Boeing has patented a plasma ‘force field’ to protect against shock waves

If it’s ever realised, it could protect military vehicles from energy emitted by nearby blasts. 

 

As weapons get more sophisticated, researchers are trying to build defence systems that can keep pace, and what’s better than a force field?

Aerospace and defence giant Boeing has been awarded a patent to develop a force field-like system that could protect military vehicles from shockwaves following explosions from missiles or improvised explosive devices.

Boeing’s proposed system involves using a combination of lasers, electricity and microwaves to rapidly heat up the air between the vehicle and a blast. This heat creates a plasma shield that's denser than the surrounding air and able to deflect or absorb the energy from the incoming shockwave.

Unlike the impenetrable force fields of science fiction movies, the system is not designed to prevent direct impacts or shrapnel. Instead, Boeing’s system is designed to protect a target - which could be a vehicle carrying troops, or a building such as a command centre or a hospital - from the after-effects of nearby explosions.

The system, which would likely be mounted on a military vehicle, or some other target, would have sensors that can detect the velocity and shape of an incoming threat. The system would also be able to determine the size and force of the resulting explosion.

Its sensors and computers would be able to calculate the time it would take the shock wave from an explosion to reach the target, and from what direction. This is important, as the generated force field would only protect a small region of the target, rather than enveloping the entire thing.

Once it has determined the timing of the shock wave, the system’s objective is to somehow heat the air around the target, generating what Boeing terms a “transient medium” that intercepts the shock wave and reduces the energy density. 

 

As Evan Ackerman from IEEE Spectrum explains:

"The general concept is to use an electromagnetic arc to create this intermediate medium in mid-air on very short notice by using a stupendous amount of energy to heat the air into a plasma.“

The plasma, which is much hotter than the surrounding air, also has a different density and composition. Boeing believes this plasma field is enough to divert, reflect or absorb the energy passing through.

In its application, Boeing outlines several different embodiments of the systems, with different methods for detecting threats, and for rapidly creating the plasma field.

One option uses converging lasers or microwave beams to generate a spherical region of plasma. Alternatively, the force field could be generated by firing lasers that induce plasma channels in the air, which provide a path for an electric discharge to create the plasma shield. These same pathways could be created by launching metal pellets that leave conductive trails as they fly.

However they decide to make it work, it's a pretty cool idea. We'll be waiting for the first the prototype, which may or may not be able to defend against shock waves from this crazy new weapon.

Source: IEEE Spectrum

Mi-35 Attack helicopters General Information

The multirole Mi-35M attack helicopter is a comprehensive modernisation of the Mi-24V. The Mi-35M was developed by the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant, and has been series produced at Rostvertol since 2005.

The Mi-35M offers round the clock:

Combat use of guided and unguided weapons in regular and challenging climate conditions. Operational for attack flights at altitudes of 10-25 m daytime and 50 m at night over land or water.

For round-the-clock combat use, the Mi-35M is equipped with the latest navigation and avionics suite with multifunction coloured displays, target sights system that includes a thermal imager and TV channels, laser range finder and location finder.

The Mi-35M is distinguished by its improved construction. It is equipped with the latest Klimov-produced powerful VK-2500 turboshaft engines, fibreglass main rotor blades, main rotor head with elastomeric joints, a new swashplate and X-type tail rotor. The Mi-35M’s fuselage boasts shortened stub wings and fixed landing gear.

The Mi-35M boasts enhanced flight capabilities, and can be operated at high temperatures and in mountainous terrain. The Mi-35M’s design ensures low noise levels, greater combat resilience, and reduces the workload on maintenance staff.

In addition to its attack capabilities, the Mi-35M can also be used in other operations: 

 

Landing-transporting up to 8 paratroopers, with equipment, in the transport cabin;

Transporting military supplies or other cargo weighing up to 1,500 kg internally. The Mi-35M is also fitted with an external sling system, expanding its cargo carrying capacity to 2,400 kg.

Medical uses include carrying the sick and injured along with medical personnel.

Mi-24/25/35 helicopters have proved their high levels of operational efficiency over many years in service. The Mi-35M combines this unique experience of combat operation with the latest achievements and developments in helicopter building.

The Mi-35 is operated by the Armed Forces of Russia, Venezuela, Brazil and Azerbaijan.

