of the god". Silver, referred to as "white gold" by the Egyptians, was likewise called "the bones of the god".


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Red, orange and yellow were ambivalent colors. They were, naturally, associated with the sun; red stones such as quartzite were favored for royal statues which stressed the solar aspects of kingship. Carnelian has similar symbolic associations in jewelry. Red ink was used to write important names on papyrus documents. Red was also the color of the deserts, and hence associated with Set.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Egyptian faience is a ceramic material, made of quartz sand (or crushed quartz), small amounts of lime, and plant ash or natron. The ingredients were mixed together, glazed and fired to a hard shiny finish. Faience was widely used from the Predynastic Period until Islamic times for inlays and small objects, especially ushabtis. More accurately termed 'glazed composition', Egyptian faience was so named by early Egyptologists after its superficial resemblance to the tin-glazed earthenwares of medieval Italy (originally produced at Faenza). The Egyptian word for it was "tjehenet", which means 'dazzling', and it was probably used, above all, as a cheap substitute for more precious materials like turquoise and lapis lazuli. Indeed, faience was most commonly produced in shades of blue-green, although a large range of colours was possible.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Although the glassy materials faience and Egyptian blue were manufactured in Egypt from an early period, the technology for making glass itself was only perfected in the early 18th Dynasty. It was probably imported from Levant, since the Egyptian words for glass are of foreign origin. The funerary objects of Amenhotep II included many glass artefacts, demonstrating a range of different techniques. At this period, the material was costly and rare, and may have been a royal monopoly. However, by the end of the 18th Dynasty, Egypt probably made sufficient quantities to export glass to other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. Glass workshops have been excavated at Amarna and Pi-Ramesses. The raw materials – silica, alkali and lime – were readily available in Egypt, although ready-made ingots of blue glass were also imported from the Levant and have been found in the cargo of the Uluburun shipwreck off the southern coast of Turkey.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Egyptian blue is a material related to, but distinct from, faience and glass. Also called "frit", Egyptian blue was made from quartz, alkali, lime and one or more coloring agents (usually copper compounds). These were heated together until they fused to become a crystalline mass of uniform color (unlike faience in which the core and the surface layer are of different colors). Egyptian blue could be worked by hand or pressed into molds, to make statuettes and other small objects. It could also be ground to produce pigment. It is first attested in the Fourth Dynasty, but became particularly popular in the Ptolemaic period and the Roman period, when it was known as "caeruleum".


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: The color blue was used only sparingly even up until as late as Dynasty IV, where the color was found adorning mat-patterns in the Tomb of Saccara, which was constructed during the first Dynasty. Until this discovery was made, the color blue had not been known in Egyptian art.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: While not a leading center of metallurgy, ancient Egypt nevertheless developed technologies for extracting and processing the metals found within its borders and in neighbouring lands.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Copper was the first metal to be exploited in Egypt. Small beads have been found in Badarian graves; larger items were produced in the later Predynastic Period, by a combination of mould-casting, annealing and cold-hammering. The production of copper artifacts peaked in the Old Kingdom when huge numbers of copper chisels were manufactured to cut the stone blocks of pyramids. The copper statues of Pepi I and Merenre from Hierakonpolis are rare survivors of large-scale metalworking.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: The golden treasure of Tutankhamun has come to symbolize the wealth of ancient Egypt, and illustrates the importance of gold in pharaonic culture. The burial chamber in a royal tomb was called "the house of gold". According to the Egyptian religion, the flesh of the gods was made of gold. A shining metal that never tarnished, it was the ideal material for cult images of deities, for royal funerary equipment, and to add brilliance to the tops of obelisks. It was used extensively for jewelry, and was distributed to officials as a reward for loyal services ("the gold of honour").


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Silver had to be imported from the Levant, and its rarity initially gave it greater value than gold (which, like electrum, was readily available within the borders of Egypt and Nubia). Early examples of silverwork include the bracelets of the Hetepheres. By the Middle Kingdom, silver seems to have become less valuable than gold, perhaps because of increased trade with the Middle East. The treasure from El-Tod consisted of a hoard of silver objects, probably made in the Aegean, while silver jewelry made for female members of the 12th Dynasty royal family was found at Dahshur and Lahun. In the Egyptian religion, the bones of the gods were said to be made of silver.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Iron was the last metal to be exploited on a large scale by the Egyptians. Meteoritic iron was used for the manufacture of beads from the Badarian period. However, the advanced technology required to smelt iron was not introduced into Egypt until the Late Period. Before that, iron objects were imported and were consequently highly valued for their rarity. The Amarna letters refer to diplomatic gifts of iron being sent by Near Eastern rulers, especially the Hittites, to Amenhotep III and Akhenaten. Iron tools and weapons only became common in Egypt in the Roman Period.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Because of its relatively poor survival in archaeological contexts, wood is not particularly well represented among artifacts from Ancient Egypt. Nevertheless, woodworking was evidently carried out to a high standard from an early period. Native trees included date palm and dom palm, the trunks of which could be used as joists in buildings, or split to produce planks. Tamarisk, acacia and sycamore fig were employed in furniture manufacture, while ash was used when greater flexibility was required (for example in the manufacture of bowls). However, all these native timbers were of relatively poor quality; finer varieties had to be imported, especially from the Levant.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Lapis lazuli is a dark blue semi-precious stone highly valued by the ancient Egyptians because of its symbolic association with the heavens. It was imported via long-distance trade routes from the mountains of north-eastern Afghanistan, and was considered superior to all other materials except gold and silver. Coloured glass or faience provided a cheap imitation. Lapis lazuli is first attested in the Predynastic Period. A temporary interruption in supply during the Second and Third Dynasties probably reflects political changes in the ancient Near East. Thereafter, it was used extensively for jewelry, small figurines and amulets.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: The monumental sculpture of ancient Egypt's temples and tombs is well known, but refined and delicate small works exist in much greater numbers. The Egyptians used the technique of sunk relief, which is best viewed in sunlight for the outlines and forms to be emphasized by shadows. The distinctive pose of standing statues facing forward with one foot in front of the other was helpful for the balance and strength of the piece. This singular pose was used early in the history of Egyptian art and well into the Ptolemaic period, although seated statues were common as well.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Egyptian pharaohs were always regarded as gods, but other deities are much less common in large statues, except when they represent the pharaoh another deity; however, the other deities are frequently shown in paintings and reliefs. The famous row of four colossal statues outside the main temple at Abu Simbel each show Rameses II, a typical scheme, though here exceptionally large. Most larger sculptures survived from Egyptian temples or tombs; massive statues were built to represent gods and pharaohs and their queens, usually for open areas in or outside temples. The very early colossal Great Sphinx of Giza was never repeated, but avenues lined with very large statues including sphinxes and other animals formed part of many temple complexes. The most sacred cult image of a god in a temple, usually held in the naos, was in the form of a relatively small boat or barque holding an image of the god, and apparently usually in precious metal – none of these are known to have survived.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: By Dynasty IV (2680–2565 BC), the idea of the Ka statue was firmly established. These were put in tombs as a resting place for the "ka" portion of the soul, and so there is a good number of less conventionalized statues of well-off administrators and their wives, many in wood as Egypt is one of the few places in the world where the climate allows wood to survive over millennia, and many block statues. The so-called reserve heads, plain hairless heads, are especially naturalistic, though the extent to which there was real portraiture in ancient Egypt is still debated.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Early tombs also contained small models of the slaves, animals, buildings and objects such as boats (and later "ushabti" figures) necessary for the deceased to continue his lifestyle in the afterlife. However, the great majority of wooden sculpture have been lost to decay, or probably used as fuel. Small figures of deities, or their animal personifications, are very common, and found in popular materials such as pottery. There were also large numbers of small carved objects, from figures of the gods to toys and carved utensils. Alabaster was used for expensive versions of these, though painted wood was the most common material, and was normal for the small models of animals, slaves and possessions placed in tombs to provide for the afterlife.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Very strict conventions were followed while crafting statues, and specific rules governed the appearance of every Egyptian god. For example, the sky god (Horus) was to be represented with a falcon's head, the god of funeral rites (Anubis) was to be shown with a jackal's head. Artistic works were ranked according to their compliance with these conventions, and the conventions were followed so strictly that, over three thousand years, the appearance of statues changed very little. These conventions were intended to convey the timeless and non-ageing quality of the figure's "ka".


