Tag: Strategic Weapons

Pakistan announced it had test-fired a nuclear-capable cruise missile on Monday, September 17, 2012. The Hatf-VII Babur cruise missile developed in Pakistan was attributed by the military as having "stealth features".

According to a US intelligence reports China has carried out a fourth flight test of an Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile in recent weeks, this time, the Dong Feng-31A (DF-31A) fired from a new road-mobile transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) configuration. Last month China carried out another test firing of the mighty DF-41 - the largest ICBM in its inventory.

Despite rumors that nuclear weapons were stored at the base, US officials said that the country's nuclear stockpile were never in danger of falling into Taliban hands. Pakistani military officials also confirmed there were no nuclear weapons being housed at Minhas.

With Syria disintegrating and sliding into civil war and chaos, compromising its missile arsenal and chemical weapons, seep into the black market, falling to the hands of terrorists and extremists all over the world. Can this nightmare be averted? Who can sieze these weapons before the final fall of the Syrian regime?

Millions of small debris orbiting earth at Low Earth Orbit (LEO - at altitudes of 2,000 kilometers and below) are posing serious risk to manned and unmanned spacecraft. Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) suggest that ballistic missiles loaded with tons of tungsten dust could be used to ‘sweep’ these objects from their LEO orbit, slowing and lowering them into the upper atmosphere, where they will decay the heat generated from drag induced by the upper earth atmosphere.

Poised to establish a deterrent missile force of significant size, Seoul is investment of $2.14 billion buying 500-600 Hyunmu-3 series cruise missiles. additional 84 million are to be spent on Harpoon Block II missiles for its submarines.

Taiwan plans to deploy its newly developed Hsiungfeng IIE cruise missiles on land-based launch sites, within strike distance from mainland China. The new missile has an effective range of about 600 kilometers and carries a warhead of 200 kg.

The KN-08 missile (also known locally as ‘Hwaseong 13’) was unveiled on a military march in Pyongyang April 15, 2012. The missile will be able to deliver a nuclear warhead over 5,400 - 7,500 km distance, reaching targets such as Guam, Hawaii or even Alaska and the City of Seattle in Washington State in the Continental USA.

The global missiles and missile defense systems market, estimated to be worth US$15.2 billion in 2011, is projected to grow at a CAGR of...

India’s Defense Research & Development organization (DRDO) is planning to test fly the Agni-5 intermediate range ballistic missile for its full range in December 2011. The missile will be launched from Wheeler Island, on the Orissa coast, traveling its full range of 5,000 km southward, halfway to Antarctica

The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command conducted the first test flight of the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW) concept. The mach 5 glide weapon was developed as part of the Pentagon’s US$600 million Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS) program, aimed at providing U.S. military services with conventional attack weapons capable of striking anywhere on earth within less than 60 minutes.

Israel has conducted a ballistic missile test from the Palmachim Air & Space test center. Israel’s Ministry of Defense confirmed the test was successful, indicating that the purpose of the launch was the testing of a new advanced propulsion system. Local reports published in the Israeli media indicated the propulsion system employed multiple stages, with limited maneuvering performed at the ascent phase.

The second and final flight test of DARPA’s Hypersonic Test Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) failed today as the capsule, launched by the Minotaur IV missile, was lost upon reentering earth atmosphere, about nine after launch. "We do not yet know how to achieve the desired control during the aerodynamic phase of flight." HTV-2 PM said. DARPA has assembled an independent Engineering Review Board to review and analyze the data collected through the experiment.

Russia is set to resume this week the flight testing of its (RSM-56) Bulava Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) system (NATO code name SS-NX-30). According to...