Saudis Buy Advanced Nuclear-Capable Missiles in China

US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon is the second high-ranking American official to visit Riyadh in less than a week. He landed Tuesday, April 12, just six days after US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Saudi King Abdullah ended a stormy interview which failed to bridge the widening gap between Washington and Riyadh.
For the second interview, the monarch was attended by three top royal advisers, all hawks and live wires in security and external affairs: Director of General Intelligence Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, Secretary-General of the National Security Council Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and Saudi Ambassador to the US Adel Jubeir.

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Tales of the Gun: Guns of the Russian Military

If we have to mention an extraordinary occasion accompanied with an extraordinary weapon; that will be the Siege of Leningrad & the PPS submachine gun.

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A Third Generation of Nukes

by MICHAEL D. LEMONICK;BRUCE VAN VOORST/ WASHINGTON

The Hazebrook nuclear device that was detonated some 700 ft. below the Nevada desert  was puny by most measures. Equal to about 40 tons of TNT, a mere .2% as strong as the Hiroshima blast, it would be feeble in a missile warhead. But in space, packed into the closed end of a stubby barrel and tamped down with hundreds of thousands of metal pellets, the low-yield weapon could wreak havoc. Unlike a standard nuclear explosion, which would vaporize the pellets and barrel, this one would spray the pellets through space at speeds up to 100 times that of a high-velocity rifle bullet. These pellets could not only burst the decoy balloons that would accompany a swarm of warheads but also destroy incoming missiles before their warheads were released.

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The New Front Line Of Modern Warfare.

BY STANLEY A. MCCHRYSTAL

From the outset of my command in Afghanistan, two or three times each week, accompanied by a few aides and often my Afghan counterparts, I would leave the International Security Assistance Force headquarters in Kabul and travel across Afghanistan -- from critical cities like Kandahar to the most remote outposts in violent border regions. Ideally, we left early, traveling light and small, normally using a combination of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, to meet with Afghans and their leaders and to connect with our troops on the ground: Brits and Marines rolling back the enemy in Helmand, Afghan National Army troops training in Mazar-e-Sharif, French Foreign Legionnaires patrolling in Kapisa.

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Real Face of U.S. ABM system in Europe

by Ilya Kramnik

U.S. missile defense system, whose deployment has continued despite the changed concept remains the main stumbling block between the U.S. and Russia. Today, it can not reflect the Russian nuclear attack and is unlikely to tomorrow, but it is in its weakness is the main threat.

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NATO At War, But You Wouldn't Know It In Brussels.

BY STEPHEN CASTLE

BRUSSELS — During the Kosovo conflict in the late 1990s, NATO's Brussels headquarters had something of the feeling of a battlefield encampment. Member states dispatched top strategists to Belgium to confer with one another and with the international press. Journalists from around the world crammed themselves by the hundreds every day into a gloomy auditorium to digest and challenge the latest spin, not only at the daily briefings, but also afterward, well into the night. As the alliance's public face, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea became so well known that his name was chanted by Kosovar Albanians when he visited a liberated Pristina.

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S-300P Missile Destroy Ten Aerial Targets In Two Minutes

The First Aerospace Defense Brigade has repelled an all-out simulated air strike at the Ashuluk firing range in Russia’s Astrakhan Region. Four battalions operating S-300 Favorit SA-20 Gargoyle surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems knocked out drones in a difficult tactical situation. All sort of aerial threats ranging from manned jet planes to ballistic missiles were simulated & successfully neutralized..

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Tales of the Gun: The AK-47

The Avtomat Kalashnikova, 1947, otherwise known as the AK-47, was developed by the Soviets in secrecy at the dawn of the Cold War. Its menacing silhouette, featuring a curved magazine, has gained worldwide recognition and respect. In a rare television interview Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the AK-47, discusses how he designed the gun and what it was like to work within the secret world of the Soviet military during the Cold War.

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My Brother the Islamist

Robb Leech is an ordinary white middle-class boy from the Dorset seaside town of Weymouth. So too is his stepbrother Rich, but a little over a year ago Rich became a radical Islamist who now goes by the name of Salahuddin. He associates with jihadist fundamentalists and believes the UK should be ruled by Sharia law.

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The Secret War On Terror

9/11 ushered in a secret war against al-Qaida that was to test West’s commitment to human rights to the limit!!

President Bush wanted to deny any prison rights vis a vis by Geneva convention to any al-Qaida suspects….Washington wanted results & CIA was told to get results any way they get them.