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: A common relief in ancient Egyptian sculpture was the difference between the representation of men and women. Women were often represented in an idealistic form, young and pretty, and rarely shown in an older maturity. Men were shown in either an idealistic manner or a more realistic depiction. Sculptures of men often showed men that aged, since the regeneration of ageing was a positive thing for them whereas women are shown as perpetually young.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: A stele is an upright tablet of stone or wood, often with a curved top, painted and carved with text and pictures. Numerous examples were produced throughout Egyptian history for a variety of purposes, including funerary, votive and commemorative. Funerary stelae, attested from the early 1st Dynasty, typically bore the name and titles of the deceased. This basic form, which served to identify the tomb owner, evolved into a key component of the funerary equipment with a magical function. Hence, from the 2nd Dynasty onward, the owner was usually shown seated before an offering table piled with food and drink; in the Middle Kingdom, the offering formula was generally inscribed along the top of the stele. Both were designed to ensure a perpetual supply of offerings in the afterlife. Votive stelae, inscribed with prayers to deities, were dedicated by worshipers seeking a favorable outcome to a particular situation. In the Middle Kingdom, many hundreds were set up by pilgrims on the "terrace of the great god" at Abydos, so that they might participate in the annual procession of Osiris. One particular variety of votive stele common in the New Kingdom was the ear stele, inscribed with images of human ears to encourage the deity to listen to the prayer or request.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Commemorative stelae were produced to proclaim notable achievements (for example, the stela of Horwerra, recording a mining expedition to Serabit el-Khadim, and the Restoration Stela of Tutankhamun, celebrating the restoration of the traditional cults at the end of the Amarna period); to celebrate military victories (for instance, the Merneptah Stele); and to establish frontiers (for example the Semna stele of Senusret III and the boundary stelae around Amarna).


