Current Events in Europe

HMS Defender Joins the Fleet (Defense Aerospace)

From The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, http://www.thebulletin.org NRDC: Nuclear Notebook Russian nuclear forces, 2005 By Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen March/April 2005 pp. 70-72 (vol. 61, no. 02) © 2005 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists There were several key quantitative and qualitative developments with regard to Russian nuclear forces during the past year. [1] Russia continued to reduce its nuclear forces, and officials were unusually candid in describing the likely composition of forces for the coming decade. We estimate that as of early 2005, Russia has approximately 7,200 operational nuclear warheads in its active arsenal. This include…

From Aviation Week's Ares Blog Ships, I See No Ships Posted by Douglas Barrie at 10/26/2009 7:09 AM CDT Picture Credit Royal Navy/Crown Copyright With consummate ill-timing U.S. policy makers efforts to sustain a second-engine for the F-35 are met with claims that London is ready to ditch equipping its planned second carrier with the aircraft. The British government has been lobbying Washington to support the GE/Rolls-Royce F136 engine Britain’s “Sunday Times” claims the Royal Navy has “agreed to sacrifice” one of its two 65,000 ton aircraft carriers, instead saying the navy would use the ship only as a helicopter carrier. For good measure the story…

From DefenseTech and Ocnus

From Air Power Australia A Preliminary Assessment of Specular Radar Cross Section Performance in the Sukhoi T-50 Prototype

Sale of up to 200xAIM-120D for UK: http://dsca.mil/major-arms-sales/united-kingdom-aim-120d-advanced-medium-range-air-air-missile-amraam

Eight retired submarines to be transported to Severodvinsk this summer Bellona Four civil crews from Severodvinsk are preparing the submarines for transportation at the navy base in Vidyaevo. 2005-06-08 19:00 Total eight nuclear submarines of 671RTM (Victor-III) project will be tugged from the Northern fleet bases to the Zvezdochka shipyard for scrapping in July and August, Interfax reported. Three subs located in the Ura Bay, two – in Zapadnaya Litsa, and three – in Vidyaevo. The dismantling works will be sponsored by Canada, which promised to allocate $18m for this purpose. This Canadian initiative is the part of the one billion Canadian dollars obli…

From Aviation Week Russian Assault Reveals Weaknesses Aug 20, 2008 By David A. Fulghum Russian military officials, in writings there that are catching U.S. analysts' attention, are concluding that Russia's offensive into Georgia was morally justified but poorly organized and executed in the opening phases due to surprise. U.S. government officials and analysts have been poring over open-source literature to gather operational and technological clues to events in the Georgia-Russia conflict. The opinions are coming from current and recently retired senior military commanders, and appear in Russia's Independent Military Review, other defense related publicatio…

I'm playing around with ideas for scenarios and I was curious if people had any suggestions regarding this one... 2016: A worst case scenario for Italy. Forget the sword of Damocles; you should worry about his mountain. Vesuvius explodes. And it's a bad one, about as powerful as the Avellino eruption of c. 1600 B.C., several times more powerful than the one that wiped out Pompeii. Tragically, the eruption came with relatively little warning, and the Italian government simply was not ready to handle the evacuation. As the volcanic dust clears, the horrifying damage is revealed: at least a quarter of a million people are dead, another half-million are injured, more…

No injuries, Kyiv claims sabotage.

From DEW Line [excerpt]

From Defense Aerospace US, Europe Still Split on NATO's Role (Source: Deutsche Welle German radio; issued Jun 9, 2005) At the NATO Summit on Tuesday, Europe and the US will discuss the direction the alliance will take. Behind all the talk of harmony are some major differences on how much political power the organization should have. In the days after he made them, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's comments that NATO was no longer the "primary venue" for discussing global strategy offered a cue for every one to jump into an increasingly controversial debate. US President George W. Bush saw in them a threat to sideline the security organization and t…

From Flight Global [excerpt]

First images of FF Aquitaine (near 6.000 tons), first ship of a new series, literally unveiled in presence of the french president Nicolas Sarkozy (in french): http://www.meretmarine.com/article.cfm?id=113073

RBS15 launch from HMS Visby (video)

From BBC News Page last updated at 12:55 GMT, Monday, 16 February 2009 Nuclear subs collide in Atlantic A Royal Navy nuclear submarine was involved in a collision with a French nuclear sub in the middle of the Atlantic, the MoD has confirmed. HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant were badly damaged in the crash in heavy seas earlier this month. First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathon Band said the submarines came into contact at low speed and no injuries were reported. Both the UK and France insisted nuclear security had not been breached. Despite being equipped with sonar, it seems neither vessel spotted the other, the BBC's Caroline Wyatt said. Our …

From Defense Aerospace Diamond Cuts the Waves (Source: UK Ministry of Defence; issued Nov. 27, 2007) The Royal Navy's newest and most powerful Type 45 destroyer - Diamond - was launched today, Tuesday 27 November 2007, from BAE's shipyard at Govan, on the River Clyde. Thousands of local people turned out for the launch, including many local schoolchildren. The Type 45 destroyers are the larger and more powerful replacement for the existing Type 42s. The destroyer will carry the world-leading PAAMS system (Principal Anti-Air Missile System) which is capable of defending a Type 45 and ships in its company from multiple attacks by the most sophisticated anti-s…

From RIA Novosti [excerpt]

A very old system, indeed. Photos of the tests in Mer et Marine: http://www.meretmarine.com/fr/content/navire-du-futur-le-vn-partisan-va-tester-de-nouveaux-systemes-dautoprotection

Turkey cancels MILGEM project following probe (Jane's) CV32: The article cites a probable hydrogen leak from charging batteries but another (Indian) source had stated that battery charging had been completed three days prior to the incident.