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Flying Radar in the Past and Present - Part III

Read first and second parts.

Role of AWACS aircraft in the modern air force can not be overestimated. Without these aircraft are inconceivable today any large-scale air operations, and flying radar capabilities have increased significantly. Improving avionics, its miniaturization have made a real appearance of numerous variants of these machines, based on light and medium platforms, its characteristics are not inferior to the heavier counterparts.

Using AWACS aircraft in a centralized system of control and communication is vital to any country which claims to possess advanced military forces. Modern aircraft of this class are able to detect targets in the air, surface water, ground and allow you to control the actions of diverse forces in real time. Without exaggerating, we can say that the presence of these planes in the Air Force today is one of the essential traits of their compliance with the requirements of the 21st century.

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Russia’s Fading Army Fights Losing Battle to Reform Itself

A very good article by the Wall Street Journal’s Richard Boudreaux . . . though missing a few of the most up-to-date pieces of the story, his report captures important aspects of the Russian contract service experiment that even so-called specialists overlook.

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Pakistan-Tactical Multi-Tube Ballistic Missile

Pakistan yesterday conducted the first official test firing of what it described as a short-range surface-to-surface multitube ballistic missile.
An Inter-Services Press Release statement said the Nasr (Victory) missile could be tipped with "nuclear warheads of appropriate yield with high accuracy," therefore confirming Pakistan's long-assumed tactical nuclear weapons program.

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The Battle of Hood and Bismarck

These two battleships were the largest that ever sailed the seas for their countries. They were also engaged in a naval battle that decided the ate of the Bismark and condemned the HMS Hood to the bottom of the North Atlantic where it still lies to this day.

Bismarck in 1940

HMS Hood, 17 March 1924

 

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It all started with Tunisia - Part III

by Yevgeny Satanovsky

Events unfolding in recent months in the Middle East, allow us to estimate the alignment of forces vying for influence in the region, and to revise the established theoretical concepts, not all of which were confirmed in practice. In our country, they surprised all academic schools: the adherents of the academic approach (dating back to the classic Russian Oriental Studies), military and political ideology (based on the theory of the Soviet era) and they weren’t accustomed to the neo-liberal dogma of western wing & the related happenings. Consolation may be that the relevant U.S. and European research centers and specialized agencies have shown the same incompetence.In the preceding section on the countries of the Arab world, we can estimate what is happening beyond its borders. There are external centers of power, at least, if not more important centers for the Arab perception that are now witnessing the unrest, riots and civil wars all over the Islamic "arc of instability", extending to Africa and destabilize Europe.

Read first and second parts.

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Chechen Muslim Comrade-Follow Quran & Prophet

by Usman Abdullaev

Today, an increasingly important role in the life of Russian society, and therefore the army is the religious factor. Your thoughts on this subject with the readers of "military-industrial complex" has already shared the chairman of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in cooperation with the Armed Forces and law enforcement agencies, archpriest Dimitry Smirnov. This newspaper editorial provides a word of Muslim theology (Ulema*) Usman Utsievichu Abdullayev. He graduated from the Islamic spiritual institution in Damascus (Syria), and, despite his youth, took the high office of the Deputy Mufti of the Chechen Republic, the head of the department of religion of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims (DUM) in Chechnya. Usman Abdullayev is also one of spiritual mentors head Ramzan Kadyrov. Often met with soldiers of the battalion "North" and "South", comprising the 46th brigade of Interior Ministry troops of Russia, he knows firsthand what problems today have to face many commanders in dealing with personnel.

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China Military Construction on US-Soviet Templates

by Alexander Khramchikhin

The Information Office of the State Council issued another - the seventh since 1998, White Paper, "China's National Defense 2010". Familiarity with it causes a lot of troubling questions.

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A World That Doesn't Have To Ask For America's Permission…

By David Rothkopf 

While NATO bickers over strategy in Libya, BRIC leaders have gathered in Sanya, China, to demonstrate the growing strength of an alternative grouping that has among its principle selling points the fact that it is neither Western nor U.S.-dominated. To compare the world's most potent and enduring military alliance with a loose affiliation of emerging powers that are divided by perhaps more issues than unite them is clearly comparing apples and lychee nuts or guarana seeds, but the juxtaposition of the two events does offer yet another whiff of how the institutions and ideas of the 20th century are giving way to those of the 21st.

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Libya-Electronic Warfare Defeated SAMs

In the air strikes on Libya, the United States first used the latest electronic warfare aircraft EA-18G Growler. According to Western military, thanks largely to him, no American, French or British plane was shot down a Libyan air defenses.