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: A pyramidion is a capstone at the top of a pyramid. Called benbenet in ancient Egyptian language, it associated the pyramid as a whole with the sacred Benben stone. Pyramidia may have been covered in gold leaf to reflect the rays of the sun; in the Middle Kingdom, they were often inscribed with royal titles and religious symbols.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Not all Egyptian reliefs were painted, and less-prestigious works in tombs, temples and palaces were merely painted on a flat surface. Stone surfaces were prepared by whitewash, or if rough, a layer of coarse mud plaster, with a smoother "gesso" layer above; some finer limestones could take paint directly. Pigments were mostly mineral, chosen to withstand strong sunlight without fading. The binding medium used in painting remains unclear: egg tempera and various gums and resins have been suggested. It is clear that true fresco, painted into a thin layer of wet plaster, was not used. Instead, the paint was applied to dried plaster, in what is called "fresco a secco" in Italian. After painting, a varnish or resin was usually applied as a protective coating, and many paintings with some exposure to the elements have survived remarkably well, although those on fully exposed walls rarely have. Small objects including wooden statuettes were often painted using similar techniques.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Many ancient Egyptian paintings have survived in tombs, and sometimes temples, due to Egypt's extremely dry climate. The paintings were often made with the intent of making a pleasant afterlife for the deceased. The themes included journeys through the afterworld or protective deities introducing the deceased to the gods of the underworld (such as Osiris). Some tomb paintings show activities that the deceased were involved in when they were alive and wished to carry on doing for eternity.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: From the New Kingdom period and afterwards, the "Book of the Dead" was buried with the entombed person. It was considered important for an introduction to the afterlife.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Egyptian paintings are painted in such a way to show a side view and a front view of the animal or person at the same time. For example, the painting to the right shows the head from a profile view and the body from a frontal view. Their main colors were red, blue, green, gold, black and yellow.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Paintings showing scenes of hunting and fishing can have lively close-up landscape backgrounds of reeds and water, but in general Egyptian painting did not develop a sense of depth, and neither landscapes nor a sense of visual perspective are found, the figures rather varying in size with their importance rather than their location.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Ancient Egyptian architects used sun-dried and kiln-baked bricks, fine sandstone, limestone and granite. Architects carefully planned all their work. The stones had to fit precisely together, since no mud or mortar was used. When creating the pyramids, ramps were used to allow workmen to move up as the height of the construction grew. When the top of the structure was completed, the artists decorated from the top down, removing ramp sand as they went down. Exterior walls of structures like the pyramids contained only a few small openings. Hieroglyphic and pictorial carvings in brilliant colors were abundantly used to decorate Egyptian structures, including many motifs, like the scarab, sacred beetle, the solar disk, and the vulture. They described the changes the Pharaoh would go through to become a god.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: As early as 2600 BC the architect Imhotep made use of stone columns whose surface was carved to reflect the organic form of bundled reeds, like papyrus, lotus and palm; in later Egyptian architecture faceted cylinders were also common. Their form is thought to derive from archaic reed-built shrines. Carved from stone, the columns were highly decorated with carved and painted hieroglyphs, texts, ritual imagery and natural motifs. One of the most important types are the papyriform columns. The origin of these columns goes back to the 5th Dynasty. They are composed of lotus (papyrus) stems which are drawn together into a bundle decorated with bands: the capital, instead of opening out into the shape of a bellflower, swells out and then narrows again like a flower in bud. The base, which tapers to take the shape of a half-sphere like the stem of the lotus, has a continuously recurring decoration of stipules. At the Luxor Temple, the columns are reminiscent of papyrus bundles, perhaps symbolic of the marsh from which the ancient Egyptians believed the creation of the world to have unfolded.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: The ancient Egyptians exhibited a love of ornament and personal decoration from earliest Predynastic times. Badarian burials often contained strings of beads made from glazed steatite, shell and ivory. Jewelry in gold, silver, copper and faience is also attested in the early Predynastic period; more varied materials were introduced in the centuries preceding the 1st Dynasty. By the Old Kingdom, the combination of carnelian, turquoise and lapis lazuli had been established for royal jewelry, and this was to become standard in the Middle Kingdom. Less sophisticated pieces might use bone, mother-of-pearl or cowrie shells.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: The particular choice of materials depended upon practical, aesthetical and symbolic considerations. Some types of jewelry remained perennially popular, while others went in and out of fashion. In the first category were bead necklaces, bracelets, armlets and girdles. Bead aprons are first attested in the 1st Dynasty, while usekh broad collars became a standard type from the early Old Kingdom. In the Middle Kingdom, they had fallen from favor, to be replaced by finger-rings and ear ornaments (rings and plugs). New Kingdom jewelry is generally more elaborate and garish than that of earlier periods, and was influenced by styles from the Ancient Greece and the Levant. Many fine examples were found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. Jewelry, both royal and private, was replete with religious symbolism. It was also used to display the wealth and rank of the wearer. Royal jewels were always the most elaborate, as exemplified by the pieces found at Dahshur and Lahun, made for princesses of the 18th Dynasty, favored courtiers were rewarded with the "gold of honor" as a sign of royal favor.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: The techniques of jewelry-making can be reconstructed from surviving artifacts and from tomb decoration. A jeweler's workshop is shown in the tomb of Mereruka; several New Kingdom tombs at Thebes contain similar scenes.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: An amulet is a small charm worn to afford its owner magical protection, or to convey certain qualities (for example, a lion amulet might convey strength, or a set-square amulet might convey rectitude). Attested from the Badarian period onward, amulets were produced both for the living and the dead. Particular amulets were placed at specific places in the mummy wrappings. The heart scarab was a specialized form of amulet to protect the heart of the deceased in the afterlife. Amulets were made from a wide variety of materials, including faience, glass, and precious stones – with color often playing an important symbolic role – and in a wide variety of forms. They might depict sacred objects (such as the Djed pillar, Tyet girdle or Wedjad eye); animals (bull's head amulets were particularly common in the late Predynastic period); or hieroglyphs (for example, Ankh or Sa). From the New Kingdom onward, deities – especially household deities such as Bes and Taweret – were popular subjects for amulets.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: The protective amulet for the heart was in the form of the scarab beetle, the manifestation of the creator and solar deity Khepri. It was a symbol of new life and resurrection. The scarab beetle was seen to push a ball of dung along the ground, and from this came the idea of the beetle rolling the sun across the sky. Subsequently, the young beetles were observed to hatch from their eggs inside the ball, hence the idea of creation: life springs forth from primordial mud.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: The heart scarab was a large scarab amulet which was wrapped in the mummy bandaging over the deceased's heart. It was made from a range of green and dark-colored materials, including faience, glass, glazed steatite, schist, feldspar, hematite and obsidian. Black was also associated with the afterlife, while blue and green were associated with the birth and the life-giving waters of the Nile.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Different types of pottery items were deposited in tombs of the dead. Some such pottery items represented interior parts of the body, such as the lungs, the liver and smaller intestines, which were removed before embalming. A large number of smaller objects in enamel pottery were also deposited with the dead. It was customary for the tomb walls to be crafted with cones of pottery, about tall, on which were engraved or impressed legends relating to the dead occupants of the tombs. These cones usually contained the names of the deceased, their titles, offices which they held, and some expressions appropriate to funeral purposes.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Egyptian writing remained a remarkably conservative system, and the preserve of a tiny literate minority, while the spoken language underwent considerable change. Egyptian stelas are decorated with finely carved hieroglyphs.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: The use of hieroglyphic writing arose from proto-literate symbol systems in the Early Bronze Age, around the 32nd century BC (Naqada III), with the first decipherable sentence written in the Egyptian language dating to the Second Dynasty (28th century BC). Egyptian hieroglyphs developed into a mature writing system used for monumental inscription in the classical language of the Middle Kingdom period; during this period, the system made use of about 900 distinct signs. The use of this writing system continued through the New Kingdom and Late Period, and on into the Persian and Ptolemaic periods. Late use of hieroglyphics are found in the Roman period, extending into the 4th century AD.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Although, by modern standards, ancient Egyptian houses would have been very sparsely furnished, woodworking and cabinet-making were highly developed crafts. All the main types of furniture are attested, either as surviving examples or in tomb decoration. Chairs were only for the wealthy; most people would have used low stools. Beds consisted of a wooden frame, with matting or leather webbing to provide support; the most elaborate beds also had a canopy, hung with netting, to provide extra privacy and protection from insects. The feet of chairs, stools and beds were often modeled to resemble bull hooves or, in later periods, lion feet or duck heads. Wooden furniture was often coated with a layer of plaster and painted.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Royal furniture was more elaborate, making use of inlays, veneers and marquetry. Funerary objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun include tables, boxes and chests, a gilded throne, and ritual beds shaped like elongated hippos and cattle. The burial equipment of Hetepheres included a set of travelling furniture, light and easy to dismantle. Such furniture must have been used on military campaigns and other royal journeys. Egyptian furniture has highly influenced the development of Greco-Roman furniture. It also was one of the principal sources of inspiration of a style known as Empire. The main motifs used are: palm and lotus leaves, flowers, lion heads and claws, bull hooves, bird heads, and geometric combinations. Everything is sober and with a monumental character.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Artistic representations, supplemented by surviving garments, are the main sources of evidence for ancient Egyptian fashion. The two sources are not always in agreement, however, and it seems that representations were more concerned with highlighting certain attributes of the person depicted than with accurately recordings their true appearance. For example, in art created for men, women were often shown with restrictive, tight-fitting dresses, perhaps to emphasize their figures.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: As in most societies, fashions in Egypt changed over time; different clothes were worn in different seasons of the year, and by different sections of society. Particular office-holders, especially priests and the king, had their own special garments.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: For the general population, clothing was simple, predominantly of linen, and probably white or off-white in color. It would have shown the dirt easily, and professional launderers are known to have been attached to the New Kingdom workmen's village at Deir el-Medina. Men would have worn a simple loin-cloth or short kilt (known as "shendyt"), supplemented in winter by a heavier tunic. High-status individuals could express their status through their clothing, and were more susceptible to changes in fashion.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Longer, more voluminous clothing made an appearance in the Middle Kingdom; flowing, elaborately pleated, diaphanous robes for men and women were particularly popular in the late 18th Dynasty and the Ramesside period. Decorated textiles also became more common in the New Kingdom. In all periods, women's dresses may have been enhanced by colorful bead netting worn over the top. In the Roman Period, Egypt became known for the manufacture of fine clothing. Coiled sewn sandals or sandals of leather are the most commonly attested types of footwear. Examples of these, together with linen shirts and other clothing, were discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamun.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Use of makeup, especially around the eyes, was a characteristic feature of ancient Egyptian culture from Predynastic times. Black kohl (eye-paint) was applied to protect the eyes, as well as for aesthetic reasons. It was usually made of galena, giving a silvery-black color; during the Old Kingdom, green eye-paint was also used, made from malachite. Egyptian women painted their lips and cheeks, using rouge made from red ochre. Henna was applied as a dye for hair, fingernails and toenails, and perhaps also nipples. Creams and unguents to condition the skin were popular, and were made from various plant extracts.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: On secular and religious occasions, music played an important part in celebrations. Musicians, playing instruments such as the castanets and flute, are depicted on objects from the Predynastic Period. A wide range of percussions, wind and string instruments were known to the ancient Egyptian. They include rattles, clappers, drums, tambourines and the sistrum; pipes, flutes and trumpets; and harps (particularly popular at feasts). The lyre and lute were introduced from the Levant. Musical notation is not attested until the early Ptolemaic Period. Groups of musicians, either mixed gender or female only, are known from the Old Kingdom. Women singers and sistrum-players had an important role in temple cults, especially those of Hathor and Isis. Tomb decoration from all periods indicates that, as today, groups of workers sang to generate a sense of solidarity and to maintain their enthusiasm.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: A sistrum (plural: sistra) is a rattle used in religious ceremonies, especially temple rituals, and usually played by women. Called a "seshsehet" in Egyptian, the name imitates the swishing sound the small metal disks made when the instrument was shaken. It was closely associated with Hathor in her role as "lady of music", and the handle was often decorated with a Hathor head. Two kinds of sistrum are attested, naos-shaped and hoop-shaped; the latter became the more common.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: The earliest purpose-built funerary containers for bodies were simple rectangular wooden boxes, attested in the 1st Dynasty. A coffin swiftly became an essential part of the burial equipment. Known euphemistically as the "lord of life", its primary function was to provide a home for the Ka and to protect the physical body from harm. In the 4th Dynasty, the development of longer coffins allowed the body to be buried fully extended (rather than curled up on its side in a foetal position). At the end of the Old Kingdom, it became customary once more for the body to be laid on its side. The side of the coffin that faced east in the tomb was decorated with a pair of eyes so that the deceased could look out towards the rising sun with its promise of daily rebirth. Coffins also began to be decorated on the outside with bands of funerary texts, while pictures of food and drink offerings were painted on the inside to provide a magical substitute for the real provisions placed in the tomb.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: In the First Intermediate Period, decorated coffins became a substitute for tomb decoration; in the Middle Kingdom, coffin texts made their first appearance, sometimes accompanied by detailed maps of the underworld. Middle Kingdom coffins show a number of distinct regional styles, echoing the cultural fragmentation of the preceding period. In the 17th and early 18th Dynasties, the Theban area produced characteristic anthropoid "rishi" (feathered) coffins. These were replaced (except for kings) by other styles of anthropoid coffins which became the standard form throughout the country for the remainder of Egyptian history. The predominance of decorated tombs in the New Kingdom removed the need of object friezes, so coffins were generally undecorated on the inside. However, this situation was reversed again in the Third Intermediate Period when new types of coffin decoration focused on the Osiris myth and extracts from the "Book of the Dead", to aid the resurrection of the deceased. In the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, a cartonnage mask was often fixed directly onto the mummy wrappings as a substitute for a coffin.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Coffins were generally made of wood; those of high-status individuals used fine quality, imported cedar. From the Middle Kingdom onward, wealthy individuals were often provided with a set of two or three nested coffins. The most sumptuous coffins might be inlaid with glass or precious stones, while royal coffins were often made from gold or silver.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Canopic jars are vessels which were used for storing the internal organs removed during mummification. These were named after the human-headed jars that were worshiped as personifications of Kanops (the helmsman of Menelaus in Greek mythology) by the inhabitants of ancient Canopus. The practice of evisceration is first attested in the burial of Hetepheres in the early 4th Dynasty. Her organs were stored in a travertine canopic chest divided into four compartments. Later, each organ – the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines – was provided with a separate jar, of stone or pottery, and placed under the symbolic protection of one of the Four sons of Horus. During the First Intermediate Period, the stoppers of canopic jars began to be modeled in the form of human heads. From the late 18th Dynasty, they were more commonly modelled to resemble the heads of the protecting genii (baboon, jackal, falcon and human). This became the standard for canopic equipment in the 19th Dynasty. In the Third Intermediate Period, the mummified organs were generally returned to the body, but wealthy burials could still include a dummy set of jars. The last known royal set of canopic jars were made of Apries. The manufacture of canopic equipment continued into the Ptolemaic Period but ceased by Roman times.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Funerary masks have been used at all periods. Examples range from the gold masks of Tutankhamun and Psusennes I to the Roman "mummy portraits" from Hawara and the Fayum. Whether in a funerary or religious context, the purpose of a mask was the same: to transform the wearer from a mortal to a divine state.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Ushabtis (a.k.a. shawabti or shabti) are funerary figurines. Their purpose was to act as a substitute for the deceased when he was called upon to perform agricultural work or corvée labor in the afterlife. Ushabtis evolved in the Middle Kingdom from the servant statues included among grave goods. The earliest examples were crude statuettes in wax, clay or wood; later, they were fashioned as mummiform figures and, from the end of the 12th Dynasty, they were customarily inscribed with the "ushabti text" (chapter 6 of the "Book of the dead" which specifies the ushabti's duties).


