Agrégateur de flux

C’est dans ce bunker sous la place Denfert-Rochereau, dans le 14e arrondissement, que le communiste, chef des Forces françaises de l’intérieur (FFI) d’Île-de-France, a coordonné les actions populaires de libération de la capitale.

Le premier ministre israélien entend maintenir ses troupes sur le territoire palestinien et multiplie les bombardements et les attaques terrestres tuant toujours plus de civils. L’Iran, pour l’heure, retient ses coups.

Malgré le revers enregistré devant la justice française qui refuse de poursuivre les sociétés impliquées dans le scandale de l’agent orange, le collectif Vietnam Dioxine entend poursuivre la lutte.

Le parquet de Paris a requis, une semaine plus tôt, un procès devant la cour criminelle départementale à l’encontre de Gérard Depardieu pour viols et agressions sexuelles sur la comédienne Charlotte Arnould, a appris l’Agence France-Presse, ce jeudi 22 août, de source proche du dossier et du parquet, confirmant une information de BFMTV.

Summary and Key Points: The Virginia-class submarine was designed as a more cost-effective alternative to the expensive Seawolf-class, with the Block V variant addressing a critical issue: the missile gap between the U.S. and China.

-With China rapidly expanding its naval and missile capabilities, including a vast stockpile of cruise and ballistic missiles, the U.S. found itself falling behind.

-To counter this, the Virginia-class Block V submarines are being developed with the Virginia Payload Module (VPM), which significantly increases their missile-carrying capacity.

-This enhancement aims to close the missile gap and bolster U.S. military presence in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Virginia-class submarine was designed as a fast-attack submarine that was cheaper than the $2.8 billion-dollars-per-unit Seawolf-class submarine (of which only three were ever made). The Seawolf was an impressive vessel, to be sure. But in the post-Cold War era of sequestration, the Seawolf’s massive price tag became unpalatable, clearing the way for the cheaper Virginia-class to gain favor with US war planners. The Virginia isn’t exactly cheap – but at $1.8 billion-dollars-per-unit, the vessel costs about one billion dollars less than a Seawolf.

Already, Block I-III Virginia-class submarines are in service. Even a few Block IV Virginias are in service. Actually, a few more Block IV Virginias are on the way, meaning that the Block IV is a contemporarily acceptable submarine – which suggests that the Block V will be especially cutting edge.

The Block V was designed to address a very specific, and forward looking, problem – the missile gap between the US and China.

Adjusting to China

China is currently engaged in one of the greatest shipbuilding sprees in world history. Additionally, China is augmenting its air force, and its nuclear and conventional arsenals. Simultaneously, China is making aggressive territorial claims throughout the Indo-Pacific. All this while the United States was focused elsewhere – in Iraq and Afghanistan, which drained US resources without lending much strategic advantage.

However, enjoying the US distraction, China began converting its latent power into actual power – in some respects surpassing the United States. For example,  China now possesses the largest navy in the world. But more concerning to the US, perhaps, is that China invested heavily in a stockpile of cruise and ballistic missiles. The US failed to keep pace with Chinese missile proliferation,  and now, a missile gap exists.

China has not only developed more missiles than the US but also missiles with a greater range than those of the US. Unfortunately, China is approaching a monopoly status on intermediate-range missiles in the Indo-Pacific region. Of course, the US can build intermediate-range missiles but chose not to after signing the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The treaty was a Cold War agreement between the US and USSR that banned the deployment of missiles with an effective range between 500 and 5,000 kilometers. China never signed the treaty, and can deploy their intermediate-range missiles wherever, whenever.

Virginia Payload Module 

Trump, recognizing the missile gap, withdrew from the treaty. As a method to remedy the missile gap, the Virginia-class Block V is being developed with a cutting-edge new concept: the Virginia Payload Module (VPM). 

The VPM is a hull plug that will allow the submarine to haul three times as many Tomahawk missiles as the Block IV. Obviously, if the Block V can carry three times more Tomahawks, this will help mitigate the missile gap once the Block V’s are deployed to the region.

About the Author: Harrison Kass 

Harrison Kass is a defense and national security writer with over 1,000 total pieces on issues involving global affairs. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.

All images are Creative Commons. 

