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‘There are no civilians in Japan.” This was the judgment of a US Air Force intelligence report produced before the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during August 1945. The meaning was clear. The global conflict that had raged since 1939 had become a total war. London, Coventry, Berlin, Dresden, Tokyo and many other cities had all suffered “strategic bombing”. The leading participants in the Second World War did not view civilian population as pure collateral. By 1945 they were the principal targets. The bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9 respectively were the...

20 cannons were manufactured from 1951 to 1953. The cannon fired a W9 or W19 nuclear artillery shell with a maximum range of 24-29 miles. 5 Field Artillery Battalions were deployed to the 7th Army in West Germany between October 1953 and April 1954. The units were hosted by the 42nd Field Artillery Group. Each battalion had 3 280mm guns, 30 officers, 7 warrant officers and 401 enlisted men. All of the cannons were retired in December 1963.

Dr. Ephraim Asculai, senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, said on Thursday that he doubts the sanctions being imposed on Iran will lead its leaders to give up the country's nuclear weapons program. He predicted that Iran could have nuclear weapons within a year. Dr. Asculai told Arutz Sheva that the sanctions imposed so far on Iran, whether by the UN Security Council or by the United States and other Western countries, have yet to have a real effect. “We still do not see that the Iranians are willing to be flexible on critical matters, even...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government's only facility for handling, processing and storing weapons-grade uranium was temporarily shut this week after anti-nuclear activists, including an 82-year-old nun, breached security fences, government officials said on Thursday. WSI Oak Ridge, the contractor responsible for protecting the facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is owned by the international security firm G4S, which was at the center of a dispute over security at the London Olympic Games. Officials said that the facility was shut down on Wednesday at least until next week after three activists cut through perimeter fences to reach the outer wall of...

SNIPPET: "I. When considering the matter of jihadis online, remember that most of what we think we know is based on analyses of the comments made by an handful of vocal activists. The vast majority of jihadis online, be they on forums or social networking sites[i], say nothing. Skillful translations and insightful analyses by definition tell us little about this potentially lethal yet silent majority."

(Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin oversaw the start of construction of one of Russia's newest generation submarines on Monday and vowed to boost nuclear naval forces to safeguard the country's position as a leading sea power. Warning that its navy would protect top energy producer Russia's interests in the oil-rich Arctic, Putin led the ceremony to begin building the submarine Prince Vladimir, named after the ruler who founded a precursor state to modern Russia. The vessel is the fourth Borei class submarine, designed to carry one of the country's newest and most powerful intercontinental nuclear missiles, the Bulava, or Mace....

Russian President Vladimir Putin participated on Monday in a ceremony to launch construction of Russia’s fourth Borei-class (Project 955A) ballistic missile submarine. “By 2020, we should have eight Borei-class submarines,” he said. “Two of them - the Alexander Nevsky and one other - are in trials. I am sure the entire project will be implemented.” The ceremony for the boat, the Knyaz Vladimir, was held at Sevmash, Russia’s largest shipyard and sole nuclear submarine maker located in the port city of Severodvinsk on the White Sea. More new-generation warships - both surface ships and submarines - should be built for...

US Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree Israel's greatest danger comes from Iran. The Republican presidential candidate's trip to the region is part of a three-nation foreign tour that has already taken in a somewhat unsuccessful stint in the UK and will finish in Poland, as the Romney campaign team hope to boost their man's foreign policy credentials. Meeting in Mr Netanyahu's office, the Israeli Prime Minister spoke to Mr Romney in front of assembled journalists and photographers. "I have to say that I heard some of your remarks and you said that the...

Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory was such a well-kept secret during World War II that most Americans still don’t know that it sits off one of busiest highways in the South. Every year, streams of vacationers whiz by the complex that enriched uranium for America’s first atomic bomb project. It’s on the way to Great Smoky Mountains National Park — the most-visited U.S. national park. And every year, right about this time, the city of Oak Ridge, just west of Knoxville on Interstate 40, holds a Secret City Festival, crying out to potential tourists. “They don’t even know we’re here,”...