Features:  

Photos:

 

 

Iranian general in Sanaa to organize Yemen rebel counter-offensive for Saudi-led attacks

Tehran took less than 48 hours for a decision to hit back at the surprise air and naval attack launched by Saudi Arabia, the Gulf and Egypt Thursday, March 26, to contain the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels’ sweep through Yemeni cities. debkafile’s military sources report that Iran’s top war commander, Al Qods Brigades chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani, landed in the Yemeni capital Sanaa Friday, March 27 to organize a counter-offensive and open Iran’s third direct Middle East warfront after Syria (in support of Bashar Assad) and Iraq (with the US against ISIS).

 

The "Shadow Commander" General Qassem Suleimani.

 The Saudi-GCC-Egyptian intervention found the pro-Iranian Houthi rebels at the gates of the big port of Aden, which commands the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, the vital gateway for oil shipping between the Indian Ocean and Gulf through the Suez Canal and Mediterranean. Certain Yemeni army units have joined the rebels. They are armed with advanced US weapons that were supplied for the war on al Qaeda and now serve the revolt against a Yemeni regime recognized by Washington.

This rebel force had already seized most of Yemen’s cities and stretches of its Red Sea coast. Soleimani’s arrival in Sanaa signaled Tehran’s determination not to give up an inch of the ground gained by its proxies, while underscoring its demand for dominance as the leading Middle East power, promised by Washington in return for accepting a framework deal on its nuclear program.

US officials persist in their public pretense that the diplomatic and the military arenas are unconnected. So the deal is presented as close to signing by the March 31 deadline, while the flames of Shiite-Sunni violence are allowed to spread into another corner of the Middle East. In the coming hours, Egyptian and Saudi naval and marine forces are planning landings in Aden, according to their military sources. They will fight to contain the Houthi march across Yemen and prevent the fall of its last major town, after two days of Saudi and Gulf air strikes against rebel positions around Yemen.

 
debkafile’s military sources report that the Saudi and Gulf air forces and Egyptian sea units managed in their first 48 hours to cut off Iran’s air and sea supplies to the Houthi rebels. Gen. Soleimeni will need to find a means of breaking the Saudi-Egyptian blockade and restoring supply routes. Above all, he must determine whether or not to co-opt Iranian air and sea forces to the Yemeni front and so leading them into head-to-head battle against Saudi Arabia and its ten Sunni allies.

 
Egyptian and Iranian warships maneuvering for control of the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb were reported to have clashed Thursday, the first day of the Sunni intervention in the Yemen conflict. From outside the region, Pakistan stands ready to step into the contest, promising Friday “a strong response” to any threat to “Saudi integrity.” This opened the door for the Pakistani army to be drawn into the wars of Arabia against Iran alongside the majority of Arab Sunni nations.

Islamabad was responding to a Houthi warning to invade the southern Saudi provinces of Asir, Najran and Jizan, for which they counted on a welcome by the local Saudi populations, most of which belong to the minority Ismaili sect, that is closer to the Iranian Shiite and Houthi Zaydi than to the dominant Sunni faith of the Saudi royal regime.

Friday night, President Barack Obama spoke with Saudi King Salman and reaffirmed US support for the military action taken in Yemen by Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies, the White House said in a statement. Obama and King Salman agreed that their goal is to achieve lasting stability in Yemen through a negotiated political solution, the statement said. Obama also underscored his commitment to Saudi Arabia's security.

Lebanon’s Shiite Hizbullah slams Saudi attack on Yemen

Hasan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hizbullah, Lebanese Shiite party-militia, weighed in on Friday on the Saudi intervention in Yemen. The Saudis put together a Sunni coalition against the Shiite Houthis and have bombed Zaidi Shiite population centers like Sa’adeh. I discussed their motives in my just-published piece in The Nation.

 

Hizbullah is opposing Saudi policy in Syria effectively, having intervened on the side of Bashar al-Assad, whom the Saudis are hoping to see overthrown. Hizbullah punches above its weight. Lebanon is a small country of 4 million. Shiites are about a third or 1.3 million. Not all Lebanese Shiites support Hizbullah, which has a few thousand fighters. But they managed to shore up the Syrian government where the Syrian Arab Army could not. Hizbullah is closely allied with Iran.

Nasrallah said that the Saudis are engaging in propaganda when they claim to be supporting the elected president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. He said that Mansour Hadi had in fact stepped down from his job, and wondered if the Saudis would go around restoring other former presidents, like Tunisia’s Zain El Abidine Ben Ali, to power. He teased Riyadh that King Abdallah opposed all the Arab Spring revolts and wanted to put the genie back in the bottle. (While it is true that Mansour Hadi resigned, he resigned because Houthi tribesmen were telling him what to do and he was a prisoner. He escaped to Aden in the South and now to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Nasrallah is doing propaganda here in glossing over Houthi dictatorship.)

