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POPSRussia’s Armed Forces Advancing, Blindly Russia makes some good equipment, such as air-defence systems. The infusion of money helps it exercise its atrophied military muscles. A growing proportion of soldiers are volunteers (known as kontraktniki), who are more disciplined than much-abused conscripts. The slow move to a smaller, all-professional army in place of the million-strong, largely conscript force is made more urgent by Russia’s demographic decline. The forces that invaded Georgia were largely made up of professionals. Despite problems in keeping them supplied, they were for the most part better behaved than the South Ossetian militiamen who looted and destroyed Georgian villages. The Russian army seems to have fought better in Georgia than it did in either of the post-Soviet wars in Chechnya, the now-subdued breakaway province across the border from Georgia. Indeed, the forces sent into Georgia included the Vostok battalion, made up of pro-Kremlin Chechens. .....continued
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POPS"Yankee Hegemony Is Finished," Says Chavez Chavez has called the U.S. Navy's newly re-established Fourth Fleet a threat. On Wednesday, he said he's sure "nuclear submarines pass under our noses" off Venezuela's coast. He said Venezuela is aiming to strengthen its "defensive capability with our strategic allies, and Russia is one of them." Later, Chavez called the U.S. the "empire" as he addressed troops at the christening of a newly built coast guard patrol ship. "Every day, relations between Venezuela and Russia will continue to deepen." He dismissed comparisons to the Cold War, but mentioned Cuba while saying he had been reviewing flight theory in a simulator in hopes of flying one of the Russian planes. Addressing his close friend Fidel Castro, Chavez said: "I'm going to fly a Tu-160. Fidel, I'm going to fly low past you there."
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POPSChavez Postpones Joint Military Exercise With Russia "Russia's naval fleet is welcome here," he said. Venezuela has launched joint military operations with various nations. The upcoming Venezuela-Russia operation will be the first of its kind in the Americas. The Venezuelan Navy and Air Force will work with four Russian warships with some 1,000 soldiers aboard in the exercises in the Venezuelan territorial waters, according to earlier reports citing senior officials of the Venezuelan military. Since Chavez took office, Venezuela has boosted its military cooperation with Russia.
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POPSRice Says She Won't Block Strikes Against Nuclear Sites "We don't say yes or no to Israeli military operations; Israel is a sovereign country," Ms. Rice said. "Every day that the centrifuges continue to spin brings Iran closer to a nuclear weapons capability and threatens the stability and security of the region and the world," Israel's ambassador in Washington, Sallai Meridor, said. "The international community should immediately apply additional robust sanctions." The Security Council, which has imposed three rounds of mild sanctions on Iran since 2006, has traditionally taken its time before agreeing on compromise action that manages to satisfy Russia, China, and several European countries that prefer conducting business with Iran to halting its nuclear run . The process is also very slow, the American U.N. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, acknowledged yesterday.
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POPSNext Stop, Iran? Iran's conventional forces include an army of 540,000 men and 300,000 reserves, including 120,000 Iranian Guards especially trained in unconventional warfare. It has more than 1,600 main battle tanks and 21,000 other armored combat vehicles. It has 3,200 artillery pieces, three submarines, 59 surface warships and 10 amphibious ships. It's been receiving help in arming itself from China, North Korea and Russia. Unlike Iraq, Iran's forces have not been worn down with bombing, wars and sanctions. It also has a new anti-aircraft defense system from Russia that I've heard is pretty snazzy. So, if you think we or Israel can attack Iran and not expect retaliation, I'd have to say with regret that you are a moron. If you think we could easily handle Iran in an all-out war, I'd have to promote you to idiot. Attacking Iran would be folly, but we seem to be living in the Age of Folly. (read more at source)
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POPSCould A Car Be Designed To Run On Nuclear Power? It may seem like an impossible quest, or something from a science fiction movie, but nuclear-powered cars are worth considering, especially with the ongoing energy and climate crises. Given these challenges, some experts think that the use of nuclear power, in various forms, will make a comeback in the near future. When done properly, nuclear power is relatively safe, clean and affordable. So why not use it for cars? One such possibility is nuclear-fueled hydrogen -- using nuclear energy to create clean, safe, affordable hydrogen fuel. Nuclear reactors could also power stations where motorists charge highly efficient batteries. Finally, scientists could create a miniature nuclear power plant and stick it in a car.
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POPSWhy is military spending highest since WWII? Hi-tech cold-war toys in development. One thing's sure: if we get them, we'll use them on a few thousand poor suckers. Meanwhile Lieberman crusades for deep water submarines that, coincidentally, are made in his home state, but serve no strategic purpose.
