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Posts Tagged ‘nuclear missile’

India Test-Fires Nuke Capable Ballistic Missile

June 10, 2011 Comments off

(RTTNews) – India on Thursday successfully test-fired a nuclear capable ballistic missile from a test range in the country’s eastern state of Orissa as part of the user’s trial by the Indian Army.

“The indigenously developed missile mounted on a mobile launcher was test-fired from the launch complex-3 in the Integrated Test Range at around 0905 hours and the trial was fully successful,” the Press Trust of India news agency reported quoting defense sources. Earlier also, the Prithvi-II missile had Read more…

Iran Broadens Search for Raw Uranium: Intel

February 25, 2011 Comments off

An intelligence assessment by an International Atomic Energy Agency member nation says Iran has broadened its secretive worldwide effort to secure unrefined uranium for its atomic work, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Feb. 23).

The finding fits with estimates that indigenous sources of raw uranium were insufficient for the Persian Gulf nation’s nuclear activities, according to AP. The United States and its allies have expressed concern that Iran’s uranium enrichment program could generate nuclear-weapon material, but Tehran has maintained its atomic efforts are geared strictly toward civilian endeavors.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi held an undisclosed meeting in January with high-level managers of mineral extraction in Zimbabwe “to resume negotiations … for the benefit of Iran’s uranium procurement plan,” the document states.

“This follows work carried out by Iranian engineers to map out uranium deposits in Africa and assess the amount of uranium they contain,” according to its two-page summary.

Salehi’s trip is an example of Iranian uranium acquisition activities that could encompass more than Read more…

North Korea ‘preparing nuclear test’

February 21, 2011 Comments off

North Korea has started digging tunnels at its nuclear test site in apparent preparation for a third atomic detonation, a report said Sunday.

North Korea has started digging tunnels at its nuclear test site in apparent preparation for a third atomic detonation, a report said Sunday.  

The Tongchang-dong Missile and Space Launch Facility (lower center) in North Korea Photo: REUTERS
4:43PM GMT 20 Feb 2011

North Korea started building at least two new tunnels at its

facility in northeastern North Hamgyong province for a possible underground atomic test, according to a South Korean official.

The source told Yonhap news agency: “It is obvious evidence that it (the North) is preparing a third nuclear test.”

The report comes after Pyongyang racked Read more…

Iran Pushing to Upgrade Enrichment Gear: IAEA

February 19, 2011 1 comment

A forthcoming International Atomic Energy Agency report asserts Iran is pushing to replace thousands of its uranium enrichment centrifuges with newer carbon-fiber machines capable of operating five times faster than their predecessors, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, Feb. 17).

(Feb. 18) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveils an experimental uranium enrichment centrifuge at a ceremony in Tehran last year. A forthcoming International Atomic Energy Agency report says Iran is working to deploy a new line of higher-speed centrifuges, according to diplomats (Behrouz Mehri/Getty Images).

Iran was purging electronics from its Natanz uranium enrichment complex and other atomic facilities after what appears to be an unsuccessful attempt to locate the origin of the Stuxnet computer worm infecting the sites, said diplomats with knowledge of the “militarization report” requested by IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano. Moving in new equipment might take as long as two years, the diplomats said.

Deploying its experimental carbon-fiber in large numbers could enable Iran to produce sufficient material for a nuclear weapon in under 12 weeks, Germany determined in an official assessment. The United States and its allies have expressed concern that Iran’s uranium enrichment program could generate nuclear-weapon material; Tehran has insisted its atomic ambitions are strictly peaceful (David Crawford, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 18).

Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department yesterday blacklisted an Iranian bank believed to be supporting the organization managing Read more…

New North Korean Space Launch Site Appears Completed

February 17, 2011 Comments off

Steve Herman

voanews.com

Image taken from the Ikonos satellite, January 10, 2011 

Photo: GeoEye and Globalsecurity.org

Image taken from the Ikonos satellite, January 10, 2011

New satellite imagery seen by VOA News shows North Korea has completed a launch tower at its second missile launch facility, in the country’s northwest.  Intelligence analysts in the United States and South Korea are keeping a close eye on the facility, near Tongchang-dong.

The site is seen as a critical element in Pyongyang’s quest to build a missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon across the Pacific.

The satellite pictures were taken during the past month. Most significantly, the photographs reveal Read more…

CIA Spy Captured Giving Nuclear Bomb To Terrorists

February 11, 2011 Comments off

While all eyes in the West are currently trained on the ongoing revolution taking place in Egypt, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is warning that the situation on the sub-continent has turned “grave” as it appears open warfare is about to break out between Pakistan and the United States.

