Missiles

Russia - Ukraine war A Russian missile destroyed an apartment building and damaged seven more in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk on Wednesday night, killing at least three people and injuring 20, regional police said. Local authorities initially said Russia had fired a rocket but the police force later said an Iskander-K tactical missile had struck at 9.45 pm local time (1945 GMT). "At least eight apartment buildings were damaged. One of them was completely destroyed," police said in a Facebook post. "People may remain under the rubble." At least 44 people were killed last month when a Russian missile hit an apartment building in the eastern city of Dnipro. "This is not a replay of the past, it is the daily reality of our country - a country with absolute evil on its borders," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram messaging app. Read More In a separate tweet, Zelenskiy wrote: "The only way to stop Russian terrorism is to defeat it. By … [Read more...] about Russian missile destroys Ukrainian apartment building; 3 dead, say police

(CTN NEWS) – BEIJING – According to official media on Thursday, China , the third nation after the Soviet Union and the United States to launch a man into space, will construct base stations in Antarctica to support its network of ocean monitoring satellites. Some countries are worried that China’s extensive network of ground stations, which it needs to support an increasing number of satellites and its aspirations for space travel, could be used for spying. China, however, dismisses these claims. Due to “trends” in geopolitics, Sweden’s state-owned space corporation rejected to extend contracts with China or take new Chinese business in 2020. Sweden had previously provided ground stations that assisted Chinese spacecraft in flying and send data. Astronaut Liu Yang waves as she is out of a return capsule of the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft, following a six-month mission on China’s space station, at the Dongfeng landing site in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, … [Read more...] about China Plans To Build Ground Stations For Satellites In Antarctica

(CTN NEWS) – The Pentagon opted not to shoot down a suspected Chinese Spy Balloon over U.S. airspace for two days owing to hazards to ground personnel, officials said Thursday. The balloon finding exacerbates U.S.-China tensions. The U.S. has “very high confidence” it is a Chinese high-altitude balloon collecting intelligence over key sites, a senior defense official told Pentagon reporters. Montana’s Malmstrom Air Force Base has one of the nation’s three nuclear missile silo fields, where the balloon was sighted. The official discussed critical material anonymously. / AP Pentagon press spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said the administration is tracking the Spy Balloon. He added it is “currently traveling at an altitude much above commercial aviation traffic and does not offer a military or physical threat to persons on the ground.” He noted comparable balloon activity in recent years. He said that the U.S. took precautions to avoid … [Read more...] about Chinese Spy Balloon Spotted Over Western U.S.

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Topline Secretary of State Antony Blinken was hours away from departure Friday when officials told multiple news outlets a planned trip to Beijing, China, was postponed, after Pentagon officials said a Chinese spy balloon was flying over the northern U.S. Key Facts Blinken’s visit would have marked the first visit from a senior U.S. administration official to China in five years, adding another strain to the rocky U.S. - China relationship. The Secretary of State was scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the visit, according to the Financial Times . In a statement Friday , the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the balloon was used mainly for meteorological research, and because of the airship’s limited self-steering and winds it “deviated far from its planned course.” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) requested a briefing late Thursday on the situation for … [Read more...] about Blinken Postpones China Visit After Spy Balloon

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The Pentagon has been tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon which flew over sensitive areas in Montana in recent days, apparently the latest of several such incursions. President Biden reportedly proposed that the intruder be shot down , but the Pentagon opposed this action, citing the risk of civilian casualties. In fact, bringing down this type of balloon may be extremely difficult, as it is likely to be highly resistant to the available weapons. It may look fragile, but the sheer size and construction of a stratospheric balloon makes it all but invulnerable. There is also the problem of getting to it. Such balloons ride high in the stratosphere , far above the airliners. They do this to take advantage of the change in wind direction with altitude to steer themselves to where they are needed like sailing ships, then circling above a point of interest. The U.S. military has its own stratospheric spy … [Read more...] about Busting That Chinese Spy Balloon Is Harder Than You Think (Updated)

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin When the Pentagon revised its defense strategy to focus on China in 2018, no military service moved faster than the Marine Corps to begin making changes. Incoming Commandant General David Berger declared in his initial guidance the following year that Marines needed to be trained and equipped “to operate inside actively contested maritime spaces” in support of other naval forces. This wasn’t a new mission for the Corps, but because the spaces Berger had in mind were first and foremost in the Chinese littoral, the potential danger was unprecedented. China has been fielding increasingly capable antiship and antiaircraft missiles along its coast for some time, along with the overhead surveillance systems needed to find and track hostile forces. Other nations are doing the same, but not on the scale of China’s efforts; combined with Beijing’s huge naval shipbuilding program, the new missiles and sensors present a … [Read more...] about The Marine Corps’ Light Amphibious Warship Seems To Be Faltering. Here Is A Novel Solution.