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Ancient Egypt shared a long and complex history with the Nile Valley to the south, the region called Nubia (modern Sudan). Beginning with the Kerma culture and continuing with the Kingdom of Kush based at Napata and then Meroë, Nubian culture absorbed Egyptian influences at various times, for both political and religious reasons. The result is a rich and complex visual culture.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: The artistic production of Meroë reflects a range of influences. First, it was an indigenous African culture with roots stretching back thousands of years. To this is added the fact that the wealth of Meroë was based on trade with Egypt when it was ruled by the Ptolemaic dynasty (332–330 BC) and the Romans (30 BC – 395 AD), so Hellenistic and Roman objects and ideas were imported, as well as Egyptian influences.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Egyptian Revival art is a style in Western art, mainly of the early nineteenth century, in which Egyptian motifs were applied to a wide variety of decorative arts objects. It was underground in American decorative arts throughout the nineteenth century, continuing into the 1920s. The major motifs of Egyptian art, such as obelisks, hieroglyphs, the sphinx, and pyramids, were used in various artistic media, including architecture, furniture, ceramics, and silver. Egyptian motifs provided an exotic alternative to the more traditional styles of the day. Over the course of the nineteenth century, American tastes evolved from a highly ornamented aesthetic to a simpler, sparer sense of decoration; the vocabulary of ancient Egyptian art would be interpreted and adapted in different ways depending on the standards and motivations of the time.


title: Art of ancient Egypt

text: Enthusiasm for the artistic style of Ancient Egypt is generally attributed to the excitement over Napoleon's conquest of Egypt and, in Britain, to Admiral Nelson's defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. Napoleon took a scientific expedition with him to Egypt. Publication of the expedition's work, the "Description de l'Égypte", began in 1809 and came out in a series though 1826, inspiring everything from sofas with sphinxes for legs, to tea sets painted with the pyramids. It was the popularity of the style that was new, Egyptianizing works of art had appeared in scattered European settings from the time of the Renaissance.


title: Marquise Brown

text: Marquise "Hollywood" Brown (born June 4, 1997) is an American football wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at College of the Canyons and Oklahoma and was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft.


title: Marquise Brown

text: Brown was born on June 4, 1997 in Hollywood, Florida. He played Pop Warner football in the same Florida league with Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, though the two were on different teams. Brown attended South Broward High School in Hollywood, where he also ran track. As an 11th grader Brown ran the 100 meters in a time of 11.53 seconds at the Florida High Schools Athletic Association's 4A District 13 regional championship track meet. He transferred to Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory School where in addition to playing football he also ran track, improving his 100-meter time to 10.90 seconds and posting a personal-best time of 21.94 seconds in the 200 meters at the Florida High Schools Athletic Association's 2A District 15 regional championship track meet.


title: Marquise Brown

text: After not receiving any scholarships from Division 1 schools, Brown signed with the College of the Canyons for the 2016 season. Because California Junior colleges do not offer sports scholarships, Brown worked at Six Flags Magic Mountain to make ends meet. After a year at College of the Canyons, Brown received several Division 1 scholarship offers, committing to Oklahoma. During his first year at Oklahoma, Brown played all thirteen games, starting eight, and had a team high 1,095 receiving yards, becoming the 8th all time receiver in single season yards. He also posted 265 yards against Oklahoma State, an Oklahoma record for receiving yards in a single game. On January 2, 2019, Brown announced that he would forgo his final year of eligibility to declare for the 2019 NFL Draft.


title: Marquise Brown

text: Brown was selected 25th overall by the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft. He was the first wide receiver selected. He signed his rookie contract on June 7, 2019.


title: Marquise Brown

text: Brown made his regular season debut against the Miami Dolphins in Week 1, recording four receptions, 147 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Despite playing only 14 snaps, Brown became the first player in NFL history to score two touchdowns of 40 yards or more in his first game. Brown caught eight passes for 86 yards in a Week 2 win against the Cardinals. Brown missed Weeks 6 and 7 due to injury. In Week 12 against the Los Angeles Rams, Brown caught five passes for 42 yards and two touchdowns in a 45–6 win. In Week 15, Brown caught his seventh touchdown in a 42–21 win over the New York Jets, which tied the Ravens franchise record for most receiving touchdowns by a rookie. Brown finished 2019 as the Ravens' second leading receiver behind tight end Mark Andrews. In his playoff debut, Brown led both teams with seven catches for 126 receiving yards in a 12–28 Divisional Round loss to the Tennessee Titans.


title: Marquise Brown

text: Brown recorded five receptions for 101 receiving yards in the 38–6 victory over the Cleveland Browns in Week 1. In Week 8 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Brown recorded one catch for a three yard touchdown during the 24–28 loss. After the game, Brown posted a later deleted tweet saying "What's the point of having souljas when you never use them (Never!!)" due to his lack of involvement in the Ravens' offense. In Week 12 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Brown recorded 4 catches for 85 yards, including a 70 yard touchdown reception from Trace McSorley, during the 14–19 loss. In Week 14 against the Cleveland Browns, he had three drops, but also had a game-saving 44-yard touchdown reception on 4th and 5 with 1:51 left in the game. He finished the game with two catches for 50 yards as the Ravens won 47–42. He was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list by the team on December 16, 2020, and activated three days later. Brown finished the regular season with 769 yards and eight touchdowns.


title: Marquise Brown

text: In the AFC Wild Card playoffs against the Tennessee Titans, Brown had seven receptions for 109 yards as the Ravens won 20–13.


title: Marquise Brown

text: In 2021, Brown changed his jersey number from #15 to #5 following a change of the NFL's jersey number rules. In Week 2 against the Kansas City Chiefs, Brown had six receptions for 113 yards and a touchdown. It was his third 100-yard regular season game of his career and his first since Week 1 of the 2020 season. The Ravens would rally to win the game 36–35. In Week 5 against the Indianapolis Colts, Brown caught a career-high nine receptions for 125 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winner, as the Ravens again rallied to win in overtime 31–25.


title: Marquise Brown

text: On Day 1 of the 2022 NFL Draft, Brown and the Ravens' third-round pick were traded to the Arizona Cardinals for the 23rd pick in the first round. The trade also reunited Brown with his college quarterback Kyler Murray. The Cardinals picked up the fifth-year option on Brown's contract on April 28, 2022.


title: Marquise Brown

text: Brown caught 43 receptions for 485 yards and accounted for 3 receiving touchdowns in the first six games of the season. He lead the team in all three categories during that time.


title: Marquise Brown

text: On November 16, 2022 the Cardinals announced that Brown was designated to return from injured reserve. He participated in the teams practices leading up to Week 11 but was not activated. He was then activated on November 26 for the team's Week 12 matchup.


title: Marquise Brown

text: Marquise Brown is the cousin of Antonio Brown. Brown received his nickname "Hollywood" from sportscaster Gus Johnson while at Oklahoma.


title: Marquise Brown

text: On August 3, 2022, at 7:05 AM, Brown was arrested and charged with criminal speeding in north Phoenix and was booked into the Maricopa County Jail.