Second, he said, the Saudis maintain that the Houthi movement is an enemy of Saudi interests. But, he said, the late King Abdallah had found it possible to do deals with them. A Houthi delegation came to King Abdallah’s funeral. Shortly thereafter, the new king, Salman, decided to turn on them and go into Yemen, Nasrallah alleged. Third, he said, the Saudis maintain that Yemen under the Houthis has become occupied territory, with Iran being the occupier. But, he asked, where are there any Iranian military bases or other signs of occupation in Yemen?

Nasrallah called for peaceful negotiations among the principle parties to find a solution to Yemen’s conflict. At the same time, Sunni leaders in Lebanon praised the Saudi intervention, as did the leader of the largely Sunni Future Party there, Saad Hariri. This conjuncture points to increased tensions between Sunnis and Shiites inside Lebanon. They were already divided over Syria, with Shiites mostly supporting al-Assad and Sunnis mostly seeking his overthrow.

Mizoram Liberation Army Killed 3 Policeman In India

Three policemen were killed and four others injured when militants opened fire on a convoy accompanying a group of members of legislative assembly near Indian state of Mizoram’s northern border with Assam and Manipur.

 

MLAs RL Pianmawia, Lalawmpuii Chawngthu and Lalthanliana, all members of the committee on government assurances, were being accompanied by a team of police and several officials while they were visiting the area. Police suspect that the militants were members of the Hmar People’s Convention (Democrats) or HPCD, a group based in southern Manipur.

 

The area where the ambush took place has weak communications signals and more details were still being awaited, sources said. Sakawrdai sub-divisional police officer Zarzoliana was being airlifted to Aizawl for emergency operation.

 

According to the police, MLA RL Pianmawia put up his hands and called to the militants that they were surrendering. After this the militants stopped firing and rounded up all the policemen’s guns. Police, however, are unclear about the kind and number of guns taken.

 
Due to poor communication signals more details are awaited, said police sources. Emergency meeting of security personals with Home minister of Mizoram R Lalzirliana was underway at the moment.

Three policemen were killed and four others injured when militants opened fire on a convoy accompanying a group of members of legislative assembly near Indian state of Mizoram’s northern border with Assam and Manipur.
MLAs RL Pianmawia, Lalawmpuii Chawngthu and Lalthanliana, all members of the committee on government assurances, were being accompanied by a team of police and several officials while they were visiting the area.
Police suspect that the militants were members of the Hmar People’s Convention (Democrats) or HPCD, a group based in southern Manipur.
The area where the ambush took place has weak communications signals and more details were still being awaited, sources said.
Sakawrdai sub-divisional police officer Zarzoliana was being airlifted to Aizawl for emergency operation.
According to the police, MLA RL Pianmawia put up his hands and called to the militants that they were surrendering. After this the militants stopped firing and rounded up all the policemen’s guns. Police, however, are unclear about the kind and number of guns taken. .
Due to poor communication signals more details are awaited, said police sources.
Emergency meeting of security personals with Home minister of Mizoram R Lalzirliana was underway at the moment. - See more at: http://newagebd.net/106772/three-policemen-killed-in-militant-attack-in-mizoram/#sthash.1WmZVTCD.dpuf

Three policemen were killed and four others injured when militants opened fire on a convoy accompanying a group of members of legislative assembly near Indian state of Mizoram’s northern border with Assam and Manipur.
MLAs RL Pianmawia, Lalawmpuii Chawngthu and Lalthanliana, all members of the committee on government assurances, were being accompanied by a team of police and several officials while they were visiting the area.
Police suspect that the militants were members of the Hmar People’s Convention (Democrats) or HPCD, a group based in southern Manipur.
The area where the ambush took place has weak communications signals and more details were still being awaited, sources said.
Sakawrdai sub-divisional police officer Zarzoliana was being airlifted to Aizawl for emergency operation.
According to the police, MLA RL Pianmawia put up his hands and called to the militants that they were surrendering. After this the militants stopped firing and rounded up all the policemen’s guns. Police, however, are unclear about the kind and number of guns taken. .
Due to poor communication signals more details are awaited, said police sources.
Emergency meeting of security personals with Home minister of Mizoram R Lalzirliana was underway at the moment. - See more at: http://newagebd.net/106772/three-policemen-killed-in-militant-attack-in-mizoram/#sthash.1WmZVTCD.dpuf

The Great Persian, Arab Proxy War

29 - March - 2015

Here is why those analysts classifying the wars in the middle east as 'sectarian wars' need to rethink their position.