Des recherches ont également montré que les cas de dépression clinique augmentaient de 30 % chez les femmes après l'apparition des symptômes de la ménopause.

Le parquet de Paris a requis le 14 août un procès devant la cour criminelle départementale à l'encontre de Gérard Depardieu pour viols et agressions sexuelles sur la comédienne Charlotte Arnould, a-t-on appris jeudi 22 août de source proche du dossier et du parquet, confirmant une information de BFMTV.

Summary and Key Points: The British Ministry of Defence has announced a £20 million ($26.1 million) investment to build a "silent hangar" at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire for testing advanced military aircraft like the F-35 Lightning II and Chinook helicopters.

-The facility, one of the largest of its kind in Europe, will simulate hostile electromagnetic environments to counter threats such as GPS jamming, which has become increasingly common in modern warfare.

-Expected to open in 2026, the hangar will ensure military equipment can perform effectively in challenging conditions, enhancing the UK's national security and military resilience.

British Ministry of Defence to Build 'Silent Hanger' for F-35 Testing

A new UK test facility, one of the largest of its kind in Europe, could enable future testing of advanced aircraft including the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. It will be used to help with the development of technology to counter GPS jamming devices.

On Wednesday, the British Ministry of Defense announced it was investing £20 million ($26.1 million) to build a facility large enough to hold F-35 fighters and Chinook transport helicopters at the Boscombe Down site in Wiltshire. The facility in England’s southwest won't just store the aircraft. Rather, this "silent hangar" will serve as an isolation chamber for testing equipment that "can perform in the harshest electromagnetic environments on operations," the Ministry explained. 

The Ministry of Defense describes the facility as an "anechoic hangar (that) creates the perfect environment to test the integrity of the UK's military equipment." It is now on track to open in 2026. In addition to ensuring that tests can be conducted in a controlled environment, the hangar will also prevent tests from impacting emergency services or air traffic control in the region.

"Hostile threats jamming GPS to disorientate military equipment has become increasingly common," said Minister for Defense Procurement and Industry Maria Eagle, who added, "This cutting-edge test facility will help us eliminate vulnerabilities from our platforms, protect our national security and keep our Armed Forces better protected on global deployments."

Specialty Facility 

When completed, the silent hangar will be one of the largest facilities of its kind in Europe – roughly the size of a normal aircraft hangar, but with many features that might be found in a modern recording studio and classified research center. According to the Ministry, it will simulate "hostile environments (while) putting the UK's most advanced military equipment through its paces."

Security and defense contractor QinetiQ, which provides testing and evaluation capabilities for the military, was awarded the £20 million contract to build the facility.

"On an increasingly digital battlefield, the debilitating effects of electronic warfare are a persistent threat," suggested Will Blamey, chief executive for UK defense at QinetiQ. "The testing we will conduct using this new facility will be integral to strengthening the resilience of military equipment, which in turn enhances the safety and security of our Armed Forces and the United Kingdom."

The design calls for the silent hangar to "reduce reflections, echoes or the escape of radio-frequency waves," while "GPS simulators and threat emulators inside the chamber will provide the ability for the UK to create a number of hostile environments to test how well equipment can withstand jamming, and other threats, that attempt to confuse or disrupt military assets."

The Ministry of Defense has been influenced by the role electronic warfare has played in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, as well as China's military build-up, to put a renewed focus on its own EW efforts.

"The subject of GPS jamming has been well documented in the press, making this new facility all the more vital to help us keep our armed forces safe while protecting the nation and our allies," added Richard Bloomfield, head of Electronic Warfare (CBRN) Space at Defence Equipment & Support. "Not only will this be one of the largest such chambers in Europe, but it will also be one of the most up to date and high-tech in the world, where hostile environments can be safely recreated to put military equipment, such as fighter jets and drones, through testing to understand their performance in challenging environments representing the many external threats that may be faced."

Author Experience and Expertise: Peter Suciu 

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: Editor@nationalinterest.org.

Image Credit: Creative Commons. 

Contre la programmation des matchs du championnat de deuxième division en semaine, les associations de fans se mobilisent contre le diffuseur, beIN Sports, et la Ligue.

Summary and Key Points: The Russian 9K720 Iskander missile system, known as the SS-26 Stone by NATO, has been a significant concern for U.S. and NATO war planners since its development during the Cold War.