EA-18G Growler

 

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World Market Of Air Defense Systems "Promptly" Respond To The Events In Libya

Course of operations in Libya has demonstrated the importance of reliable modern air defense systems for the country's defense, which will further increase demand on the world market for air-defense system of small, medium and long range, which before these events was quite high.

 

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Flying Radar in the Past and Present - Part II

by Ilya Kramnik

Continued…. read the last issue

By the end of 60's AWACS aircraft firmly taken their place in the Air Force's leading countries in the world. Without “flying radars” bypassed not one large-scale air operation. At the same time disadvantages of first generation AWACs severely limits their opportunities. Especially critical was the inability to detect low-flying targets.

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It all started with Tunisia - Part II

by Yevgeny Satanovsky

Continued...  read in the last issue .

In the Middle East as in all previous eras, "power centers" in the second decade of the 21st century, vying with each other in an enlarged still another round of "big games", international organizations realize large scale projects in the region, much of which is aimed at ensuring funding for these organizations, not having to do with the real problems of the Middle East and the revolution, riots, civil wars and interstate conflicts unfold naturally.

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It all Started With Tunisia: Part 1

by Yevgeny Satanovsky

The initial phase of Operation Odyssey Dawn to peace enforcement of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi makes it possible not only to analyze a first approximation, the correlation of forces and tactics states, movements and international organizations operating in the Middle East, but also to assess the current Russian policy in this space terms of the ratio of ambition and capacity of domestic agencies and organizations. Those heads of departments and organizations that are imbued with an understandable, albeit unproductive nostalgia for Soviet times, it is believed a reasonable attempt to return to them, competing with the West in all possible directions and responding promptly to any proposal of the ruling regimes on military-technical cooperation, economic assistance and construction or lease in the region bases.

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Flying Radar in the Past and Present - Part I

by Ilya Kramnik

The first aircraft with onboard radar do not differ great potential - the maximum they could get of their radars, is to help locate in poor weather or night-time enemy aircraft at a distance of several kilometers and ensure convergence to the distance to the effective fire-board weapons. Since then the situation has changed radically. Today, the winged machines Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft - a key element of air power in developed countries.

And the activities to establish the aircraft radar appeared almost immediately after the creation of the first workable radar in the late 30's, and soon broke out World War II spurred the only work in this area.

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Forgotten GUN Blum

by Simon Fedoseev

System of a machine gun was designed by Mikhail Nikolayevich Blum (1907-1970) - later known developer of various samples of weapons and ammunition - in the very beginning of his path as a designer-gunsmith, in 1929. At this time, Blum served as a gunsmith in parts of the Far East Special Red Banner Army, but in early 1930 was directed at the disposal of the Chief Artillery Directorate of the Red Army to carry out their inventions.

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Weapons Races: Nuclear Submarine

The Race for the Nuclear Submarine From the very first nuclear powered sub, USS Nautilus to the latest nuclear attack sub, USS Virginia (representing the cutting edge of modern naval warfare); a race has ensued to develop a new kind of warship that would change naval warfare forever. Look at the way in which both the technology and the tactics of submarine warfare were adapted and developed during the Cold War, and how boats like the USS Virginia and the Russian Akula are today's most powerful and deadly naval units.

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America Unmanned Future

by Vladimir Shcherbakov

 

"Computers and the like" network-centric "Things are good at the exercises and in the war against a weak opponent - said once one of the American generals. - They give commanders the beautiful pictures and lots of information.But when enemy is distributed in the trenches: "bayonets!", It is time to turn off the monitors and take up a rifle. " 

By 2020, the number of UAVs in the U.S. military will increase by seven times.In early February, the Pentagon submitted a long-term, calculated at 30 years of combat aircraft procurement plan and supporting aviation, one of the priorities of which - the development of unmanned aircraft systems for various purposes, from tactical to strategic. It should be noted that this document is based on the provisions of the next four-year plan for defense of U.S. construction in 2010.

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Ceramic Coatings May Protect Jet Engines from Volcanic Ash

Last year's $2 billion shutdown of European airspace following a volcanic eruption in Iceland alerted everyone to the danger that ash clouds can pose to aircraft engines. Now, researchers have discovered that a new class of ceramic coatings could offer jet engines special protection against volcanic ash damage in the future.

For a study published online in the Early View edition of the journal Advanced Materials, the researchers tested two coatings that were originally developed to keep airborne sand from damaging jet engines, and found that the coatings also resist damage caused by ash deposits.