1: Persians and Arabs have hated each other since ancient times. One just needs to look at history to find the validity of that argument. Hating each other is part of their respective identities.

2: Sectarian element in this conflict is nothing more than a rallying cry as race based nationalism is no longer strong enough to have thousands of young indoctrinated Persian and Arab men to kill each other. By fueling sectarianism the Persians and Arabs make sure that their fire of proxy wars has the fuel of young brainwashed men it needs to burn till their objectives are achieved.

3: Both Arabs & Persians are fighting to become the regional top dogs as the United States moves its focus to China leaving a power vacuum behind which both the Persian Iran and Arab coalition lead by Saudi Arabia hope to fulfill and cement their role as the regional superpower and to be classified as a 'Medium Power' in the world power structure.

4: Persians seek dominion over Arabia for historic reasons, they see it in the same light they saw the Greeks during ancient times. A basic study of numerous Persian Greek wars and Arab Persian wars will put this point of view in its right context. In other words the Persians seek a 21st century version of the 'Parthia'.

5: Arabs on the other hand seek to establish their own 21st Century version of the 'Omayyad Empire'.

Now that its been specified that there is a clear 'conflict of interests' between the Persians and Arabs for geostrategic reasons, it should become clear why exactly these two great powers in the region are busy burning Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya in their imperial proxy wars. Egypt, Lebanon and Bahrain are other battlegrounds that have either failed to ignite or are yet to be activated.

The Persian power Iran, has funded, trained, armed and supported Jaish-al-Mahdi, Hizbullah, Shabiha, Huthis, Hamas and other proxies which it pays for through its petrodollars, in order to have 'strategic depth' in the entire Middle Eastern region. Iran is the only country in the region that has a 'foreign army' under IRGC. Arab coalition lead by Saudi Arabia has funded, trained, armed and supported its own proxies, namely FSA, Jaish-al-Fatah and regional state govts allied to Riyadh like President, Sisi, President Hadi etc.

Armed to the teeth and rich with vast oil wealth the Persians and Arabs will fight this conflict to the bitter end. Somewhere down the line people will realize that this conflict has absolutely nothing to do with Islam and everything to do with the historic hatred of Persians and Arabs, the hubris to dominate the region for serving their own geostrategic interests. Islam preaches peace,and brotherhood among Muslims of all schools of thought, however the Persians and Arabs are now bent on using Islam as a tool to fulfill their agendas through a brutal, deadly, vicious and devastating proxy war.

The results of this clash are becoming visible already, a great war is brewing which will engulf the whole region to the great benefit of those who sell weapons to these regional powers, the US, Russia and EU. This is a battle to the end and its real victor will be none other than Israel. May Allah (SWT) have mercy on us.

Source: Horus - Pakistan Defence

KSA Managed Supports Over Yemen Attack

Five Gulf states said Thursday that they will protect Yemen’s embattled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi against Shiite rebels.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE said they “have decided to answer the call of President Hadi to protect Yemen and his people from the aggression of the (Shiite) Houthi militia.”

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby declared his full support for the airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen. “I affirm complete support” for the campaign, he said at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers. “It is an operation against targets belonging to the Houthis who committed a coup.”

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman will lead the Saudi delegation to the 26th Arab League Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh.

Hadi who arrived in Riyadh on Thursday will also attend the summit.
The US is coordinating closely with Saudi Arabia and regional allies in the military action, including providing intelligence and logistical support, the White House said.

US forces were not taking direct military action in Yemen, she stressed, but were “establishing a Joint Planning Cell with Saudi Arabia to coordinate US military and intelligence support.”
“We strongly urge the Houthis to halt immediately their destabilizing military actions and return to negotiations as part of the political dialogue,” added Meehan.
“The international community has spoken clearly through the UN Security Council and in other fora that the violent takeover of Yemen by an armed faction is unacceptable and that a legitimate political transition can be accomplished only through political negotiations and a consensus agreement among all of the parties.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron told Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a phone call on Thursday that “other countries” should not be supporting Houthi militants in Yemen, Cameron’s spokeswoman said, something Tehran is already doing.
“In order to restore stability what we need is a political process and ... as part of that other countries should not be supporting the Houthi rebels and instead be encouraging all the different parties in Yemen with different interests to come together in a political process,” the spokeswoman said.

