Free Republic

A weapon capable of massive destructive power …. fired out from beneath the surface of the ocean off the coast of California, when the Navy’s USS Louisiana ballistic missile submarine launched an unarmed, nuclear-capable Trident II D5LE. While the weapon was of course unarmed, the firing was the latest readiness test of the Pentagon’s undersea leg of the nuclear trial in support of strategic nuclear deterrence. The concept is as simple as it is paradoxical in a way, ensuring massive retaliatory destruction for any nation-state which launches a nuclear attack on the United States. Peace through power and the promise...

The towering Mother Ukraine statue in Kyiv — one of the nation’s most recognizable landmarks — lost its hammer-and-sickle symbol on Sunday as officials replaced the Soviet-era emblem with the country’s trident coat of arms. The move is part of a wider shift to reclaim Ukraine’s cultural identity from the Communist past amid Russia’s ongoing invasion. Erected in 1981 as part of a larger complex housing the national World War II museum, the 200-foot (61-meter) Mother Ukraine monument stands on the right bank of the Dnieper River in Kyiv, facing eastward toward Moscow. Created in the image of a fearless...

Defense Secretary Mark Esper fired Navy Secretary Richard Spencer Sunday over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL who posed for a photo next to an Islamic State terrorist's corpse in Iraq, a Pentagon spokesman said Sunday. “Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper has asked for the resignation of Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer after losing trust and confidence in him regarding his lack of candor over conversations with the White House involving the handling of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher," Department of Defense spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement Sunday. Controversy continued to swirl around whether...

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy Secretary said on Saturday he did not threaten to resign amid a disagreement with President Donald Trump over whether a Navy SEAL convicted of battlefield misconduct should face a board of peers who may oust him from the elite force. “There seem to be rumors out there that I threatened to resign. I have not threatened to resign,” Richard Spencer told reporters at a security conference in Halifax. The New York Times reported earlier on Saturday that Spencer had threatened to quit if Trump subverted the process. Spencer said Special Operations Chief...

It's a large moon, the seventh largest in our solar system, and scientists think it was born in the Kuiper Belt before falling into its current location in orbit around the most distant planet. ...Procktor and her colleagues believe they can photograph the moon's entire surface in a single pass. ...On its way past Triton, the spacecraft's flight would be timed in order to see in sunlight the 60 percent or so of its surface that Voyager 2 couldn't see. After the initial approach, the spacecraft would turn its camera back to recapture the 40 percent of the surface Voyager...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Seven Catholic peace activists were denied bail during a court appearance April 6, a day after they were detained after entering Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia to protest nuclear weapons. Calling themselves the Kings Bay Plowshares, the seven faced charges of possession of tools for the commission of a crime and interference with government property, both felonies, and criminal trespass, a misdemeanor. Chief Magistrate Jennifer E. Lewis of the Camden County Magistrate Court said in court she was denying bond, claiming that they posed a threat to the community because she believed they could return...

RIGHT now, a British Trident nuclear submarine is gliding deep beneath the waves, primed and ready to launch a devastating strike if the worst should ever happen. Our nuclear subs operate in the depths of the ocean, where nobody can detect them, and are always on alert to respond to the threat of a nuclear war. Trident sub commanders keep in contact with the surface as much as possible, but they're relatively cut off from Britain when on deployment. In the event of a sudden and unexpected strike, the sub crews may have no way of knowing exactly what's happening...

President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wants to build up the U.S. nuclear arsenal to ensure it is at the "top of the pack," saying the United States has fallen behind in its atomic weapons capacity. In a Reuters interview, Trump also complained about Russian deployment of a cruise missile in violation of an arms control treaty and said he would raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin when and if they meet. On another front, Trump said China could solve the national security challenge posed by North Korea "very easily if they want to," ratcheting up pressure...

Hulls of the new £31billion Trident submarines will be built with steel provided by a FRENCH firm. BAe Systems, building the subs in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, opted for a French supplier after signing a contract with the UK government. The deal, which The Mirror reports will be worth tens of millions, came after a plan between two British firms to make a joint bid for the work flopped. The Defence Secretary announced work on the new nuclear deterrent will begin today as the first pictures of £31billion Trident submarines were unveiled. Sir Michael Fallon said he will officially mark the start...

The Royal Navy is suffering a recruitment crisis when it comes to staffing Trident submarines - as young people are too addicted to Facebook to go off-tech for weeks at a time. Following a vote to renew the nuclear submarines which passed through Parliament last week, those serving say that a scheme designed to attract new blood has faltered. And a senior source says this is down to the fact that "you cannot Facebook your friends". Last month, the annual report from the Ministry of Defences’s internal watchdog, the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator, warned of a shortfall of qualified engineers,...

