Free Republic

WASHINGTON, April 20, 2010 – Iran may be capable of striking the United States with an intercontinental ballistic missile by 2015, according to a Defense Department report submitted to Congress yesterday. The unclassified analysis outlines near-term and longer-term threats posed by Iran, including Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its desire to extend its influence in the Middle East. “With sufficient foreign assistance,” the report states, “Iran could probably develop and test an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States by 2015.” The report states that central to Iran’s “deterrent strategy” is its pursuit of a nuclear program that could...

June 17, 2007: Russia will now be replacing RS-18 (SS-19) and RS-20 (SS-18) ICBMs with the newer RS-24 (SS-27 Topol M), more rapidly than earlier planned. This is the result of more money being allocated to buying ICBMs, and more reliable new ICBMs becoming available. Russia continues to test launch RS-18 and RS-20 ICBMs. Russia still has 140 (out of a 1980s peak of 360) RS-18s in service, and expects to keep some of them active until 2010. The test firings for the last two years have been successful, and other quality-control tests have come back positive. The 106 ton,...

FROM the day Alexander V. Litvinenko, a former K.G.B. officer, died of polonium poisoning in London last November, officials in Russia treated the investigation of his death as if it were simply a matter of bad public relations. They dismissed accusations of Russian involvement as nonsense fabricated by President Vladimir V. Putin’s enemies. Britain last week punctured Russia’s strategy. A decision by the Crown Prosecution Service to accuse another former K.G.B. officer of the murder and demand his extradition pushed Russia out of the international court of public opinion and into the international court of law. If recent history is...

The head of the Russian military’s general staff, Yuri Baluyevsky, said Thursday Iran does not have the technological means to create intercontinental ballistic missiles, Radio Free Europe reports. “According to our information, today Iran has no technological or technical capabilities to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile,” he said.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska: US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Sunday warned North Korea may pose a threat as a weapons seller to terrorists and that America would consider taking the nuclear warheads off intercontinental ballistic missiles so they could be used against terrorists. Rumsfeld, in Alaska to visit a missile defense installation weeks after Pyongyang test-fired a long-range missile believed capable of reaching the United States, said North Korea is testing missiles to show the capabilities to potential buyers. "They sell anything to anyone," he said.

The United States could use a force of intercontinental ballistic missiles with conventional warheads because nuclear weapons may not deter terrorists and rogue states, the general in charge of the U.S. Strategic Command says. Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright told a Pentagon-sponsored missile defense conference on Monday that "it's very difficult for a nuclear weapon to be a credible deterrent against an extremist." In addition to the "tyranny of distance" that makes it hard for military forces to get to an area of the world very quickly, there is also the problem of the inadequate speed of current conventional...

The 2005 US report on Chinese military power has a previously undisclosed part that says China has nine brigades armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the US, claims an article on a Web site which specializes on China's military weapons. The article, carried by the Web site www.zgjunshi.com, claims that the unreleased part of the Pentagon report released July 19 says that three of the nine brigades are equipped with Dong Feng-31 land-based mobile strategic missiles, with the other six armed with Dong Feng-5 ICBMs. In addition, China's 094 nuclear submarines, armed with strategic missiles, have undertaken...

'Stick and carrot method not working' Shalom calls for international pressure to stop Iran reaching nuclear capabilities; more than 200 Iranian youngsters volunteer to carry out suicide bombs against Israel By Doron Sheffer and Associated Press Iranian youngsters prepared to die Photo: AP Iran's threat to the world is a nightmare, says Shalom A “nightmare” is how Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom defined Thursday the possibility that Iran may be able to achieve nuclear capabilities. “The possibility that Iran’s regime would be able to threaten the existence of the world with the press of a button is a nightmare,” Shalom told...

Military talks about missile program REASSIGNMENTS: The recently formed Missile Defense Command will be disbanded, but the defense minister seemed to imply that Taiwan was developing ballistic missilesBy Rich ChangSTAFF REPORTERTuesday, May 03, 2005,Page 1 Advertising Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (—›Œ†) yesterday for the first time may have implied that Taiwan is developing long-range strategic missiles. In a speech yesterday at the Legislative Yuan, Lee announced that "the military will temporarily dissolve its missile command, but the command will be re-established once the military has strategic weapons." He said the currently existing Missile Defense Command units will be...

THESE IS HOW OUR MILITARY WAS DECIMATED UNDER (COMMANDER IN CHIEF)CLINTON, SUPPORTED 100% BY JOHN KERRY (THESE VOTES HE DID SHOW UP FOR). THEIR TERRIBLE JUDGMENT IS WHY OUR MILITARY IS STRETCHED NOW...ALL DUE TO THE DEMOCRAT PARTY LEADERSHIP (I USE THE TERM LOOSELY). Send to all...people need to know what they're voting for. 709,000 REGULAR (ACTIVE DUTY) PERSONNEL. 293,000 RESERVE TROOPS. EIGHT STANDING ARMY DIVISIONS! 20 AIR FORCE AND NAVY AIR WINGS WITH 2,000 COMBAT AIRCRAFT 232 STRATEGIC BOMBERS. 9 STRATEGIC BALLISTIC MISSILE SUBMARINES WITH 3,114 NUCLEAR WARHEADS ON 232 MISSILES. 500 ICBMs WITH 1,950 WARHEADS. FOUR AIRCRAFT CARRIERS...

North [Korea] Deploys New 4,000 Km-Range Missiles North Korea has begun work on deploying intermediate range ballistic missiles (with ranges of 3,000~4,000km) it developed last year, building underground bases at two sites. This is much sooner than South Korean and American military authorities had expected. A high ranking government source said Tuesday that, "North Korea is in the middle of building two underground missile sites in Yangdok County, South Pyongan Province and Sangnam-ni, Hochon County, North Hamgyeong Province. Construction is about 70 to 80 percent complete." The source added, "In particular, U.S. spy satellites have discovered about 10 of...

The U.S. military will upgrade its Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles while retiring its Peacekeeper missile force, a senior officer told a Senate subcommittee March 25. The larger, multinuclear-warhead-carrying Peacekeeper ICBMs are being decommissioned as part of the Moscow Treaty brokered between the United States and Russia in May 2002. "With Peacekeeper deactivation proceeding as planned, the Air Force has implemented an aggressive life extension program for the Minuteman III ICBM force to ensure weapon system reliability through 2020," Navy Adm. James O. Ellis Jr. explained to members of the Senate Strategic Forces Subcommittee. Ellis heads the U.S. Strategic Command...

Putin's nuclear show blows up in his face By Julius Strauss in Moscow (Filed: 18/02/2004) Russia's biggest military exercise since the collapse of communism flopped yesterday, ruining an attempt to project Vladimir Putin as a global leader and reaffirm the country's status as a nuclear superpower. With Mr Putin and a host of military officials watching from the nuclear submarine Arkhangelsk, two intercontinental ballistic missiles went wrong during a firing from a submarine believed to be the Novomoskovsk. They were aimed at Kamchatka on the Pacific coast. A malfunctioning satellite was blamed. Putin promised that Russia will again be a...

Democrats are counting on Sen. John Kerry's military credentials to convince voters that he can be trusted with America's national security. But documents that surfaced over the weekend raise serious questions about whether Kerry was duped in the 1990s into helping the Chinese military perfect its ability to strike the U.S. with nuclear weapons. In 1996 Kerry met with Liu Chaoying, the daughter of a powerful Chinese military official who also doubled as vice president of a subsidiary of the state-owned China Aerospace Corp. Before the meeting, held in Kerry's Senate office, Liu's sponsor, Johnny Chung, made clear she was...