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: Nguyễn Phú Trọng (born 14 April 1944) is a Vietnamese politician who has served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam — the highest political position in Vietnam — since 2011. In addition, Nguyễn Phú Trọng served as president of Vietnam from 2018 to 2021. As general secretary, Nguyễn Phú Trọng heads the party's secretariat and is the Secretary of the Central Military Commission in addition to being the "de facto" head of the politburo, the highest decision-making body in Vietnam, which currently makes him the most powerful person in Vietnam.


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: He was Chairman of the National Assembly from 2006 to 2011, representing Hanoi, was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam at the party's 11th National Congress in 2011 and re-elected twice at the 12th National Congress in 2016 and the 13th National Congress in 2021.


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: On 3 October 2018, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam formally nominated Nguyễn Phú Trọng for President of Vietnam, which was voted on at a subsequent session of the National Assembly, where the party holds an overwhelming majority. This made him the third person to simultaneously head the party and state after Ho Chi Minh (in North Vietnam only) and Trường Chinh. On 23 October 2018, he was elected as the ninth President of Vietnam in a meeting of the sixth session of the National Assembly. Nguyễn Phú Trọng stepped down as President in 2021 but remained as General Secretary of the Communist Party.


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: Nguyễn Phú Trọng was born in Đông Hội Commune, Đông Anh District. His official biography gives his family background only as "average peasant". He studied philology and earned his Bachelor degree in philology at Vietnam National University, Hanoi from 1963 to 1967. Nguyễn Phú Trọng officially became a member of the Communist Party of Vietnam in December 1968. He worked for the "Tạp chí Cộng Sản" (Communist Review), the theoretical and political agency of the Communist Party of Vietnam (formerly the Labor Party) in the periods of 1968–1973, 1976–1981 and 1983–1996. From 1973 to 1976, he underwent a political-economic post-graduate course at the High-level Nguyễn Ái Quốc Party School (now the Hồ Chí Minh National Academy of Politics and Public Administration). From 1991 to 1996, he served as the editor-in-chief of the "Tạp chí Cộng Sản".


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: Nguyễn Phú Trọng went to the Soviet Union in 1981 to study at the Academy of Sciences and received a Candidate of Sciences degree in history in 1983. In 1998, Nguyễn Phú Trọng entered the party section devoted to political work, making him one of the most prominent Vietnamese political theoreticians, heading the party Central Committee's Theoretical Council in charge of the party's theoretical work from 2001 to 2006.


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: Nguyễn Phú Trọng is a Marxist theoretician, and has long railed against some party members' loss of "Marxist-Leninist virtue".


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: Nguyễn Phú Trọng has been member of the party's Central Committee since January 1994, member of the party's Political Bureau since December 1997 and deputy to the National Assembly since May 2002. From January 2000 to June 2006, Nguyễn Phú Trọng was secretary of the party's Executive Committee of Hanoi, the "de facto" head of the city authority. On June 26, 2006, Nguyễn Phú Trọng was elected as the Chairman of the National Assembly. During this period, he was elected secretary of the party organization in the National Assembly and member of the Council for Defence and Security. On October 23, 2018, Nguyễn Phú Trọng was elected as the 9th President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in a seasonal meeting of National Assembly.


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: On 14 April 2019, it was reported that Nguyễn Phú Trọng had been rushed to the Chợ Rẫy Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City after visiting Kiên Giang, according to overseas news sources. He was rumoured to have suffered a stroke. The Vietnamese government initially had no comment on the subject matter, but later confirmed from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam that he was "unwell, but will soon return to work". He reappeared on May 14, 2019 to discuss about the upcoming Party Congress.


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: Nguyễn Phú Trọng was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam in 2011. The 5th plenum of the 11th Central Committee decided to take the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption away from the Prime Minister's control and Nguyễn Phú Trọng was elected its head.


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: On 6 July 2015, General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng arrived in the United States to begin his United States visit to July 10, 2015. This visit coincided with the milestone of twenty years since the United States and Vietnam normalized diplomatic relations. The talks with President Barack Obama were about human rights, security and defense and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: On 27 January 2016, Nguyễn Phú Trọng was re-elected as General Secretary of the 12th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam at the first conference of the committee. At 72 years old, he was the 12th Committee's oldest member. For this term, Nguyễn Phú Trọng is ranked number one in the Politburo, marking a return to normality.


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: Nguyễn Phú Trọng hopes, under a one-party rule, to strengthen Vietnam's position in the world, turning it into an industrial country rather than a country that produces on primary products. "A country without discipline would be chaotic and unstable [...]. [W]e need to balance democracy and law and order", he said at the close of a meeting to choose the country's leadership for the next five years. "I very much hope the new faces in the politburo will push with reforms and bring the country forward, but I don't know whether they can do that", said Tran Thi Tram. "They will also have to really tackle the corruption problem, otherwise the people would be the ones to suffer most".


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: On 31 January 2021, Nguyễn Phú Trọng was re-elected as General Secretary for a third five-year term at the 13th National Congress.


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: On 1 February 2021, Nguyễn Phú Trọng attended a press conference. Nguyễn Phú Trọng said "I am not in great health [...] I am old and I want to rest, but the Congress has elected me so I will comply with my duty to serve as a party member.".


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: On 3 October 2018, Nguyễn Phú Trọng was chosen by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam with 100% support to become the party nominee for the position of the President of Vietnam, becoming the official successor of Trần Đại Quang.


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: The National Assembly elected Nguyễn Phú Trọng as state president on October 23, 2018 with 99.79% percent of the vote. His swearing-in ceremony took place at the Grand Hall and was broadcast live on the afternoon on state radio and television systems.


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: The National Assembly on 2 April 2021 voted to relieve Nguyễn Phú Trọng's presidency with 91.25% of the vote. Nguyễn Phú Trọng remains de facto top leader in the country, serving as the General Secretary of the Communist Party.


title: Nguyễn Phú Trọng

text: Nguyễn Phú Trọng is married to Ngô Thị Mân. He has one daughter and one son, both of whom work as Government employees.


title: United States national missile defense

text: National missile defense (NMD) is a generic term for a type of missile defense intended to shield an entire country against incoming missiles, such as intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBMs) or other ballistic missiles.


title: United States national missile defense

text: This is also used to refer to the American nationwide antimissile program the United States has had in development since the 1990s. After the renaming in 2002, the term now refers to the entire program, not just the ground-based interceptors and associated facilities. This article focuses mainly on this system and a brief history of earlier systems which led to it.


title: United States national missile defense

text: Other elements that could potentially be integrated into NMD include anti-ballistic missiles, or sea-based, space-based, laser, and high altitude missile systems. The NMD program is limited in scope and designed to counter a relatively small ICBM attack from a less sophisticated adversary. Unlike the earlier Strategic Defense Initiative program, it is not designed to be a robust shield against a large attack from a technically sophisticated adversary.


title: United States national missile defense

text: See trajectory phase for the types of anti-ballistic missiles, the advantages and the disadvantages of each implementation type. The role of defense against nuclear missiles has been a heated military and political topic for several decades. (See also nuclear strategy, Missile Defense Agency, and anti-ballistic missile.) But missile defense against a known ballistic missile trajectory has to be rethought in the face of a maneuverable threat (such as a hypersonic glide vehicle, which still has yet to be realized and proven, as of 2018). See Hypersonic flight § Hypersonic weapons development, and Hypersonic glide phase interceptor (GPI) (2021).


title: United States national missile defense

text: When the United States Air Force was split from the United States Army in 1947, the Army retained the role of ground based air defenses that would evolve into National missile defense. The Army retained the lead role in this area until the success of the Aegis system shifted the focus to the United States Navy in the 21st century.


title: United States national missile defense

text: In the 1950s, a series of anti-aircraft missiles were developed as part of Project Nike. The latest in the series, Nike-Zeus, offered extremely long-range interception and very high performance. In the late 1950s, the program investigated the use of Nike-Zeus missiles as interceptors against Soviet ICBMs. A Nike warhead would be detonated at high altitudes (over 100 km, or 60 statute miles) above the polar regions in the near vicinity of an incoming Soviet missile.