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The United States is giving Ukraine ground-launched, GPS-guided glide bombs that can strike targets as far as 93 miles away—and even hit them on the reverse slopes of hills. The Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb should roughly double the range of the Ukrainian army’s front-line rocket batteries. But not anytime soon. It might take nine months for the U.S. Defense Department to deliver the bombs. Ukraine will be the GLSDB’s first user. In 2014, Virginia-based Boeing and Swedish firm Saab formed a partnership in order to develop, test, market and produce the GLSDB. The first trials took place a year later in Sweden. The munition combines Boeing’s popular 250-pound Small-Diameter Bomb—with its GPS-aided inertial guidance, pop-out wings and different warhead options—with a 350-pound booster borrowed from the old M26 rocket. “GLSDB provides commanders and planners with a highly flexible weapon that complements … [Read more...] about Ukraine’s New Rocket-Boosted Glide-Bombs Can Turn Around And Hit Targets On The Backs Of Hills, 90 Miles Away

Ukraine The European Union offered strong support for Ukraine at a summit held in Kyiv as air raid sirens wailed on Friday, but set "no rigid timelines" for its accession to the wealthy bloc. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had hoped the EU would put Ukraine on a rapid road to membership. But he used the summit to step up calls for his allies to deliver long-range weapons to help repel Russian forces besieging the city of Bakhmut and occupying much of the Donbas region in the east of the country. "If weapons (supplies) are quickened, specifically long-range weapons, we not only will not leave Bakhmut, but we will also begin to deoccupy Donbas, which has been occupied since 2014," he told a joint news conference after the summit. Ukrainian forces have held out for months in Bakhmut, where fighting has been fierce. "Nobody will give away Bakhmut. We will fight for as long as we can. We consider Bakhmut our fortress," Zelenskiy said. Read More Air raid sirens … [Read more...] about Ukraine wins EU pledges of support, no promise of fast-track accession

The decisions by Germany and the United States to deliver battle tanks to Ukraine represent a weighty show of Western political support for Kyiv that could also help its military breach Russian invaders' lines. After weeks of pressure from Ukraine and other allies, Berlin finally agreed to send 14 of its Leopard 2 tanks, seen as among the best in the world. The move also opens the way for other European nations that operate Leopards to send tanks from their own fleets to Ukraine, further building up the combined-arms arsenal Kyiv needs to launch counter-offensives. "From offering 5,000 helmets to sending the Leos into Ukraine," commented German Marshall Fund researcher Bruno Lete, referring to a widely-mocked early German contribution to Ukraine's war effort. "In less than a year, Germany deconstructed seven decades of pacifist policy" since World War II. "Perhaps reluctantly -- but still a major Zeitenwende (turning point) in its own right." Read More … [Read more...] about Western tanks: Political and military boost for Ukraine

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Topline Defense Press Secretary Pat Ryder said the federal government is certain the Chinese object traversing U.S. airspace is a “surveillance balloon,” he said Friday in response to the Chinese government’s claim it is a “civilian airship.” Key Facts “The balloon has violated U.S. airspace and international law, which is unacceptable,” Ryder said while briefing reporters on Friday, a day after the Pentagon said the balloon was detected over Billings, Montana on Wednesday. The Chinese government on Friday apologized for the incident and claimed the balloon, which is approximately the size of three buses, is a “civilian airship” used for weather research that was blown off course, the ministry said in a statement . The balloon “continues to move eastward and is currently over the center of the continental United States,” Ryder said. Ryder also reiterated the Pentagon’s stance that shooting down the … [Read more...] about It’s A Spy Balloon, Defense Secretary Says, Disputing China’s ‘Civilian Airship’ Claim