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"Your victory - this is our achievement"

 

by Vadim Levashko

Russian Broken Translation; made understandable by GarryB

"Supplies of arms and military equipment under Lend-Lease were not decisive for the victory of the Soviet Army and Navy in the Great Patriotic War and the war with Japan"

The interrelations of the participating countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, until now, cause by no means academic disputes. Anglo-Saxon and German historians often substantially exaggerate the value of that aid, which the western allies rendered the USSR. But how was matter in actuality? Answer can be found on the pages of history, including dedicated to the deliveries of armament and technology to Naval fleet.

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Recent Advances in Trace Explosives Detection

There has been a huge increase in instrument development for trace detection of explosives in the past 3 years. This is especially true for methods that can be used at a stand off distance, driven by the frightening increase in the use of improvised explosive devices in both suicide and road side bombings. This review attempts to outline and enumerate these recent developments, with details about the improvements made as well as where further improvements might come.

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Weapons Races : Strategic Bomber

streaming @ blip.tv

Examine the elements of range, payload, protection and performance which convinced military theorists that the B-2A Spirit stealth bomber was the ultimate weapon. Find out how their hopes and fears were tested in combat. Observe the changing strategies in the warfare & how the deigned weapons get accustomed to every variable. See how the the role of once mighty strategic bombers is being shadowed by more lethal & agile ICBMs. The Russians can’t make a bomber similar to the US arsenal..& they changed the conventional warfare understanding with the introduction of MIRVed ICBMs…the most ECONOMICAL method to project power!!

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The Question of Independent Pashtunistan

by Musa Khan Jalalzai

The Afghan ruler neither offered the Pashtuns of Pakistan the citizenship of Afghanistan nor gave them the right of vote. They never accepted them as Afghans nor allowed them to visit Afghanistan without a Pakistani passport.

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have remained strained due to the Durand Line dispute. Successive Afghan governments refused to recognise the Durand Line as a legitimate border between the two countries. The borderland is predominantly inhabited by Pashtun tribes who were divided by then Afghan ruler Abdul Rahman Khan’s wrong decision in 1893. This issue has been a major cause of strained relations between the two states. Neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan has realised the importance of the other.

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Evolution of Legendary RPG-7

by Simon Fedoseev

This year marks 50 years since adopting a grenade reusable RPG-7. For this area of ​​weapons such "longevity" can be regarded as unique - too rapidly changing requirements for an RPG with the development of military technology and methods of warfare. This makes it even more interesting history and current status of the "longevity", continues to be active military service.

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The Crusades-Terry Jones

@blip.tv four episodes

It took 200 years for the Crusaders to create [this] Muslim fanaticism. It was the exact imitation of Christian intolerance.

In this series, Terry Jones presents the recounting of the religious wars for control of the "Holy Lands" waged by Christian Europe against the Islamic world. In addition, Terry Jones recreates specific aspects of those events by exploring the lives of pivotal figures, the technology and the politics of the era. Furthermore, Terry Jones also shows how these acts of religious bigotry at its worst have led to many of the political and ethnic problems we have today.

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Rocket Pride of India

by Vladimir Shcherbakov

Regional superpower, India will soon be one of the power centers of world significance. And thanks in part to qualitative and quantitative growth of military power, the full development of the national military-industrial complexes. Delhi is the de facto member of the nuclear club, independently develop nuclear weapons and their means of delivery - primarily ballistic missiles, medium and long range.

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Russia Eyes Bigger Role on North Korea Issue

by Dmitri Trenin

Russia, up till now a more discreet player in the North Korean nuclear issue, seems to be intervening more actively in the rising tension over the Korean Peninsula recently. Does this signal a policy change by Russia toward North Korea? And what is the thinking behind Russia's increasing military presence in Northeast Asia? Global Times reporter Liu Linlin talked to Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, on these issues.

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Forgotten Ally

by Michael Vovk

It is widely known that the Second World War won the three powers - the USSR, Britain and the United States. It was they who made the most significant contribution to the victory. Nevertheless, apart from them with the troops of the Wehrmacht in the ranks of the Allies fought and hundreds of thousands of other nationalities. The most numerous of them were Poles who had fought not only in the pro-Soviet Polish troops, known to our citizens in the film "Four tanker and a dog", and numerous guerrilla groups operating in occupied Poland, but also in the armed forces of the Western powers. On this last fact in our country for many years, chose not to speak. The reason for this - big-time politics and the Cold War.

