The German government is in talks with arms maker MBDA (AIR.PA), (LDOF.MI), (BAES.L) about the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, a security source told Reuters on Friday, echoing a report by Spiegel magazine.
Kyiv has been pushing Berlin to supply it with the Taurus, a missile with a range of more than 500 km (311 miles) that is launched by fighter jets such as the Tornado, the F-15 or the F-18
(August 9, 2023)
This month, as House and Senate conferees begin to iron out differences between the two chambers on a nearly $900 billion Pentagon spending bill for next fiscal year, both the House and Senate armed services committees want to place a new generation of nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missiles (known as SLCM-Ns) back on Navy vessels. That would be a mistake.
(Apr 3, 2023)
n this YouTube video, we delve into the science behind the neutron bomb, a meticulously crafted nuclear weapon developed during the Cold War. Learn how this bomb‘s perfect balance between minimizing blast radius and maximizing neutron radiation makes it so deadly.
(Dec. 1, 2010)
In contrast to strategic warheads, which can kill millions and level cities, and smaller short-range tactical nuclear arms designed to wipe out battlefield forces, the neutron bomb minimized blast and heat. Instead, it maximized a barrage of infinitesimal neutrons that could zip through tanks, buildings and other structures and kill people, usually by destroying the central nervous system, and all other life forms.
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The Reagan administration developed but never deployed the weapons in the 1980s. France, Israel and the Soviet Union were believed to have added versions of the bomb to their arsenals. Western military planners rejected their use in the Vietnam War and regarded them only as a possible deterrent to superior Soviet tank forces in Europe. But the end of the cold war obviated even that purpose.
(Nov. 15, 1981)
The long years of engineering grew out of a notion originated by Samuel T. Cohen, a Defense Department consultant, in the mid-1950‘s. Around 1957, at the instigation of Edward Teller at the Lawrence Livermore weapons laboratory, work began that led to the development of a device which, according to Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, “enables infantry to fight closely behind it, as with conventional artillery.“
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Of all NATO governments, none was put in a more awkward position than Helmut Schmidt‘s. In 1978, the West German Chancellor, under heavy pressure from the Carter Administration, had sought his Cabinet‘s support to allow neutron deployment. The Chancellor privately won his Cabinet‘s approval but Mr. Carter, lacking any open backing from Bonn, deferred the matter, deeply embarrassing Chancellor Schmidt. Then, in December 1979, NATO agreed to accept 572 new Pershing-2 and cruise missiles to offset a new generation of Soviet SS-20 missiles. It was assumed that this action indefinitely postponed any revival of the neutron bomb.
(Aug. 25, 2020)
Hydrogen bombs — the world’s deadliest weapons — have no theoretical size limit.
(August 12, 2022)
– Shockwave from the bomb raced around the world three times, and shattered windows in Finland; 500 plus miles away
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– Sensors registered the bomb’s blast wave orbiting the Earth not once, not twice, but three times
– Reports say a seismic shock wave which was equivalent to 5.0 on the Richter Scale was measured around the world
The nuclear arms race that originated in the race for atomic weapons during World War II reached a culminating point on October 30, 1961, with the detonation of the Tsar Bomba, the largest and most powerful nuclear weapon ever constructed.
The bomb would be attached to a parachute to slow its descent to detonation at 13,000 feet,
The detonation was astronomically powerful—over 1,570 times more powerful, in fact, than the combined two bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Tsar Bomba’s yield was 50 megatons: ten times more powerful than all of the ordnance exploded during the whole of World War II. The mushroom cloud was 25 miles wide at its base and almost 60 miles wide at its top. At 40 miles high, it penetrated the stratosphere.
The resulting radioactive fallout might have been catastrophic, not just for the Soviet Union but for its neighbors. And it would have, if the Tsar Bomba’s original concept—yielding an almost inconceivable 100 megatons—had been pursued. Fortunately, because of the height at which the device was detonated, the accompanying five-mile-wide fireball was repelled away from the surface by the force of its own shockwave and did not make contact with the earth, …
(June 7, 2017)
The established pattern of constraints on Iran’s nuclear program could be held as the gold standard for the rest of the international community. This option is readily available to the United States and the partners with which it negotiated the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA): China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the European Union. The international community should draw on that agreement and turn its standards into general, global ones, applying them to all countries seeking to enrich uranium or attempting to use plutonium for any purpose.
Lapid, who made his views known in a meeting with a Democratic Congressional delegation now visiting Israel, warned the Saudi enrichment would endanger Israel’s security.
The declaration makes him the first Israeli leader to publicly oppose the Saudi demand, which has aroused considerable concerns in the Israeli defense establishment. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far remained silent on the issue.
Without a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia, the Israeli prime minister‘s situation in the polls will remain dire and the economy will weaken further. Biden needs to tell him: If you want an agreement with Riyadh, stop the coup
ECOWAS leaders have ordered immediate invasion of Niger, charging the regional body’s standby force to restore constitutional order following the seizure of power in a military coup late last month.
It‘s unclear when or where the force will deploy and which countries from the 15-member bloc would contribute to it. Conflict experts say it would likely comprise some 5,000 troops led by Nigeria and could be ready within weeks.
On Wednesday, Nigeria’s former central bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, met with coup leaders in Niamey to begin talks. But the junta appeared unwilling to budge without first receiving major concessions, including easing sanctions on the military regime to allow medicine and food to enter the country as well as forcing Nigeria to restore electricity to Niger.
But catering to junta demands and looking wishy-washy over its threat of military intervention is not a great look for the regional bloc.
Die Bundesregierung hat ihre ablehnende Haltung in Bezug auf eine Lieferung von „Taurus“-Marschflugkörpern an die Ukraine offenbar aufgegeben. Voraussetzung sei, dass die Zielprogrammierung des „Taurus“ eingeschränkt werde.
(Aug. 9, 2023)
It was the 12th time in the past three weeks that Russian officials had reported intercepting such aerial attacks in the heart of the capital.