title: United States national missile defense

text: The problem of how to quickly identify and track incoming missiles proved intractable, especially in light of easily envisioned countermeasures such as decoys and chaff. At the same time, the need for a high-performance anti-aircraft weapon was also seriously eroded by the obvious evolution of the Soviet nuclear force to one based almost entirely on ICBMs. The Nike-Zeus project was canceled in 1961.


title: United States national missile defense

text: The Nike-Zeus use of nuclear warheads was necessary given the available missile technology. However, it had significant technical limitations such as blinding defensive radars to subsequent missiles. Also, exploding nuclear warheads over friendly territory (albeit in space) was not ideal. In the 1960s Project Defender and the Ballistic Missile Boost Intercept (BAMBI) concept replaced land-launched Nike missiles with missiles to be launched from satellite platforms orbiting directly above the USSR. Instead of nuclear warheads, the BAMBI missiles would deploy huge wire meshes designed to disable Soviet ICBMs in their early launch phase (the "boost phase"). No solution to the problem of how to protect the proposed satellite platforms against attack was found, however, and the program was canceled in 1968.


title: United States national missile defense

text: In 1967, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara announced the Sentinel Program, providing a defense against attack for most of the continental United States. The system consisted of a long range Spartan missile, the short range Sprint missile, and associated radar and computer system. However, U.S. military and political strategists recognized several problems with the system:


title: United States national missile defense

text: In 1969 Sentinel was renamed 'Safeguard'. It was from then on dedicated to the protection of some of the U.S. ICBM-silo areas from attack, promoting their ability to mount a retaliatory missile attack. Safeguard used the same Spartan and Sprint missiles, and the same radar technology as Sentinel. Safeguard solved some problems of Sentinel:


title: United States national missile defense

text: These above issues drove the United States and the USSR to sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972. Under the ABM treaty and the 1974 revision of it, each country was allowed to deploy a single ABM system with only 100 interceptors to protect a single target. The Soviets deployed a system named the A-35 "Galosh" missile system, and it was deployed to protect Moscow, its capital city. The U.S. deployed the Safeguard system to defend the ICBM launch sites around the Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota, in 1975. The American Safeguard system was only briefly operational (for a matter of several months). The Soviet system (now called A-135) has been improved over the decades, and it is still operational around Moscow.


title: United States national missile defense

text: Given concerns about the previous programs using nuclear armed interceptors, in the 1980s the U.S. Army began studies about the feasibility of hit-to-kill vehicles, where an interceptor missile would destroy an incoming ballistic missile just by colliding with it, the so-called "Kinetic Kill Vehicles", or KKV.


title: United States national missile defense

text: The first program which actually tested a hit-to-kill missile interceptor was the Army's Homing Overlay Experiment. "Overlay" was the Army's term for exo-atmospheric interceptions, which would have to declutter any decoys, "underlay" was their term for high-altitude interceptions within the atmosphere. The KKV was equipped with an infrared seeker, guidance electronics and a propulsion system. Once in space, the KKV extended a diameter structure similar to an umbrella skeleton to enhance its effective cross section. This device would destroy the ICBM reentry vehicle on collision. After test failures with the first three flight tests, the fourth and final test on 10 June 1984 was successful, intercepting the Minuteman RV with a closing speed of about at an altitude of more than .


title: United States national missile defense

text: On 23 March 1983, President Ronald Reagan announced a new national missile defense program formally called the Strategic Defense Initiative but soon nicknamed "Star Wars" by detractors. President Reagan's stated goal was not just to protect the U.S. and its allies, but to also provide the completed system to the USSR, thus ending the threat of nuclear war for all parties. SDI was technically very ambitious and economically very expensive. It would have included many space-based laser battle stations and nuclear-pumped X-ray laser satellites designed to intercept hostile ICBMs in space, along with very sophisticated command and control systems. Unlike the previous Sentinel program, the goal was to totally defend against a robust, all out nuclear attack by the USSR.


title: United States national missile defense

text: A partisan debate ensued in Congress, with Democrats questioning the feasibility and strategic wisdom of such a program, while Republicans talked about its strategic necessity and provided a number of technical experts who argued that it was in fact feasible (including Manhattan Project physicist Edward Teller). Advocates of SDI prevailed and funding was initiated in fiscal year 1984.


title: United States national missile defense

text: In December 1999, the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution aimed at pressing the United States to abandon its plans to build an anti-missile missile defense system. Voting against the draft, along with the United States, were three other countries, Albania, Israel, and the Federated States of Micronesia. Thirteen of the 15 members of the European Union abstained, and France and Ireland voted in favor of this resolution. The resolution called for continued efforts to strengthen and preserve the treaty. On 14 June 2002, the United States withdrew from the ABM Treaty. On the following day, Russia responded by withdrawing from START II treaty (intended to ban MIRV ICBMs).


title: United States national missile defense

text: In the 1990s and early 21st century, the stated mission of NMD has changed to the more modest goal of preventing the United States from being subject to nuclear blackmail or nuclear terrorism by a so-called rogue state. The feasibility of this more limited goal remains somewhat controversial. Under President Bill Clinton some testing continued, but the project received little funding despite Clinton's supportive remarks on 5 September 2000 that "such a system, if it worked properly, could give us an extra dimension of insurance in a world where proliferation has complicated the task of preserving peace."


title: United States national missile defense

text: The system is administered by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). There are several other agencies and military commands which play a role, such as the United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command and Space Delta 4.


title: United States national missile defense

text: MDA and the Space Development Agency (SDA) are currently developing elements of a hypersonic missile defense system to defend against hypersonic weapons; these elements include the tracking and transport layers of the National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA) and various interceptor programs, although the maneuverability and low flight altitudes of hypersonic weapons are expected to pose challenges. MDA's Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI) is expected to be able to defend against hypersonic missiles by the mid- to late-2020s. DARPA's Glide Breaker program seeks to equip a vehicle to precisely target hypersonic missiles at long range. Analysts continue to debate the feasibility, effectiveness, and practicality of hypersonic weapons defense.


title: United States national missile defense

text: One major component is Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD), consisting of ground-based interceptor (GBI) missiles and radar in the United States in Alaska, which would intercept incoming warheads in space. Currently some GBI missiles are located at Vandenberg SFB[Space Force Base] in California. These GBIs can be augmented by mid-course SM-3 interceptors fired from Navy ships. About ten interceptor missiles were operational as of 2006. In 2014, the Missile Defense Agency had 30 operational GBIs, with 14 additional ground-based interceptors requested for 2017 deployment, in the Fiscal Year 2016 budget.


title: United States national missile defense

text: Officially, the final deployment goal is the "C3" phase, intended to counter tens of complex warheads from two GMD locations utilizing 200 ABMs "or more". The system design permits further expansion and upgrades beyond the C3 level.


title: United States national missile defense

text: A major component is a ship-based system called the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. This was given major new importance by President Obama in September 2009, when he announced plans to scrap the plans for a missile defense site in Poland, in favor of missile defense systems located on US Navy warships. On 18 September 2009, Russian Prime Minister Putin welcomed Obama's plans for missile defense scrapping sites at Russia's doorstep.


title: United States national missile defense

text: In 2009, several US Navy ships were fitted with SM-3 missiles to serve this function, complementing the Patriot systems already deployed by American units. Also, warships of Japan and Australia have been given weapons and technology to enable them to participate in the American defense plan as well.


title: United States national missile defense

text: On 12 November 2009, the Missile Defense Agency announced that six additional US Navy destroyers would be upgraded to participate in the program. In fiscal 2012, , , and were upgraded. , and were be upgraded in fiscal 2013. The goal of the program was to have 21 ships upgraded by the end of 2010; 24 in 2012; and 27 around 2013.


title: United States national missile defense

text: All ships equipped with the Aegis combat system possess the SM-2 surface-to-air missile which, through recent upgrades, has terminal stage ballistic missile defense capabilities.


title: United States national missile defense

text: Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) is a program of the US Army, utilizing ground-based interceptor missiles which can intercept missiles in the upper part of the atmosphere and outside the atmosphere. THAAD has been deployed in Guam, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea and most recently Israel.


title: United States national missile defense

text: Several airborne systems are being examined, which would then be utilized by the US Air Force. One major object of study is a boost-phase defense, meaning a system to intercept missiles while they are in their boost phase. One potential system for this use would be an airborne laser, which was tested on the Boeing YAL-1 and was later cancelled. Other ideas are also being studied.