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Bright Future "Dinosaur" T-95 Tank

Russian Broken Translation; made understandable by GarryB

Despite all the predictions about the care of this type of armored vehicles from the scene, MBT retain its role as the main striking force of ground troops. The development of these machines goes primarily toward increasing the security of crews and integration into a unified information space of the battlefield.

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Tales Of The Gun - Japanese Guns of WWII

 

When Japan entered World War II, their soldiers were armed with pride, a sense of invincibility and an arsenal of clumsy and outdated weapons. JAPANESE GUNS OF WWII visits weapons collections and museums for an up-close look at the arsenal that contributed to the empire's ultimate defeat. Compared to those wielded by the Allies, the Japanese firearms were underpowered, unreliable and over-complicated. As experts reveal, they were just one example of Japan's arrogant belief that the tools and tactics that had taken them to victory against colonial enemies would reprise their success in this far greater conflict. They could not have been more wrong.

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Do not forget about the "twenty-sixth"

by  Michael Baryatinskiy

Russian Broken Translation; made understandable by GarryB

The story of Soviet tanks of World would be incomplete without mentioning the war machines of the prewar period, formed the basis of the Red Army tank fleet in 1941.The most massive of them was a light tank T-26.

28 May 1930 the Soviet Purchasing Commission, headed by IA Halepskim, head of the newly established Office of mechanization and motorization (UMM) Red Army, which signed a contract with the British firm Vickers on production for the Soviet Union in 1915 two-towered tanks Vickers Mk.E mod.A. Their assembly was attended by our experts.

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International Space Station calendar 2011

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National Geographic Megastructures Super Copters

Since their breakthrough invention decades after the airplane, helicopters have been vital - used for surveillance, rescue and as a weapon of war. The latest super copters are one of an advanced breed of machines - built to fly fast and silently to places helicopters could never go before, even to the reaches of inner space. Incredible technology is making these super copters much more impervious to attack, with Kevlar and other advanced composite materials strengthening the body - while keeping it lightweight. Using live action, re-creations, amazing archival footage and advanced CGI, we marvel at the creation of today's 'super copters' - extraordinary multipurpose helicopters for the twenty-first century.

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Fifty Years of Soviet Aircraft Construction-Featured

Alexander Yakovlev (March 19 (April 1) 1906, . Moscow - August 22, 1989, . Moscow) - Soviet aircraft, . Colonel General of Aviation (1946), . Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1976), . Twice Hero of Socialist Labor, . tenfold Commander of the Order of Lenin, . Member of USSR Armed Forces in 1946-1989, . referent Stalin on aviation.,

 

 

 

Who theoretically explained the ‘spin’, make it possible to analyze the forces & moments acting on the aircraft & who find out the best ways to pull out the aircraft out of spin?? Who theoretically computed flutter, compressibility & heating effects & what not?? Soviets had tons of paperwork over universally every aspect of aviation when the West were just starting to understand the lift theory alone!!

Author's foreword: This brief outline of the development of aircraft construction in the Soviet Union during the fifty years of Soviet power does not claim to be a comprehensive and profound analysis of the building up of the Soviet aircraft industry. The author assumed a more limited task: to describe the main stages in the progress of aircraft construction by showing the technical growth of scientific and design thinking of Soviet designers from the October Revolution to the present.

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Addressing the Nuclear Waste Issue With Common Algae

 

ScienceDaily (Apr. 4, 2011) — Researchers from Northwestern University and Argonne National Laboratory have an enhanced understanding of a common freshwater alga and its remarkable ability to remove strontium from water. Insight into this mechanism ultimately could help scientists design methods to remove radioactive strontium from existing nuclear waste.

Strontium 90, a major waste component, is one of the more dangerous radioactive fission materials created within a nuclear reactor. It is present in the approximately 80 million gallons of radioactive waste sludge stored in the United States alone.

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US Muslims 'face growing discrimination'

Anti-Muslim bigotry includes inflammatory rhetoric by elected officials, congressional panel is told. Muslim citizens of the United States face growing discrimination in daily life, manifesting itself in violence, vandalism and arson, a US congressional panel has been told.

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MI5 Concealed Report on Soviet Penetration From CIA

By IAN ALLEN

British counterintelligence officials decided to conceal from their American counterparts a report detailing Soviet spy penetration of the UK, because it showed London’s permissive attitude towards intelligence infiltration. The secret report, entitled “Survey of Russian Espionage in the UK 1935-1955”, was authored by the D Branch of MI5, which was tasked with countering Soviet intelligence operations on British soil. It was declassified on Monday by Britain’s National Archives, 55 years after it was initially authored.