Pakistan’s government said Thursday it will dispatch a top civil-military delegation to Saudi Arabia following Riyadh’s request that it join the coalition.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif decided to send the group to Saudi Arabia on Friday after meeting with top defense and military officials in Islamabad late Thursday, his office said in a statement.
“The meeting concluded that any threat to Saudi Arabia’s territorial integrity would evoke a strong response from Pakistan,” it said, adding that Pakistan’s defense minister and Sharif’s national security adviser would travel to the country, along with top military figures.

Sharif told the meeting: “Pakistan enjoys close and brotherly relations with Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries and attaches great importance to their security.”
Morocco also joined the coalition, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.Rabat has “put at the disposition” of the coalition Moroccan warplanes already based in the UAE, a statement said. Morocco had “decided to provide all forms of support to the coalition to sustain legitimacy in Yemen through the political, intelligence, logistical and military dimensions,” the statement added.

The objective was to help “remove Yemen from the crisis in which it is mired,” as well as to “stand up to all foreign conspiracies woven against the country, and against Gulf and Arab security.”
Turkey said it supports the operation and called on the militia group and its “foreign supporters” to abandon acts which threaten peace and security in the region.
President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted on Thursday as saying Turkey may consider providing logisitical support to the Saudi-led mission and called on Iran and “terrorist groups” to withdraw from the country.

“Turkey may consider providing logistical support based on the evolution of the situation,” Erdogan told France 24 in an interview, extracts of which were published on its website and by Turkish broadcasters.
“Iran and the terrorist groups must withdraw,” he said.
Four Egyptian naval vessels have crossed the Suez Canal en route to Yemen to secure the Gulf of Aden, maritime sources at the Suez Canal said on Thursday.

“It was necessary for Egypt to assume its responsibility... through the participation of elements of the Egyptian armed forces from the air force and Navy,” the presidency said in a statement. It said the action came in response to “demands by the Yemeni nation for the return of stability and to preserve its Arab identity.”
Former Lebanese Premier Saad Al-Hariri praised King Salman’s decision to launch an attack. “Iranian intervention in domestic affairs in Yemen requires an urgent Arab reaction.

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said his country stands behind the Arab coalition. “The military operation which has been launched by Saudi Arabia and some GCC countries is necessary to support the legitimacy in Yemen,” Reynders said.
Saudi Arabia has planned to beef up security at its borders and around oil and industrial facilities, SPA said Thursday, citing a statement by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif.

Prince Mohammed, who is also the interior minister, stressed “strengthening all security measures on the borders of the Kingdom and in all public utilities and around the oil and industrial facilities,” at a meeting to review security developments in Yemen, SPA said.
Kuwait said earlier on Thursday it had raised security around its oil facilities inside and outside the country.
Massive support for KSA campaign to save Yemen.

Source: Arab News

Video of Pakistani "Barq" LGM From Indigenous UCAV "Burraq"

This video collected from "Duniya TV"s Facebook page:

 

Pakistan test fires it's very own Laser Guided Missile from home developed  drone.

Pakistan Tests First Indigenous Armed Drone, Laser Guided Missile

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan has successfully test fired an indigenously-developed armed drone Burraq and Barq laser guided missile, the ISPR announced on Friday.

 

Pakistans' Home Made UCAV (Un-manned Combat Aerial Vehicle).

According to DG ISPR Asim Bajwa, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif witnessed the test fire, which had impressive accuracy and multiplies capability against terrorists.

 

COAS Attended The "Moving & Static Target" Firing Tests:

 

The army chief commended the engineers and scientists involved in the development for their untiring efforts to acquire state-of-the-art technology.

According to Bajwa, General Raheel termed it “a great national achievement”, and added that it would add to the country’s existing anti-terror campaign.

Russia has right to send nuclear arms to Crimea: Official

A senior Russian official says his country reserves the right to deploy nuclear arms in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which joined the Russian Federation last year.

“I don’t know if there are any nuclear weapons there at the moment and I am not aware of such plans, but in principle Russia can do this,” RIA Novosti news agency quoted the head of Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Weapons Control, Mikhail Ulyanov, as saying on Wednesday.

Moscow is naturally entitled to put nuclear weapons “in any region on its territory if it deems it necessary,” he stressed.

In January, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia Valery Gerasimov announced Moscow’s plan to reinforce its military presence on the Crimean Peninsula in 2015.

“In 2015, the Defense Ministry’s main efforts will focus on an increase of combat capabilities of the armed forces and increasing the military staff in accordance with military construction plans. Much attention will be given to the groupings in Crimea, Kaliningrad and the Arctic,” he said.