title: United States national missile defense

text: As of 2009, the only anti-ballistic missile defense system with a boost-phase capability is the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. There are several benefits to a sea-based boost-phase system, as it is fully mobile and has greater security by operating in international waters.


title: United States national missile defense

text: Three shorter range tactical anti-ballistic missile systems are currently operational: the U.S. Army Patriot, U.S. Navy Aegis combat system/SM-2 missile, and the Israeli Arrow missile. In general short-range tactical ABMs cannot intercept ICBMs, even if within range (Arrow-3 can intercept ICBMs). The tactical ABM radar and performance characteristics do not allow it, as an incoming ICBM warhead moves much faster than a tactical missile warhead. However, the better-performance Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile could be upgraded to intercept ICBMs. The SM-3 missile has some capability against ICBMs, as demonstrated by the November 2020 successful interception of an ICBM-class target missile.


title: United States national missile defense

text: Latest versions of the U.S. Hawk missile have a limited capability against tactical ballistic missiles, but is not usually described as an ABM. Similar claims have been made about the Russian long-range surface-to-air S-300 and S-400 series.


title: United States national missile defense

text: Several aspects of the defense program have either sought or achieved participation and assistance from other nations. Several foreign navies are participating in the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense, including Japan and Australia. Also, the United States has considered establishing radar sites and missile sites in other nations as part of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense. A missile defense site in Poland received much media attention when it was cancelled in favor of the Aegis BMD. A radar site in the United Kingdom is being upgraded, and another one is being built in Greenland. Other countries have contributed technological developments and various locations.


title: United States national missile defense

text: Taiwan has indicated that it is willing to host national missile defense radars to be tied into the American system, but is unwilling to pay for any further cost overruns in the systems.


title: United States national missile defense

text: "The Wall Street Journal" reported on 17 July 2012, that the Pentagon is building a missile-defense radar station at a secret site in Qatar. "The Wall Street Journal" report was later confirmed by an article in "The New York Times" from 8 August 2012, which stated that U.S. officials disclosed that a high-resolution, X-band missile defense radar would be located in Qatar. The radar site in Qatar will complete the backbone of a system designed to defend U.S. interests and allies such as Israel and European nations against Iranian rockets, officials told "The Wall Street Journal". The Pentagon chose to place the new radar site in Qatar because it is home to the largest U.S. military air base in the region, Al Udeid Air Base, analysts said. The radar base in Qatar is slated to house a powerful AN/TPY-2 radar, also known as an X-Band radar, and supplement two similar arrays already in place in Israel's Negev Desert and in central Turkey, officials said. Together, the three radar sites form an arc that U.S. officials say can detect missile launches from northern, western and southern Iran. Those sites will enable U.S. officials and allied militaries to track missiles launched from deep inside Iran, which has an arsenal of missiles capable of reaching Israel and parts of Europe. The radar installations, in turn, are being linked to missile-interceptor batteries throughout the region and to U.S. ships with high-altitude interceptor rockets. The X-Band radar provides images that can be used to pinpoint rockets in flight.


title: United States national missile defense

text: U.S. official also stated that the U.S. military's Central Command, which is overseeing the buildup to counter Iran, also wants to deploy the Army's first Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile-interceptor system, known as THAAD, to the region in the coming months.


title: United States national missile defense

text: The THAAD has its own radar, so deploying it separately from the X-Bands provides even more coverage and increases the system's accuracy, officials said. The X-Band radar and the THAAD will provide an "extra layer of defense," supplementing Patriot batteries that are used to counter lower-altitude rockets, said Riki Ellison, chairman of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.


title: United States national missile defense

text: On 23 August 2012, "The Wall Street Journal" reported that the U.S. is planning a major expansion of missile defenses in Asia. According to American officials this move is designed to contain threats from North Korea, but one that could also be used to counter China's military. The planned buildup is part of a defensive array that could cover large swaths of Asia, with a new radar in southern Japan and possibly another in Southeast Asia tied to missile-defense ships and land-based interceptors.


title: United States national missile defense

text: US Defence officials told "The Wall Street Journal" that the core of the new anti-missile shield would be a powerful early-warning radar, known as an X-Band, sited on a southern Japanese island. Discussions between Japan and the United States are currently underway. The new X-Band would join an existing radar that was installed in northern Japan in 2006 and a third X-Band could be placed in South East Asia. The resulting radar arc would cover North Korea, China and possibly even Taiwan. According to U.S. Navy officials and the Congressional Research Service the U.S. Navy has drawn up plans to expand its fleet of ballistic missile-defense-capable warships from 26 ships today to 36 by 2018. Officials said as many as 60% of those are likely to be deployed to Asia and the Pacific. In addition, the U.S. Army is considering acquiring additional Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, antimissile systems, said a senior defense official. Under current plans, the Army is building six THAADs.


title: United States national missile defense

text: In response to "The Wall Street Journal", U.S. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on 23 August 2012 that the United States are in discussions with its close ally Japan about expanding a missile defense system in Asia by positioning an early warning radar in southern Japan. Dempsey however stated that no decisions have been reached on expanding the radar. The State Department said the U.S. is taking a phased approach to missile defense in Asia, as it is in Europe and the Middle East. "These are defensive systems. They don’t engage unless missiles have been fired," department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told a news conference. "In the case of Asian systems, they are designed against a missile threat from North Korea. They are not directed at China." Nuland said the U.S. has broad discussions with China through military and political channels about the systems' intent.


title: United States national missile defense

text: In addition to one American X-band radar – officially known as the AN/TPY-2 – hosted by Japan the United States and Japan announced an agreement on 17 September 2012, to deploy a second, advanced missile-defense radar on Japanese territory. "The purpose of this is to enhance our ability to defend Japan," U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said at a news conference. "It’s also designed to help forward-deployed U.S. forces, and it also will be effective in protecting the U.S. homeland from the North Korean ballistic missile threat." In addition to detecting ballistic missiles the radars also provide the U.S. military and its allies a highly detailed view of ship traffic in the region. That capability is particularly desired by U.S. allies in the region that are engaged in territorial disputes with China over contested islands and fishing grounds.


title: United States national missile defense

text: Some U.S. officials have noted that defenses built up against North Korean missiles would also be positioned to track a Chinese ballistic missile. A land-based radar would also free the Navy to reposition its ship-based radar to other regional hot-spots, officials said. A U.S. team landed in Japan in September 2012 to discuss where the second facility will be located, according to a U.S. defense official. Officials have said they want to locate the radar, formally known as AN/TPY2, in the southern part of Japan, but not on Okinawa, where the U.S. military presence is deeply controversial. During a joint news conference in Tokyo, Panetta and Japanese Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto said a joint U.S.-Japanese team would begin searching immediately for a site for the new radar. On 15 November 2012, Australia and the United States announced that the US military will station a powerful radar and a space telescope in Australia as part of its strategic shift towards Asia. "It will give us visibility into things that are leaving the atmosphere, entering the atmosphere, really all throughout Asia", including China's rocket and missile tests, a US defence official told reporters on condition of anonymity.


title: United States national missile defense

text: On 14 October 2002, a ground based interceptor launched from the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site destroyed a mock warhead 225 km above the Pacific. The test included three decoy balloons.


title: United States national missile defense

text: On 16 December 2002 President George W. Bush signed National Security Presidential Directive 23 which outlined a plan to begin deployment of operational ballistic missile defense systems by 2004. The following day the U.S. formally requested from the UK and Denmark use of facilities in Fylingdales, England, and Thule, Greenland, respectively, as a part of the NMD program. The projected cost of the program for the years 2004 to 2009 will be $53 billion, making it the largest single line in The Pentagon's budget.


title: United States national missile defense

text: Since 2002, the US has been in talks with Poland and other European countries over the possibility of setting up a European base to intercept long-range missiles. A site similar to the US base in Alaska would help protect the US and Europe from missiles fired from the Middle East or North Africa. Poland's prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said in November 2005 he wanted to open up the public debate on whether Poland should host such a base.


title: United States national missile defense

text: In 2002, NMD was changed to Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD), to differentiate it from other missile defense programs, such as space-based, sea-based, and defense targeting the boost phase and the reentry phase (see flight phases).