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POPSIn the Shadow of the Dragon
our self-restraint, our concern for the innocent and less fortunate, our dreams of a more decent future. While the military calls nuclear weapons a deterrent, they are only useful to threaten or to incinerate many thousands of people. The Bush effort to make smaller, 'more useable' weapons could turn conventional conflict into nuclear conflict. Many top leaders from the State Department and our military have agreed that our security and efforts to stop proliferation would be improved by negotiating the elimination of nuclear weapons. But, the dragon has been so engorged under President Bush and his congressional lemmings that it will be an arduous task for the administrations that follow to shrink it down and drive it down into its cave. To do that will require the support of a popular movement and international pressure to offset the influence and lobbying of this lethal industry. The peace movement must learn to tell the truth about every threatening aspect of the nuclear busin
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POPS Titanic: The Final Secret but they did want to know what had happened to their submarines.The military were anxious to know how the nuclear reactors had been affected by being submerged for so long. The oceanographer was given the funding to embark on two expeditions, one to find the wreck of Thresher in 1984 off the eastern coast of the US and another to find Scorpion in the eastern Atlantic. Thresher, the US Navy’s most advanced attack submarine at the time, sank with all her 129 crew in April 1963 while undergoing seaworthiness tests after dockyard repairs. Scorpion disappeared with 99 crew in 1968, and there had been speculation that it was sunk by Soviet forces. Dr Ballard’s visual examination of the wreck site showed that the most likely cause of its destruction was being hit by a rogue torpedo that it had fired itself. — Titanic: The Final Secret will be shown on the National Geographic Channel at 9pm on June 8.
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POPSChinese Nuclear Submarines Prompt 'New Cold War' Warning ”The main source of friction is Taiwan and you cannot rule out a nationalistic military faction coming to power to taking a punt to have a quick go.” Chinese defence expenditure is estimated by the Pentagon to be $50 billion (£25 billion) but analysts believe large chunks of the budget are “squirreled away” and it could be as high as $200 billion making it the second largest in the world after America.
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POPS USS Georgia Ready For Return Georgia is scheduled for their first deployment in July 2009. The Georgia crew has been back in port for a week working the plethora of details that it takes to pull off a successful ceremony of this scale. Working the detailed life on board a submarine at sea makes the crew familiar with this type of up-tempo. There are a number of submarines that are named for a state and could potentially be stationed in their home state – Texas, Hawaii, Virginia, Connecticut and North Carolina. The fact that Georgia is currently the only one that is stationed in its home state isn't lost on McIlvaine. Following the return-to-service ceremony, the boat and its crew continue with their busy timetable. The boat has scheduled May 3, as the official date for their crew split to Blue and Gold, in conjunction with an exchange of command ceremony.
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POPSRussia's 'ticking nuclear time bomb': Andreeva Bay See also {{nohobot}}'s Russian Nuclear Store 'a Powder Keg' More from the scotsman : "Since the end of the Cold War, Russia has sharply cut its stockpile of nuclear warheads, from 45,000 to less than 7,000. Now, it is its non-weaponised nuclear material that causes greatest concern in western "capitals." "By some estimates, Russia has 1,200 tonnes of highly enriched uranium and 15,000 tonnes of solid spent nuclear fuel. There are some 1,000 nuclear power plants of various types." "In 2002, the G8 group of rich nations agreed to spend as much as £10 billion securing and decommissioning Russia's nuclear, chemical and biological research sites....Like Ukraine, Russia has received substantial aid from western countries to help dismantle and securely store both weapons-grade plutonium and much of its former submarine fleet."
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POPSOperation Bite? Either there is a media black-out on this, or it's BS... "The attacks will be mounted from a number of bases, including the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia is currently home to B-52 bombers equipped with standoff missiles. Also participating in the air strikes will be US naval aviation from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, as well as from those of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Additional cruise missiles will be fired from submarines in the Indian Ocean and off the coast of the Arabian peninsula. The goal is allegedly to set back Iran�s nuclear program by several years, writes Uglanov, whose article was reissued by RIA-Novosti in various languages, but apparently not English, several days ago. The story is the top item on numerous Italian and German blogs, but so far appears to have been ignored by US websites." The American media seems to be asleep here (whoa) but Russian media has been covering it pretty zealously. Hmmm... WWIII?
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POPSExactly What Does The U.S. Mean When It Talks About Disarmament? So, here we go telling the world how evil it is for certain countries it is to strive towards a nuclear capability, while at the same time, we are designing and building newer, more powerful and deadly weapons of mass destruction. If WMD are wrong, they are wrong for EVERYONE!
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