The KH-55 Granat (AS-15 Nato code name “Kent”) was fielded in the 1990s. The X-55SM modification provided for increased range with the installation of expendable conformal external fuel tanks, giving it an estimated range of 1,860 miles.
The Kh-55 has been in Russian service since 1984 as a nuclear-armed air-launched cruise missile. The missile carries [...]

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The People’s Liberation Army is investing heavily to give China the military muscle to match its economic power. But can it begin to rival America?
The pace of China’s military upgrading is causing concern in the Pentagon. Eric McVadon, a retired rear admiral, told a congressional commission in 2005 that China had achieved a “remarkable leap” [...]

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Consider this Chinese view by way of comparison with many other nations of the world that do not have overtly expansionist pasts. (Well, not recently expansionist pasts.) In this light, the Chinese view of U.S. history takes on a fundamentally different meaning. What the Chinese see is that at the heart of U.S. history and [...]

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Assad encouraging army officers to settle in Syrian side of disputed region in preparation for possible confrontation. ‘We have an answer in case Israel attacks our cities,’ says senior official in Damascus.
In a secret message relayed to Jerusalem, Syria warned the Israeli government that should it continue to reject Damascus’ peace overtures, a war of [...]

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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan criticised on Thursday a nuclear deal between the United States and Pakistan’s South Asian rival India, saying Islamabad should be given access to civil nuclear energy to ensure balance in the region.
The pact, which has yet to be approved by the U.S. Congress, would allow India access to U.S. nuclear [...]

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Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin, while meeting activists and leaders of pro-Kremlin youth movements, used rather bizarre language to describe Russia’s standoff with Great Britain over the murder of former spy Alexander Litvinenko in London last November. According to the official Kremlin website, Putin dismissed British calls to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, the man [...]

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MOSCOW (RIA Novosti military commentator Viktor Litovkin) - The address of President Vladimir Putin at an annual conference with the top leaders of the Russian armed forces created a stir in the Western media. Some media interpreted the president’s words that “Russia will soon have unique nuclear systems that have no counterparts in the other [...]

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Radical Islamists love to scream about the “decadent” West. Everything from our operas to our attitudes about women outrage these loud pious critics.
As part of their condemnation, fundamentalist Muslims say they put a higher premium on family values and reverence for the past than crass modern Americans and Europeans do. But that is hardly true.
In [...]

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