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NOVA: Battle of the X-Planes

@blip.tv

Each newer generation of fighters costs more than the last; so fewer are purchased!! Ever more expensive fighters in ever more decreasing numbers...in defence circles that's is called the ‘Death Spiral’.

Letter to NOVA:

Infiltrate the world's two largest aerospace companies—Boeing and Lockheed Martin—which are competing to build the fighter plane for the 21st century. Dubbed the X-Plane, it is known officially as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), because it will serve three branches of the U.S. military—the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps. Your assignment will involve taking cameras inside some of America's most classified facilities. This five-year mission will conclude with the Department of Defense awarding the winning team the largest contract in military history, estimated at $200 billion. You realize, of course, that divulging any information gathered during the making of this film could threaten the national security of the United States, not to mention your own personal well-being.

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BBC Cold War Episodes 07-15

Previous Part

The Greater Resource of Modern History Research:The BBC Gives: "Cold War"
An in-depth documentary series in 24 parts
In 24 episodes, each about an hour long, we will go through every little inch of the Cold War; how it started, how it developed and how it finally came to an end.
This BBC production is above outstanding in many aspects. It is without bias, and it doesn't take any sides. It clearly sticks to facts and does not venture in to speculations or even gray areas. Narrator is Kenneth Branagh, a well-known voice that speaks clearly and with great empathy. The over all tempo of the series is well balanced and it never gets boring, slow or too fast. This is the way school should have been like! Kenneth for president!

Episodes Lists »

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BBC Cold War Episodes 1-06

Greater Resource of Modern History Research:The BBC Gives: "Cold War"
An in-depth documentary series in 24 parts
In 24 episodes, each about an hour long, we will go through every little inch of the Cold War; how it started, how it developed and how it finally came to an end.
This BBC production is above outstanding in many aspects. It is without bias, and it doesn't take any sides. It clearly sticks to facts and does not venture in to speculations or even gray areas. Narrator is Kenneth Branagh, a well-known voice that speaks clearly and with great empathy. The over all tempo of the series is well balanced and it never gets boring, slow or too fast. This is the way school should have been like! Kenneth for president!

Episodes Lists »

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Low Numbers: A Practical Path to Deep Nuclear Reductions

 

U.S. policy seeks to create the conditions that would allow for deep reductions in nuclear arsenals. This report offers a practical approach to reducing the U.S. and Russian stockpiles to 500 nuclear warheads each and those of other nuclear-armed states to no more than about half that number. This target would require Washington and Moscow to reduce their arsenals by a factor of ten.

 

 

 

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Moscow’s Careful Stance on Libya

by Dmitri Trenin

Russia’s decision to abstain on the UN Security Council resolution 1973 has marked a new milestone in the evolution of Moscow’s foreign policy. Up to now, it felt compelled to veto any Western use of force against sovereign states: in part to avoid creating potentially dangerous precedents, in part to check the use of American power worldwide. Even when the Russian veto failed to block military action, and the United States and its allies did bomb or invade, as in Yugoslavia and Iraq, at least they had to do so without a UN mandate, which made their actions illegal - a consolation prize for the Kremlin. This time, Russia decided not to stand in the way of a gathering international storm against Muammar Gheddafi’s regime, and allowed the UN to impose a no-fly zone over Libya. Why did Russia do it?

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Demise of Hydro-Aviation_Russia

by Mikhail Barabanov

Taganrog Aviation Scientific-Technical Complex (Beriev) them. Beriev - the world's only major design office specializing in the creation of amphibians. Meanwhile, world practice shows that the development direction hydroaviation today is unpromising, obviously unprofitable occupation, and only with the direct support of the state. From an economic point of view, a more expedient reorientation Beriev and its production plant - JSC "Taganrog Aviation" on the design and construction of the "land" (not amphibians) special aircraft. This reorientation process has begun in the USSR, but was suspended in the post-Soviet period.

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Weapon Races: Race to Build Atomic Bomb

Nuclear science and World War II collided at the same time in history. In 1938, a few scientist were changing the molecular structure of atoms by bombarding them with neutrons. Leo Szilard was the first to realize that if an atom splits and sends out more than one neutron, the result could be a chain reaction. A massive energy release based on Albert Einstein's famous theory of relativity could come from an atom.

So who would be the first to make this super-bomb? Would it be Hitler's Germany, Japan or the United States?

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