Mitt Romney would back an Israeli military strike against Iran aimed at preventing Tehran from obtaining nuclear capability, a top foreign policy adviser said early Sunday, outlining the aggressive posture the Republican presidential candidate will take toward Iran in a speech in Israel later in the day. Romney has said he has a "zero tolerance" policy toward Iran obtaining the capability to build a nuclear weapon. "If Israel has to take action on its own, in order to stop Iran from developing the capability, the governor would respect that decision," foreign policy adviser Dan Senor told reporters ahead of the...

In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney bluntly states that "A nuclear Iran represents the greatest threat to the world." "I have said in the past and I can reiterate now that it is essential that Iran does not become nuclear," Romney says, according to a transcript of the interview. "A nuclear Iran represents the greatest threat to the world, to the United States and to the very existence of Israel. A nuclear Iran would mean that Hezbollah or other actors would potentially someday be able to secure fissile materials which would threaten the...

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Since the end of WWII, America's naval might has been undisputed and our aircraft carriers have been its crown jewels. However, the days of dominance could end with China's new DF-21D ballistic missile—the only device on Earth capable of sinking an aircraft carrier—four and a half acres of sovereign US territory—with one shot. VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi0d-eFiGN4&feature=player_embeddedThe DF-21D (Dong-Feng 21 variant D) is the world's first and only anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM). It's a two stage, land-launched missile with a maximum estimated range of 2,700 to 3,000 km. Its single fuel-air explosive warhead packs 200 to 500 kilotons. It was developed by...

Japanese authorities are investigating subcontractors on suspicion that they forced workers at the tsunami-hit nuclear plant to underreport the amount of radiation they were exposed to so they could stay on the job longer. Labor officials said Sunday that an investigation had begun over the weekend following media reports of a cover-up at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, which suffered multiple meltdowns following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disasters. A subcontractor of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, acknowledged having nine workers cover their dosimeters with lead plates late last year so the instrument would indicate a lower...

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<p>WUERGASSEN, Germany (Reuters) - Peter Klimmek has spent his entire career at a nuclear plant in Germany. Next year, he will retire -- just months before his workplace does.</p> <p>The nuclear plant in the small and remote village of Wuergassen, halfway between Frankfurt and Hamburg, has been Klimmek's passion for the past 37 years.</p>

In an unusually public forum, the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, MI6, has forecast that Iran would likely achieve a nuclear weapons capability within two years, a British newspaper reported Friday. The newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, quoted Sir John Sawers, once the ranking British diplomat on the Iranian nuclear issue and now head of the Secret Intelligence Service, as making the disclosure last week to a gathering of around 100 high-ranking civil servants. The reported remarks play into a highly contentious debate over Iran’s intentions and capabilities, in which estimates have varied widely. American intelligence agencies have cited a...

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) notoriously opaque nuclear arsenal could be much bigger than the estimates prevalent in the United States—up to 1,800 warheads as opposed to the 300 or 400 currently thought—according to a report authored by a retired Russian colonel general. In addition, the report says that the PRC has rail-mounted intercontinental ballistic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads, and nuclear warheads on a series of ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) and cruise missiles—statements that contradict dominant understandings of China’s nuclear posture. Viktor Yesin, the former chief of the main staff of the Strategic Rocket Forces and currently professor...

North Korea has claimed that it needs atomic weaponry to defend itself from a constant threat of US nuclear attack and that Pyongyang would never give up its right to a "peaceful space programme". Pak Ui-Chun, North Korea's foreign minister, told a crowd at the ASEAN forum that it was Washington's aim to "eliminate the political ideology and system our people have opted for". Mr Pak said North Korea would use its "peaceful space programme" to "explore and utilise the outer space to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes". Mr Pak justified his claims by describing a US and South...

Would it have been worth it to use low-yield tactical nuclear weapons during Vietnam War?