NATO military expansion

The comments came as NATO plans to expand its military presence in Eastern Europe amid the crisis in Ukraine.

The Western military alliance has held numerous war games over the past year. In 2014, NATO forces held some 200 military exercises, with the alliance’s General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg having promised that such drills would continue.

NATO launched a multinational naval drill in the Black Sea near the Crimean Peninsula on Tuesday. The war games involved NATO naval rapid reaction forces and saw the participation of the USS Vicksburg, a US guided missile cruiser, as well as vessels from six other participating states – Canada, Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.

Moscow has repeatedly condemned NATO’s exercises and military buildup toward its borders.

The Moscow-West relations sharply cooled after the Crimea joined Russia following a referendum in March 2014. Relations were strained further after Ukraine launched military operations in mid-April 2014 to silence pro-Russia protests in the country’s mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine.

Pakistan Has More Nukes Than India, Shows New Infographic

Pakistan had about 120 atomic weapons, 10 more than India, in its nuclear arsenal in 2014, according to a new interactive infographic unveiled by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

 

Designed by the Bulletin, founded in 1945 by University of Chicago scientists who had helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, the infographic tracks the number and history of nuclear weapons in the nine nuclear weapon states.

The Nuclear Notebook Interactive Infographic provides a visual representation of the Bulletin's famed Nuclear Notebook, which since 1987 has tracked the number and type of the world's nuclear arsenals.

Having reached a peak of over 65,000 in the late 1980s, the number of nuclear warheads has dropped significantly to a little over 10,000, but more countries now possess them, it shows.

According to the infographic, the United States and Russia both have about 5,000 weapons each.

France has 300, China 250, the United Kingdom 225 and Israel 80. North Korea has only conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

"I don't think people truly understand just how many of these weapons there are in the world," said Rachel Bronson, executive director of the Bulletin.

"The Interactive is a way to see, immediately, who has nuclear weapons and when they got them, and how those numbers relate to each other. It is a startling experience, looking at those comparisons."

The authors of the Nuclear Notebook are Hans M Kristensen and Robert S Norris, both with the Federation of American Scientists.

In the most recent edition of the Nuclear Notebook, the authors discuss the Notebook's 28 year history and describe how sometimes host countries learned of foreign nuclear weapons on their soil from the Nuclear Notebook.

Over 28 years of weapons analysis, the Nuclear Notebook column has revealed surprise nuclear activity and spot-on arsenal estimates while becoming a daily resource for scholars, activists and journalists.

"We wanted a way to communicate those numbers visually, because the world we live may be data-driven, it's also visual," said John Mecklin, editor of the Bulletin.

"The new infographic makes this vital information even more accessible." 

 

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/pakistan-has-more-nukes-than-india-shows-new-infographic/533058-56.html

Saudi - S. Korea Nuclear Deal

Saudi Arabia and South Korea signed five key accords on Tuesday in Riyadh including a plan to study the feasibility of building nuclear reactors worth SR7.5 billion across the country. The two countries, under the provisions of the signed MoU, are set to conduct a three-year preliminary study, to be completed in 2018, on the feasibility of constructing the nuclear reactors in Saudi Arabia.

 

King Salman and South Korean president Park Geun-hye.

Jungho Lee, a spokesman of the South Korean Embassy, said the framework agreement would include technical cooperation, research and development, and the exchange of personnel. According to reports, the agreement would be reached between King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE) and South Korea’s science, ICT and future planning ministry.

Saudi Arabia is the biggest petroleum exporter and dependent on oil and gas for its electricity production. The late King Abdullah established KACARE in 2010 to develop alternate energy, including atomic power. Lee said the talks between King Salman and Park looked largely at economic, and science and technology cooperation. It was an “opportunity to take bilateral ties to a new level,” he said.

 

Nuclear Plant.

“The Republic of Korea became the first foreign country with which the Kingdom signed such key accords after King Salman ascended to the throne, and it is a real honor,” said Lee. King Salman also hosted a lunch for Park, while Crown Prince Muqrin, deputy premier; and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif, second deputy premier and minister of interior, called on Park separately on Tuesday.

Lee said the Korean president, who is accompanied by over 100 top businesspeople, would attend a Saudi-Korean business conference here on Wednesday. He said the two sides also touched on security issues and challenges facing the Middle East. An MoU was also signed between the Korean Ministry of Science and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology. 

 

Source: Arab News