U.S. airpower depends on the ability to overcome surface-to-air missile (SAM) defenses, and one of the key weapons for this role is the AGM-88 High Speed Anti-radiation Missile (HARM), which homes in on radar emissions. (You can see them, under the F/A-18’s wings in the picture, above.) The defenders can either turn off their [...]

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The “new mercantilism” takes many forms. Despite their pledge at the first G-20 summit last fall, most of its members have erected new distortions to international trade. A number of major emerging-market economies (including Brazil, India and Russia) have raised tariffs. Argentina and Indonesia have imposed new licensing requirements on imports. The European Union and [...]

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India is ramping up its military deployment along the border with China, positioning two army divisions, each comprising around 25,000 to 30,000 personnel, as also a squadron of frontline Sukhoi Su-30 MKI combat jets at a key airbase in the northeast, military officials said.
This apart, the induction of the first of three airborne warning and [...]

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The Air Force Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) has published an update to its Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat. The document, which I obtained from NASIC, is sobering reading.
The latest update continues the previoususer-friendly format and describes a number of important assessments and new developments in ballistic and cruise missiles of many of the world’s major [...]

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In the Ukraine, in 2001, some of this arsenal disappeared.
Up to 20 nuclear-capable Kh-55 missiles — with a 3000km range — and four 200-kiloton nuclear warheads were stolen by a shadowy group of former Russian and Ukrainian intelligence and military officers.
What happened to these weapons is the subject of international debate and much speculation.
But one [...]

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The experts had visited the No. 3 military dock of the Changxing Island Shipyard — the new location of the Jiangnan Shipyard, known as the cradle of China’s defense industry — based in Shanghai, where they acquired exclusive photos of the interior of the shipyard. From these it can be deduced that China is ready [...]

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Last year China Construction Bank’s net profit soared 10% to $11.9 billion. In the same period, Bank of America, which at the time owned some 19% of the Chinese lender, earned just $4 billion, down 73% from 2007. That’s all you need to know to understand why Bank of America in May sold a 5.8% [...]

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If outlanders tend to associate Australia with kangaroos, broad-brim leather hats and an opera house, many Australians are different. They think of iron ore and bauxite, copper and coal, nickel, gold and uranium, a trove of mineral riches that is their nation’s birthright and the bedrock of its prosperity.
Which explains much of the breast-beating that [...]

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