The U.S. Will Develop Newly Unbanned Weapons as a Key Missile Treaty Ends

A JASSM missile undergoing launch tests from a F-16 fighter over the Gulf of Mexico, 2018. Image: SMgst Michael Jackson (Air Force)

 

The United States is planning to quickly develop two new missiles previously banned by a 30-year-old arms control treaty. America’s withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, sparked by allegations of Russian cheating, is paving the way for Washington to match Russian weapons with new missiles of its own. The U.S. will test the missiles as soon as this August, within days of the end of the treaty.

The two missile types, a ground-launched cruise missile and an intermediate-range ballistic missile, were previously banned by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The INF Treaty, signed in 1987, banned land-based missiles with ranges from 310 to 3,420 miles.

Although the treaty itself didn’t ban actual nuclear weapons, it removed key nuclear delivery systems from the inventories of both the U.S. and U.S.S.R., dramatically lowering the number of nuclear weapons deployed in Europe.

China Is Spending Billions To Dethrone The U.S. In Race For The World’s Fastest Supercomputer

 

China is currently in the midst of a multi-billion dollar investment cycle to upgrade its supercomputer infrastructure in a bid to pass the United States for fastest supercomputer in the world after the United States regained the title for fastest supercomputer in 2018, ending a five-year reign of Chinese dominance.

As SCMP notes, China had been first on the global Top 500 list of supercomputers since the launch of Tianhe-2 in 2013. In June 2018, the U.S. Summit supercomputer bumped China from the number one spot.

Iran Building Two New Nuclear Plants

The reactor building at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran / Getty Images

 

Files complaint against U.S. for ‘crimes against humanity’

Iranian leaders announced on Monday the construction of two new nuclear plants, and it remains unclear if the Trump administration views this as crossing a red line since its abandonment of the landmark nuclear deal, which included provisions permitting Iran to work on heavy water nuclear reactors that could provide a plutonium-based pathway to a bomb.

North Korea’s Satellites Could Unleash Electromagnetic Pulse Attack

 

North Korea reportedly is rebuilding its Sohae satellite launch facility, widely interpreted as threatening to resume intercontinental missile development — ignoring the greater immediate threat from North Korea’s satellites and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack.

Dr. William Graham, EMP Commission Chairman, in “North Korea Nuclear EMP Attack: An Existential Threat,” on Oct. 12, 2017, warned Congress:

“While most analysts are fixated on when in the future North Korea will develop highly reliable intercontinental missiles, guidance systems, and reentry vehicles capable of striking a U.S. city, the threat here and now from EMP is largely ignored. EMP attack does not require an accurate guidance system because the area of effect, having a radius of hundreds or thousands of kilometers, is so large.

Report: North Koreans Got Desperate After Trump Walked Away

(Photo Credit: Shealah Craighead/The White House)

 

Their offer to shutter Yongbyon didn’t come until after the president ended his talks with Kim Jong-un.

We now have a much different view of what happened behind closed doors during the Hanoi summit between President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un that ultimately led to its abrupt ending.

New Russian missile threat to homeland

Air Force Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, who is also commander of the U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Command (NORAD), said Russia “only recently developed and deployed capabilities to threaten us below the nuclear threshold.” (Associated Press/File)

 

The commander of the military’s Northern Command warned this week that Moscow is deploying conventionally armed missiles that for the first time are capable of striking targets deep inside the United States.

Air Force Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, who is also commander of the U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Command (NORAD), stated in prepared congressional testimony that while Russian nuclear missiles have threatened the country for more than 50 years, Moscow “only recently developed and deployed capabilities to threaten us below the nuclear threshold.”

Enraged India Amassing Tanks, 14,000 Bunkers Along Pakistan Border

https://twitter.com/sotiridi/status/1100784365917925377

 

The potential for major war to break out along the India-Pakistan border continues to build after Pakistan said it shot down Indian fighter jets over the disputed border region of Kashmir. India confirmed only one downed aircraft, and its foreign ministry also said a Pakistani jet was hit in retaliation, going down on the Pakistani side of the border, but what is known for sure is that an Indian pilot is currently in Pakistani military custody after his plane was struck.

Russian Weapons Circumvent New START Arms Pact

Gen. John Hyten / Getty Images

 

Stratcom wants nuclear torpedo, advanced missiles covered if New START extended

The general in charge of U.S. nuclear forces warned Tuesday that Russia is building three new strategic weapons that circumvent the limits of the New START arms treaty.

Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of the Omaha-based Strategic Command, told Congress he favors requiring limits on the new weapons in any extension of the 2010 strategic arms accord.

Russian Statements on New Cruise Missile Indicate First Strike Intentions

Russian President Vladimir Putin / Getty Images

 

Putin highlights new hypersonic cruise missile in state of the nation address

KIEV, Ukraine—News reports from Russian media over the weekend indicate that the hypersonic cruise missile highlighted in President Vladimir Putin’s Feb. 20 state of the nation address is being contemplated for use in a first strike against targets in the continental United States.

India, Pakistan at Brink of (Nuclear) War

(Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

 

Both countries are nuclear-armed and border China.

India has vowed it will use “all instruments at its command” in response to Pakistan’s alleged role in a deadly bombing that occurred in Kashmir on Friday.

After Putin’s warning, Russian TV lists nuclear targets in U.S.

FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia February 20, 2019. (Yuri Kadobnov/Pool via REUTERS)

 

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian state television has listed U.S. military facilities that Moscow would target in the event of a nuclear strike, and said that a hypersonic missile Russia is developing would be able to hit them in less than five minutes.

The targets included the Pentagon and the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland.

Putin Preparing for Second Cuban Missile Crisis

(Photo Credit: The Kremlin)

 

The Russian president said he would do so only if the U.S. deploys missiles in Europe aimed at his country.

President Vladimir Putin says Russia is ready for a Cuban Missile-style crisis if the US is foolish enough to want one.

Russia Touts “Unlimited Range” Of New Nuclear Cruise Missile As INF Unravels

 

Following the dramatic US withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) within the last month and amidst continuing tit-for-tat accusations between Moscow and Washington since then, which even appears to have imperiled the future of the New START treaty, Russia is aggressively touting its new nuclear cruise missile, the 9M730 Burevestnik (or “Storm Petrel”), which Russian media reports say has entered the final stage of testing and development. 

The World’s Most Dangerous Nuclear Weapon Just Rolled Off the Assembly Line

 

With the creation of a new “mini-nuke” warhead, the US is making nuclear war all the more probable…

Last month, the National Nuclear Security Administration (formerly the Atomic Energy Commission) announced that the first of a new generation of strategic nuclear weapons had rolled off the assembly line at its Pantex nuclear weapons plant in the panhandle of Texas. That warhead, the W76-2, is designed to be fitted to a submarine-launched Trident missile, a weapon with a range of more than 7,500 miles. By September, an undisclosed number of warheads will be delivered to the Navy for deployment.

Iran Claims to Have Formula for Nuclear Bomb

Iranian Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami / Getty Images

 

Tehran threatens nuclear force against U.S., Israel, allies

A senior Iranian official said over the weekend that the Islamic Republic has the chemical and technical know-how to produce a nuclear weapon, according to Farsi language remarks independently translated for the Washington Free Beacon.