The Bush administration has decided to more than double the number of nuclear warheads undergoing an expensive upgrade for potential future deployment on the Navy’s 14 ballistic missile submarines, according to answers provided by the National Nuclear Security Administration in response to questions from the Federation of American Scientists.
The decision preempts a debate in Congress [...]

read more....

Last week, the Jasons, a group of distinguished scientists who advise the Department of Defense, released the unclassified summary of their review of the Reliable Replacement Warhead, or RRW. Walter Pincus covered the report in the Washington Post. The summary is posted on the FAS website.
Although almost everything about nuclear weapons and their design [...]

read more....

Lebanon arrests gang plotting attacks on UN force
AFP - 6 hours ago
The attack was the first deadly strike against UN peacekeepers since the force was expanded following last year’s war between Israel and guerrillas from the …
Suspected Terrorists Detained in Lebanon The Associated Press
Exclusive: A Forgotten Lebanese Battle against Terror Family Security Matters
Lebanese army arrests group [...]

read more....

Bush set for talks with Dalai Lama amid China rebuff
AFP - 2 hours ago
The six powers were to have discussed calls to tighten UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. China and Russia have been against harsh Security …
China cancels Iran meeting over Dalai Lama Reuters
US Official: China Quits Iran Talks in Protest Over Dalai [...]

read more....

The two new Jin-class SSBNs I discovered on Google Earth earlier this month have now been photographed in port by an anonymous photographer. The photograph, which has appeared on several Chinese web sites (here and here) and sent to me by David, clearly shows the features of what I estimated to be the Jin-class submarine.
Read [...]

read more....

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been told about a plot to assassinate him during a visit to Iran this week, a Kremlin spokeswoman said Sunday.
The spokeswoman, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, refused further comment.
Interfax news agency, citing a source in Russia’s special services, said suicide terrorists had been trained to carry out the [...]

read more....

Only the stealthy F-22 or the Joint Strike Fighter still under development could carry out missions over China, he said. “Our planes are much older than the planes they would be matched against,” Mr. Wright said, the Associated Press reported.
“For the first time in history, we are [...]

read more....

Turkish-American relations face two significant challenges. One has to do with the Turkish inclination to enter northern Iraq in order to deal with Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters operating there. The other is connected with an upcoming US House of Representatives vote on a resolution to recognize as genocide the mass killings of Armenians by [...]

read more....

Israel Silent on Reports of Bombing Within Syria
New York Times, United States - 9 hours ago
… “The one lesson that Israel has learned from the Iranian experience is that if you don’t take care of something like this at the very initial stages, …
News Analysis Pre-emptive Caution: The Case of Syria New York Times
Israeli air [...]

read more....

As Turkey pushes ahead with its nuclear energy ambitions in the face of predicted energy shortfalls and a perceived threat from Iran, critics express concerns about internal safety, security and a regional arms race.
Read More…

read more....

The usual criticism against the teaching of military history is that it in some way encourages bellicosity, that it is somehow morally questionable and actually undesirable in the academy at any level. However, war, though undesirable in many of its attributes, and while it involves people killing and being willing or prepared to be killed, [...]

read more....

Iran will join a Russian-proposed joint naval task force in the Caspian region only after the legal status of the Caspian Sea has been determined, an Iranian analyst said on Monday.
Moscow proposed setting up a joint naval force of Caspian Sea countries, to be named CasFor, in October 2005. According to the proposal, the five [...]

read more....

In an interview with ABC News, Secretary of State of Condoleezza Rice expressed concern about Russia’s increasing military assertiveness.
“I think the rapid growth in Russian military spending definitely bears watching,” Rice said. “And frankly, some of the efforts — for instance, Bear flights in areas that we haven’t seen for a while — are really [...]

read more....

For the first time, the Hsiung Feng (HF)-3 (Brave Wind) anti-ship missile and the Tien Kung (TK)-3 (Sky Bow) anti-tactical ballistic missile (ATBM) were paraded past dignitaries and journalists.
The supersonic HF-3, with a range of 300 kilometers, has been under development by the military-run Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology for more than 10 years. [...]

read more....

China’s sprawling military will speed up its modernization during the next five years, increasingly adopting high-tech battle systems and upgrading training, Chinese President Hu Jintao said Monday.
In his keynote speech at the opening of the Communist Party Congress, held every five years, Hu said he was committed to making China’s military more modern.
Read More…
Hu says [...]

read more....

The Carrie Bradshaw lifestyle (Sex and the City) is showing up in unexpected places, with unintended consequences.
Three demographic facts are at the core of the New Girl Order. First, women—especially, but not only, in the developed world—are getting married and having kids considerably later than ever before. According to the UN’s World Fertility Report, the [...]

read more....

A Saudi billionaire has found a way to squelch information regarding his involvement in financing Jihad. FSM Contributing Editor Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman has details on this alarming trend that, if allowed to continue, will seriously hamper the West’s ability to investigate and halt such funding.
One of these roadblocks is a Saudi billionaire, Khalid bin Mahfouz, [...]

read more....

Hu Jintao says he wants to “transform” China, but he offers a lacklustre vision of how to do so
CHINA’S president and Communist Party chief Hu Jintao is almost as much of an enigma as he was when he took power five years ago. He shuns the media and rarely makes public speeches. But on Monday [...]

read more....

The Air Force announced Oct. 11 that the MQ-9 Reaper, the service’s new hunter-killer unmanned aerial vehicle, is now flying operational missions in Afghanistan. The Reaper has completed 12 missions since its inaugural flight there Sept. 25, averaging about one sortie per day. Capable of striking enemy targets with on-board weapons, the Reaper has [...]

read more....