Jeremy Corbyn is on collision course with Labour MPs and trade unions for defiantly speaking at an anti-Trident rally and snubbing his party's pro-EU campaign. The Labour leader will address a CND rally in London alongside the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon, Leanne Wood of Plaid Cymru, the Green Party MP Caroline Lucas and veteran left-wing actress Vanessa Redgrave. His decision has infuriated many Labour MPs, who claim he is campaigning against the party's policy on Trident and ignoring its policy to campaign to remain in the EU. Although Mr Corbyn will also attend Labour's Yorkshire and the Humber regional conference, where...

Britain will order four new nuclear submarines, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced at the Conservative party conference in Manchester. In a clear message to anti-Trident Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, the PM said four new submarines would be ordered to replace the existing fleet, which will be retired. In his first conference speech since the Tories won a parliamentary majority in May’s general election, Cameron used the occasion to present a strong opposition to Corbyn’s foreign policy stance, highlighting the importance of a strong nuclear deterrent. He told a packed hall that the nuclear deterrent is the country’s “ultimate...

US Navy say "light in the West Coast sky" was a Trident II (D5) missile test at sea from the submarine "Kentucky" www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xLmB81v-BI

End austerity: it’s cheating us all; Jobs not Trident; No cuts; Defy Tory rule; Cut war not welfare; Stop fracking; a Living Wage for mothers; and, The Pope gets it, why can’t you? With the slogans emblazoned on banners, posters and flags, anti-austerity marchers shouted slogans, sang, and beat drums, as they walked through London in what is being called the biggest protest march that the city has seen. The ‘End Austerity Now’ demonstration saw participation by an estimated crowd of between 70,000 and 250,000, all coming together to protest against cuts imposed due to austerity, the threats to the...

REPLACING Trident with a nuclear deterrent dropped from the air would save up to £13 billion for priority defence equipment spending, a think-tank has claimed in a new report. Trident nuclear submarines at Faslane are an “expensive and excessive” solution to the UK deterrence requirements and would have been ineffective even during the Cold War, CentreForum said in its analysis. Instead, the UK’s forthcoming F-35 Joint Strike Fighters – a stealth aircraft bought for conventional missions – should be adapted to deliver a “minimum nuclear deterrent” based upon a stockpile of 100 British built B61-12 nuclear bombs, the “independent liberal”...

Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox all fell to the mercy of the hackers Thursday. That is, in a controlled environment. Security firms Vupen and MWR Labs were able to crack the browsers during a condoned bug-hunt, with one company winning $100,000 for finding a huge hole. The Pwn2Own competition is an event at the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver. The competition was created by HP’s DVLabs as part of its Zero Day Initiative: an attempt to get more people to find and report bugs as opposed to exploiting them for personal gains.

About the two Navy SEAL’s killed in Libya: Quite an astounding tribute to the courage and bravery of the two former Navy SEAL’s that went to the aid of Ambassador Stevens and Embassy staff. Courageous! Recently I was teaching a class in my church on the biblical character, Joshua. You remember him – he’s the one who took over for Moses to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. God made several promises to Joshua in the opening verses of this book of the Bible named after him. Three times God instructs Joshua to “be strong and courageous.” In fact,...

SIR – In his headlong rush to replace Trident, Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, seems to be overlooking the basic question of whether it remains viable for Britain to continue independently developing and maintaining its own nuclear submarines (report, June 18). He should take into account the chronic squeeze on British defence funding, the limited number of hulls it can afford, ever more stringent safety standards, and the long-term erosion of Britain's nuclear expertise. By developing an independent design for the new submarine, the Government is opening itself up to allegations that the Trident replacement programme is just an excuse...

Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, will reveal the scheme to build a new nuclear deterrent in a move which will cause tensions with the Liberal Democrats. He will announce a deal ordering nuclear reactors for a new class of submarines to replace the current Vanguard fleet, which carries Britain’s Trident nuclear arsenal. The decision is the most public statement yet that the Government is committed to a full-scale replacement of Trident - something opposed by the Lib Dems, who want a cheaper way of maintaining nuclear weapons. Mr Hammond will say that a Rolls-Royce plant at Raynesway, in Derby, will...

SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 31, 2012 – The U.S. Navy conducted successful test flights April 14 and 16 of four Trident II D5 Fleet Ballistic Missiles (FBMs) built by Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT]. The Navy launched two unarmed missiles each day from the submerged submarine USS Maryland (SSBN 738) in the Atlantic Ocean. These tests marked the 139th, 140th, 141st and 142st successful test flights of the Trident II D5 missile since design completion in 1989 – a reliability record unmatched by any other large ballistic missile or space launch vehicle.