Fueling this crisis, that the SVR warns in their report has the potential to ignite a total Global War, was the apprehension by Pakistan of a 36-year-old American named Raymond Allen Davis (photo), whom the US claims is one of their diplomats, but Pakistani Intelligence Services (ISI) claim is a spy for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Davis was captured by Pakistani police after he shot and killed two men in the eastern city of Lahore on January 27th that the US claims were trying to rob him.

Pakistan, however, says that the two men Davis killed were ISI agents sent to follow him after it was discovered he had been making contact with al Qaeda after his cell phone was tracked to the Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan where the Pakistani Taliban and a dozen other militant groups have forged a Read more…

Pakistan successfully test fires Hatf-VII missile

February 11, 2011 Comments off

Pakistan successfully test fires Hatf-VII missile

Yesterday
The missile can carry conventional and other warheads, the ISPR said. — Photo by AFP (File) 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military says it has successfully test-fired a cruise missile capable of carrying ”strategic and conventional” war heads.

An army statement says the Hatf-VII or Babur missile, which has a range of 360 miles (600 kilometers), was test-fired from an undisclosed location Thursday. The statement did not specifically say if the missile could carry nuclear warheads.

Senior army officials and scientists attended the testing.

Pakistan and its nuclear-armed rival neighboring India routinely test different versions of their missiles. The two countries have fought three wars since they gained independence from Britain in 1947. – AP

APP adds:

Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, officers and scientists witnessed the test.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani congratulated the scientists and engineers for successfully conducting the test.

Chinese weapons fall into hands of insurgents

February 10, 2011 Comments off

Insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq have obtained Chinese-made weapons

Chinese-made weapons have fallen into the hands of insurgents fighting Coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan because of China’s failure to enforce export controls on arms to Iran, the leaked cables show.

By Gordon Rayner

US diplomats also feared that Chinese companies were selling materials to Iran that could be used to build nuclear missiles and other weapons of mass destruction.

Chinese-made guns, as well as rocket-propelled grenades and surface-to-air missiles containing Chinese-made components, have all been used against Coalition forces or civilian targets in Iraq, the US claims, while other weapons have been obtained by militants in Afghanistan.

The US was so concerned about Chinese arms and components being sold to Iran that in September 2008 the State Department launched a major diplomatic offensive to put pressure on Beijing.

It decided to share intelligence with eight “key allies” including Spain and Italy to “persuade China to enforce its export control laws more effectively” and to “aggressively implement” UN Security Council resolutions on the sale of arms and weapons materials.

Ambassadors were told to encourage the foreign governments to point out to the Chinese that arms sales to Iran “could ultimately damage China’s reputation and its bilateral relationship with” each of the countries.

Russia Fields Ballistic Missiles in South Ossetia, Report Says

February 4, 2011 Comments off

Russia has moved Tochka ballistic missiles to the breakaway Georgian territory of South Ossetia, Interfax reported last week (see GSN, Aug. 26, 2010).

“The Georgian special services have been informed about the presence of the rockets in South Ossetia, which are capable to effectively repel any aggression from Tbilisi,” Georgia, an insider from Russia’s Southern Military District told the news agency.

Also called the SS-21 Scarab, the short-range, single-warhead missile can hit targets within 75 miles, according to Interfax (Interfax, Jan. 24).

Georgia and Russia fought a brief war in summer 2008 after Tbilisi tried to re-exert control over South Ossetia. Since then, Moscow has recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and constructed military facilities in the two areas.

Georgia last week denounced the reported transfer of the Read more…

Saudis already have 2 Pakistani Nukes

February 3, 2011 Comments off

It’s a story that pops up again and again. Saudi Arabia has acquired at least 2 functional Nuclear Weapons from cash strapped Pakistan. Certainly Saudi Arabia has the money to buy nukes from sources like France, China, Russia, North Korea and Pakistan or even India.

The worrisome thing is that Pakistani nukes may be on the move and the west has very little knowledge or control over it. Pakistan is the most dangerous country on earth. It has a population of 185 million and the majority of people there hate the west and hate Americans. Intelligence experts privately concede that the battle for Pakistan is over. They are now a de facto enemy of the U.S. Al Qaida, the Taliban and the Muslim Brotherhood have won. The ties between Read more…