Syrian chemical weapons: truth and fiction

The last argument against the invasion of Syria by foreign troops

by Ioncube Khanz

(Readers are encouraged to add/edit/replace any references, opinions can be given via comments)

The situation in Syria continues to be extremely challenging, fighting between government troops and the rebels did not subside. It's time once again to recall the statement of the representative of the Syrian Foreign Ministry Jihad Maqdisi, "No chemical or non-conventional weapons would not be used against our citizens. These weapons will be used only in the event of external aggression." He also said that all the warehouses of chemical weapons in the country are under the control of government forces. In fact, Damascus officially acknowledged a means of mass destruction, because previously there were only suspicions.

Read More

Putin & the Russian Army

Candidate Vladimir Putin’s election manifesto on the military and national security appeared in Rossiyskaya gazeta.  The rambling 6,500-word essay reads like most campaign literature — a series of feel-good sound bites with inconvenient facts, details, and background left out.

Read More

Missile launch shows India on course for nuclear superiority?

Last month India successfully launched a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with a range of 5,000km (3,100 miles). This is significant for at least two pressing reasons: the Agni-V missile is capable of carrying nuclear warheads, and its long range brings it within striking distance of China.

Read More

Chinese Prototype For Electromagnetic Catapults For Aircraft Carriers

The designer of the system - Ma Weiming (马伟明),  graduated from Naval Engineering Institute in 1982; in 1996 received his doctorate at the University of Tsinghua. Known primarily as a specialist in electric power systems, and submarines. He is currently a professor at the Naval Engineering University of PLA.

Read More

Japan ready to shoot down North Korea Rocket; AFP on alert

The Philippine military on Friday said it had “intensified” its monitoring of North Korea’s plan to launch a long-range rocket next month, as Japan readied its missile defense systems to shoot down the rocket if it threatens Japanese territory.

MISSILE THREAT (Far left) Two Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Aegis guided-missile destroyers, Kongo (front) and Chokai (rear) head out to sea from their base in Sasebo in this photo taken on March 28, 2009. Japan is readying its missile defense systems to shoot down a North Korean rocket if it threatens the country. Inset, a rocket lifts off from its launch pad in Musudan-ri, North Korea, in this April 5, 2009 image from KRT video.

Read More

Americans Gave Useless Info To Russia Regarding components of Missile Defence

The data on the planned US antimissile system in Europe handed over to Russia is “useless and irrelevant” according to reports. After the failure to strike a deal with Washington, Moscow plans to expose details of the row to the general public.

Read More

Ukraine’s Unknown Missile Adventures

The mystery of the missing nuclear warheads from Ukraine still has not been disclosed, but the fact of loss is recognized

Everyone knows that in 90 years, Ukraine has voluntarily given up all nuclear weapons and strategic missiles and strategic weapons of military aircraft. Kiev widely advertised these steps as the proof of the commitment of the young state of peace and disarmament. Less well known is that this failure was not entirely voluntary, and there was a fairly strong pressure of both the West and Russia. And it is very little known, about the nuclear arsenal Ukraine inherited from USSR.

Read More

King of the Bombs

The explosion as seen from Durnovtsev's Tu-95.

It was called Tsar Bomba, king of the bombs, but it also went by the name “Big Ivan.” With a yield of 58 megatons, the hydrogen bomb detonated on October 30, 1961, over the Soviet Arctic test site at Novya Zemlya remains the biggest manmade explosion in history (see the video below).

Read More

The Story of Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn

There is an intriguing story to tell about the lives and times of Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn, two remarkable scientists whose extraordinary collaboration culminated in the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938, turning Einstein's "theory" into atomic science. Not only did these two revolutionize the history of science and the role of women in physics and chemistry, their tale also parallels the social changes and turbulent history of their times. It involves the war against memory, Nazi intimidation, forced exile, betrayal, and a Nobel Prize awarded only in chemistry that to this day distorts science history.

Read More

Protector of Chinese Kingdom: Missile Technology

Over the past few years, Russian statesmen, politicians and pundits have plagued many tons of paper,uttered hundreds of thousands of words  about the deployment of U.S. missile defense system. Meanwhile, developments in BMD were active (and perhaps also under way), not only in the United States but in China, moreover it is not quite unproductive.

45years ago - February 23, 1966 the Government Commission on Defence Science, Technology and Industry of the PRC (Peoples Republic of China) adopted a step by step detailed program of a national missile defense, which was given the code name Project 640. Prone to conspiracy Chinese proceeded in this case of the so-called Directive 640 - governing the wishes expressed in a couple of years earlier by Mao Zedong in his conversation with Qian Syuesenem - the founder of the missile and space programs of China.

Read More

Russia's Biggest Question: "Floating Airfields"

Russia, perhaps will get a few carriers. In any case, the representatives of the United Shipbuilding Corporation have repeatedly asserted that the design of a new heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser must begin. It is true that the Russian military has repeatedly insisted that the creation of such ships are planned. Whom to believe - it is not clear.

Read More

Engineering Britain SuperWeapons

So when it comes down to prove that Britain can & would compete with the Americans & Russians on any possible technical grounds British scientists & engineers came up with gigantic machines termed as British SuperWeapons. But little do they know that the limped British economy after WWII does no good in developing weapons of their own, rather they will ‘rent’ American made weapons to safeguard their territory, though gone are the days when this British territory was ‘completely’ independent!