title: United States national missile defense

text: On 22 July 2004, the first ground-based interceptor was deployed at Fort Greely, Alaska (). By the end of 2004, a total of six had been deployed at Ft. Greely and another two at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Two additional were installed at Ft. Greely in 2005. The system will provide "rudimentary" protection.


title: United States national missile defense

text: On 15 December 2004, an interceptor test in the Marshall Islands failed when the launch was aborted due to an "unknown anomaly" in the interceptor, 16 minutes after launch of the target from Kodiak Island, Alaska.


title: United States national missile defense

text: "I don't think that the goal was ever that we would declare it was operational. I think the goal was that there would be an operational capability by the end of 2004," Pentagon representative Larry DiRita said on 2005-01-13 at a Pentagon press conference. However, the problem is and was funding. "There has been some expectation that there will be some point at which it is operational and not something else these expectations are not unknown, if Congress pours more attention and funding to this system, it can be operational relatively quick."


title: United States national missile defense

text: On 18 January 2005, the Commander, United States Strategic Command issued direction to establish the Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense (JFCC IMD). The JFCC IMD, once activated, will develop desired characteristics and capabilities for global missile defense operations and support for missile defense.


title: United States national missile defense

text: On 14 February 2005, another interceptor test failed due to a malfunction with the ground support equipment at the test range on Kwajalein Island, not with the interceptor missile itself.


title: United States national missile defense

text: On 24 February 2005, the Missile Defense Agency, testing the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, successfully intercepted a mock enemy missile. This was the first test of an operationally configured RIM-161 Standard missile 3 (SM-3) interceptor and the fifth successful test intercept using this system. On 10 November 2005, the USS "Lake Erie" detected, tracked, and destroyed a mock two-stage ballistic missile within two minutes of the ballistic missile launch.


title: United States national missile defense

text: On 1 September 2006, the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System was successfully tested. An interceptor was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base to hit a target missile launched from Alaska, with ground support provided by a crew at Colorado Springs. This test was described by Missile Defense Agency director Lieutenant General Trey Obering as "about as close as we can come to an end-to-end test of our long-range missile defense system." The target missile carried no decoys or other countermeasures.


title: United States national missile defense

text: On 24 February 2007, "The Economist" reported that the United States ambassador to NATO, Victoria Nuland, had written to her fellow envoys to advise them regarding the various options for missile-defense sites in Europe. She also confirmed that "The United States has also been discussing with the UK further potential contributions to the system."


title: United States national missile defense

text: On 23 February 2008, the United States successfully shot down a malfunctioning American spy satellite.


title: United States national missile defense

text: The Ustka-Wicko base () of the Polish Army was mentioned as a possible site of US missile interceptors. Russia objected; its suspension of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe may be related.


title: United States national missile defense

text: Russia threatened to place short-range nuclear missiles on the Russia's border with NATO if the United States refused to abandon plans to deploy 10 interceptor missiles and a radar in Poland and the Czech Republic. In April 2007, Putin warned of a new Cold War if the Americans deployed the shield in Central Europe. Putin also said that Russia is prepared to abandon its obligations under a Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987 with the United States. In 2014 Russia announced plans to install more radar and missile defense systems across the country to counter U.S. plans for a missile defense system in Eastern Europe.


title: United States national missile defense

text: As of January 2017, the top 3 candidate sites for a proposed Eastern United States missile defense site are now New York, Michigan, and Ohio.


title: United States national missile defense

text: Previously, a controversial initiative existed for placing GMD missile defense installations in Central Europe, namely in Poland and Czech Republic. As a result of strong Russian opposition, the plan has been abandoned in favor of Aegis-class missile defense based in the Black Sea and eventually in Romania.


title: United States national missile defense

text: In February 2007, the US started formal negotiations with Poland and Czech Republic concerning placement of a site of Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System. The announced objective was to protect most of Europe from long-range missile strikes from Iran. Public opinion in both countries opposed: 57% of Poles disagreed, while 21% supported the plans; in Czech Republic it was 67% versus 15%. More than 130,000 Czechs signed a petition for a referendum about the base, which is by far the largest citizen initiative ("Ne základnám" – No to Bases) since the Velvet Revolution.


title: United States national missile defense

text: The Ustka-Wicko base of the Polish Army was mentioned as a possible site of 10 American interceptor missiles. Russia objected; its suspension of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe may be related. Putin warned of a possible new Cold War. Russia threatened to place short-range nuclear missiles on its border with NATO if the United States refused to abandon the plan.


title: United States national missile defense

text: A radar and tracking system site placement was agreed with the Czech Republic. After long negotiations, on 20 August 2008, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski signed in Warsaw the "Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Poland Concerning the Deployment of Ground-Based Ballistic Missile Defense Interceptors in the Territory of the Republic of Poland", a deal that would implement the missile defense system in Polish territory. Russia warned Poland that it is exposing itself to attack—even a nuclear one—by accepting U.S. missile interceptors on its soil. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn the deputy chief of staff of Russia's armed forces said "Poland, by deploying (the system) is exposing itself to a strike – 100 percent".


title: United States national missile defense

text: In September 2009, President Barack Obama announced that plans for missile defense sites in Central Europe would be scrapped in favor of systems located on US Navy warships. On 18 September 2009, Russian Prime Minister Putin decided to welcome Obama's plans for stationing American Aegis defense warships in the Black Sea. The deployment occurred the same month, consisting of warships equipped with the Aegis RIM-161 SM-3 missile system, which complements the Patriot missile systems already deployed by American units.


title: United States national missile defense

text: Once USS "Monterey" was actually deployed to the Black Sea the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement voicing concern about the deployment.


title: United States national missile defense

text: On 4 February 2010, Romania agreed to host the SM-3 missiles starting in 2015. The missile defense system in Deveselu became operational on 18 December 2015. The BMD component in Romania underwent an upgrade in 2019; in the interim a THAAD unit, B Battery (THAAD), 62nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, was emplaced in NSF Deveselu, Romania. Aegis Ashore was installed in Redzikowo, Poland with completion by 2022.


title: United States national missile defense

text: There has been controversy among experts about whether it is technically feasible to build an effective missile defense system and, in particular, whether the GMD would work.


title: United States national missile defense

text: An April 2000 study by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concluded that "[a]ny country capable of deploying a long-range missile would also be able to deploy countermeasures that would defeat the planned NMD system."


title: United States national missile defense

text: Countermeasures studied in detail were bomblets containing biological or chemical agents, aluminized balloons to serve as decoys and to disguise warheads, and cooling warheads to reduce the kill vehicle's ability to detect them.


title: United States national missile defense

text: In April 2004, a General Accounting Office report concluded that "MDA does not explain some critical assumptions—such as an enemy’s type and number of decoys—underlying its performance goals." It recommended that "DOD carry out independent, operationally realistic testing of each block being fielded" but DOD responded that "formal operational testing is not required before entry into full-rate production."


title: United States national missile defense

text: Proponents did not suggest how to discriminate between empty and warhead-enclosing balloons, for instance, but said that these "simple" countermeasures are actually hard to implement, and that defense technology is rapidly advancing to defeat them. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said decoy discrimination techniques were classified, and emphasized its intention to provide future boost and terminal defense to diminish the importance of midcourse decoys. In summer 2002 MDA ceased providing detailed intercept information and declined to answer technical questions about decoys on grounds of national security.


title: United States national missile defense

text: China is developing a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), now called the DF-ZF, capable of penetrating US missile defenses. The US Department of Defense denotes this HGV as the WU-14. In response the US Army is participating in a joint program with the US Navy and US Air Force, to develop a hypersonic glide body in 2019, with test fires every six months, beginning in 2021.


title: United States national missile defense

text: Boost-phase interceptions are desired as an initial layer of defense. It is the only layer that can cost-effectively destroy MIRV missiles.


title: United States national missile defense

text: Currently only Aegis has a possible boost-phase capability, but—in the case of the SM-2—it needs to be within   of a launch point. This is acceptable for submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), but not likely for land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).


title: United States national missile defense

text: Boost-phase defense is significantly more difficult against the current solid-fuel rocket ICBMs, because their boost phase is shorter. Current solid-fueled ICBMs include Russian Topol, Indian Agni-V, and Chinese DF-31 and DF-41, along with the US Minuteman and Trident.