The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson will reportedly make a historic visit to Vietnam as part of the Navy’s largest multinational disaster response exercises in the Indo-Pacific region. Click on the graphic for an expanded view. Continue reading US aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to make historic Vietnam visit – an annotated infographic
The United Arab Emirates is due to commission the Arab world’s first nuclear power station in 2018. The Barakah plant’s four reactors are expected to supply up to 25 percent of the UAE’s electricity needs by 2020. As reported by E&T news in October last year, Saudi Arabia intends to begin the first reactor casing pouring in 2018 on two power plants with a capacity up to 2.8GW. The conservative Gulf Kingdom, which has a population of 32 million, is thought to hold 18 per cent of the world’s total crude oil reserves and has long been the world’s top … Continue reading UAE to open Arab world’s first nuclear power plant – an annotated infographic
As you may have heard, North Korea has successfully produced a miniaturised nuclear warhead to be delivered by its Hwasong-14 (KN-14) intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), according to an analysis by the U.S. Defence Intelligence Agency. North Korea may have the required technologies and materials for reentry vehicles (RVs) and it may have demonstrated them in rocket-engine static-test firings, but it has not successfully flown them under real flight conditions. A second Hwasong-14 missile test on July 28 reached a height of 3,725 kilometres and travelled 998km, before landing in waters off Japan. However, video of the ICBM reentering the atmosphere … Continue reading North Korea’s miniaturized #nuclear warhead – an annotated infographic
Some Western analysts suggest that North Korea’s Hwasong-14 (KN-14) intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is powered by a 1960s Soviet-era RD-250 engine, originally designed and built in the Ukraine. The second rocket launch on July 28 reached a height of 3,700km before landing in the sea about 1,000km away. Fired on a flatter, standard trajectory, it could reach US cities such as Los Angeles, Denver and Chicago, according to David Wright, a missile expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Michael Elleman, senior fellow for missile defence at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), said that the rocket’s engine … Continue reading #NuclearWar threat as #Trump and #KimJongUn fight over #NorthKoreaNukes – an annotated infographic
Russia has floated its newest nuclear-powered multi-purpose attack submarine. The launch of Kazan, considered a counterpart to U.S. Seawolf and Virginia-class, comes as Moscow claims its submarine fleet has increased combat patrols to levels last seen during the Cold War. The Kazan is the first upgraded Project 885M Yasen-class attack submarine. Equipped with eight vertical missile launchers, it can deliver Kalibr or Oniks anti-ship and land-attack cruise missiles – significant after Russian ships and submarines fired long-range missiles from the Caspian and the Black Sea into Syria in 2016. For the first time in Russian shipbuilding, the torpedo tubes are … Continue reading Kazan, Russia’s most dangerous nuclear attack submarine – an annotated infographic
All of this would be funny if it weren’t actually true… When Donald Trump becomes the next US President (yes, this is really happening, it’s not all a surrealist nightmare), he will immediately have access to, and sole launch authority for, all of America’s nuclear weapons. Trump will be accompanied at all times by a military aide carrying what is known as the nuclear ‘football’, the US loving nothing more than an inappropriately trivial sporting reference to refer to a catastrophically devastating act of destruction. This is, after all, the same country that based its judicial system for incarceration on a baseball analogy: three strikes and … Continue reading Kablammo!! #Trump will have his finger on the #nuclear button – an annotated infographic
Analysts say North Korea’s latest test launch of a KN-11 missile shows Pyongyang has succeeded in developing “cold launch” technology, which means it can fire a ballistic missile vertically from a submarine. The sub-launched KN-11 ballistic missile is powered by the newly developed high-power solid fuel engine. Click on the graphic for an expanded view. Continue reading North Korea succeeds in firing ballistic missile vertically from submarine – an annotated infographic
The United States plans to deploy 180 precision-guided thermonuclear bombs to five European countries between 2020-24. The B61-12 has a “dial-a-yield” feature and is able to strike within 30 metres of its target. Russia has threatened to take countermeasures over reports that the U.S. is to upgrade nuclear weapons in Europe. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said plans for the U.S. to station up to 180 modified B61–12 guided nuclear bombs in five NATO countries “would lead to a violation of the strategic balance in Europe.” Under a $10.4 billion “Life Extension Programme” (LEP) the new munitions will be converted from … Continue reading NATO shows off new steerable nuclear bomb – Russia not happy about it – an annotated infographic
Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Exploding A-bombs in the Bikini Tests on remote Pacific islands, marvelling at the mushroom clouds produced, then two decades later realising that it would probably be wise to gather all the nuclear detritus from these sunshine shenanigans and concrete over it all, before sidling away, whistling nonchalantly. So it went in the 1950s and then the 1970s. Now, the giant concrete dome – the Cactus Dome – put in place and filled with nuclear waste is leaking radiation. Built in the late 1970s on one of those remote Pacific islands … Continue reading Atomic bomb test site leaking radiation – an annotated infographic
North Korea has conducted an engine test of an intercontinental ballistic missile and is believed to plan a test flight of the whole system, according to a US think tank. The KN-08 missile, which is believed to have a range of more than 10,000km – enough to deliver a nuclear warhead to the USA – has been tested throughout March and April, the think tank 38 North has revealed in a report. Commercial satellite imagery indicates movement and removal of missile stages and fuel tanks as well as changes in the flame trench that point to North Korea having conducted … Continue reading North Korea testing ballistic missiles capable of reaching the USA – an annotated infographic
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