Read More

Rocket and Space Corporation Energia The Legacy of S.P.Korolev

Viewers just want to share this amazing book that I  just had finished reading.

When the world's first artificial satellite sped across the night skies the impact was far-reaching and profound. Not only was this clearly one of the great scientific achievements of the modern age but it was also a catalyst which would propel the United States out of its post-War lethargy. The Political significance of the lift-capability of the R-7 rocket aroused the attentions of the West while irrevocably altering the face of human history. The Space Age had begun. The story of the R-7 rocket and its many offspring is one which still remains a mystery in the West. Now in the post-Cold war era the remarkable accomplishments of the engineers of Rocket & Space Corporation Energia are finally reaching eager readers in the West.

The pages within contain a pictorial record encompassing the entire history of the Russian space programme, from its inception at the end of World War II to the present day.

The sheer wealth of original and durable technology is a testament to the ingenuity of a remarkable people and gives a unique glimpse a the future of the historic partnership between East and West.

Published for the first time completely in English, Rocket & Space Corporation Energia features rare pictures and diagrams including:

Sputnik - Yuri Gagarin's Vostok capsule - the world's first Space Stations - the enormous lunar rocket N1 - Russia's interplanetary probes and the Buran shuttle.

Read More

Pakistan’s Nuclear Forces, 2011

The US raid that killed Osama bin Laden has raised concerns about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. In the process of building two new plutonium production reactors and a new reprocessing facility to fabricate more nuclear weapons fuel, Pakistan is also developing new delivery systems. The authors estimate that if the country’s expansion continues, Pakistan’s nuclear weapons stockpile could reach 150–200 warheads in a decade. They assess the country’s nuclear forces, providing clear analysis of its nuclear command and control, nuclear-capable aircraft, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles.

Read More

All the Dear Leader's Bootleggers: North Korea's Secret Trade in Nukes -- and Whiskey

BY SIMON HENDERSON

Pakistan and North Korea have been involved for decades in a secretive trade: The Pakistani military acquired missiles from North Korea, and Pyongyang, as part of the deal, gained access to Pakistan's uranium enrichment centrifuges. Now, new details have emerged that reveal how this relationship was smoothed by money. The Washington Post published revelations today, attributed to me, that top-level North Korean officials bribed Pakistani military officials with over $3 million in exchange for the nuclear technology. This disclosure offers fresh details about how nuclear weapon secrets have proliferated across the globe -- and provides a unique insight into the dangerous consequences of the hermit kingdom's "entrepreneurial" role in world affairs.

Read More

North Korea Admitted As The Largest Supplier Of Missiles

North Korea has become the largest supplier of different types of ballistic missiles to various developing countries, according to Defense Aerospace, with reference to a report by research company Forecast International. In the period from 1987 to 2009, North Korea has exported 1200 missiles, representing about 40 percent of this market segment weapons. For comparison, the direct competitors in the market  of ballistic missiles to the developing countries - Russia and China - have managed to export only 400 and 270 missiles, respectively.

Read More

Proliferation Threat Of Medium-range Ballistics Is Extremely Limited

The threat of ballistic missiles (BM) medium-range and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) is extremely limited and is characterized by a downward trend. ARMS-TASS on scientific and practical conference with participation of the military attaches of foreign countries on the topic "Russia's position on the creation of a European missile defense," said Deputy Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Vyacheslav Kondrashov.

Read More

Science Behind Depleted Uranium

In the past I’ve made a number of posts and videos mentioning the fact that uranium is a rather common mineral and that it’s been used in a number of consumer products.   Indeed, thousands of kitchen cabinets contain uranium-glazed dinnerware, some of which was mass produced as recently as the 1980’s.

This has been met with a curious response on numerous occasions.   Many concede that uranium is not all that harmful when touched or even ingested but then say “but what about the nano-particles.”   The dust, or “nanoparticles” resulting from uranium combustion are one thing that seems to come up again and again.  They are often credited with nearly magical properties, like the ability to stay suspended in the air indefinitely or to cause horrible health problems even in those far from the location where the uranium projectile was fired.

Read More

Iran’s Nuclear Future: US Policy Choices

Dissuading Iran from developing nuclear weapons faces major obstacles, but it's too soon to give up trying as it may still be possible to influence the outcome of Iran's internal political debate, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.

The study, "Iran's Nuclear Future: Critical U.S. Policy Choices," describes the complex considerations underlying future U.S. policy options in responding to Iran's evolving nuclear program. It also assesses the potential effectiveness of each policy option and concludes that difficult policy trade-offs will be required.

Iran’s military views Imam Hossein, who died in the desert of southern Karbala while fighting thousands of the caliph’s soldiers with only 70 of his own men, as a model worthy of emulation. The Islamic Republic’s view of victory—resistance without an actual victory— has shaped its general military doctrine. Fariborz Haghshenass, “Iran’s Doctrine of Asymmetric Naval Warfare,” Washington, D.C.: Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Policy Watch No. 1179, December 21, 2006.

Read More

On the "Angara", "Rus", and "Bulava"…

Last week, the Russian Space Agency head Anatoly Perminov, briefed members of the Federation Council on the status and prospects of development of the domestic space industry. MIC publishes excerpts of the speech.

Read More