-Designed to counter Western air defense systems, the Iskander can deliver both conventional and nuclear strikes with high accuracy, thanks to advanced guidance systems including Russia's GLONASS GPS.

-The Iskander-M, with a range of up to 310 miles, has been effectively used in conflicts like the Syrian Civil War and the ongoing Ukraine War. Russia continues to upgrade this formidable system, enhancing its precision, range, and speed, making it a critical element of Russia's military strategy.

-Russian missile capabilities gave U.S. and NATO war planners headaches even before the Soviet Union collapsed. Whether using anti-aircraft systems or offensive strike platforms, the Russians have always been proficient at keeping Western militaries on their tactical toes. 

Russia’s Iskander Missile: A Cold War Legacy Still Haunting NATO

One system in particular has terrorized the minds of Western analysts and strategists for years. That’s the 9K720 Iskander (NATO designation SS-26 Stone). This is one of Russia’s most advanced mobile short-range ballistic missile programs. 

The Russians have shamelessly proliferated this capability throughout the world. Now that the Ukraine War has entered its third year, the Putin regime insists they will continue proliferating such weapons to countries that the United States views as threatening, such as the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Iskander’s Story

The Iskander’s story begins in the final decade of the Cold War, the 1980s. Back then, the Reds were doing everything in their power to keep up with America’s defense spending spree and innovation surge under President Ronald Reagan. The Iskander was designed in response to rapid developments in Western air defense systems. 

An Iskander missile can conduct both conventional strikes as well as nuclear attacks. Thus, the missile is used for deterrence at the strategic level and for operational use at the non-strategic level. 

Consisting of two versions, the Iskander-M has a range of up to 310 miles. As mentioned earlier, the Russians have been proliferating this system like crazy over the years. The export model is the Iskander-E. While still a potent system, it has a reduced range. The Iskander-M and Iskander-E are highly accurate systems.

The Iskander has a single-stage solid rocket propellant, and the missile is capable of achieving hypersonic speeds once it hits the atmosphere, too, during its terminal phase. When systems go hypersonic, it can be hard to defend against them. 

In February, it was reported that Russia was implementing a rapid upgrade of both their Iskander and Kinzhal systems to improve their precision, range, and speed.

In other words, Moscow was investing in making one of their most lethal strike weapons even more lethal. 

Iskander missiles employ advanced guidance systems to make its targeting highly accurate. These guidance systems include inertial navigation capability. The Iskander has optical systems and can use satellite-assisted guidance. 

Iskander and GLONASS

As an interesting aside, the Iskander uses the Russian GLONASS global positioning system, the rival to the U.S.-maintained GPS satellite constellation, to aid in guidance. Until the 2008 invasion of Georgia, the Russians actually used the American GPS for their offensive systems. The Americans then cut off Russian access to GPS, prompting Moscow to redouble its own efforts to use its own network.

In 2013, when the Russian armed forces were intervening to support the government of Bashar al-Assad against Islamist militants in the Syrian Civil War, they used the Iskander missile to great effect. It was the ultimate real-world test of the whole Iskander platform, and the Iskander rarely disappointed.

Iskander in the Ukraine War 

The Iskander would be put to the ultimate test in Ukraine. 

According to Thomas Newdick of The War Zone, the Iskander-M systems deployed in Ukraine “have been using an apparently previously unseen decoy, in an effort to spoof Ukrainian air defenses.” By employing “penetration aids,” or PENAIDs, which are normally associated with longer-range weapons, the Russians are ensuring “that its short-range battlefield ballistic missiles, too, are better able to defeat increasingly sophisticated anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems” that Ukraine is deploying against Russia. 

Moreover, the Russians have moved these systems into their Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad, which rests between Germany and Poland. Their deployment there not only shores up what is otherwise a vulnerable bit of strategic territory in Europe for Russia, but it also sends a clear signal to the European powers about the kind of damage that Russia can do to them if the Ukraine War spirals out of control.

The Iskander missile is one of Russia’s most powerful weapons. First created to respond to the West during the Cold War, it continues to serve the Russian military with a high success rate – so much so that Moscow has authorized a massive upgrade. Western leaders should not underestimate this system.

Author Experience and Expertise: Brandon J. Weichert

Brandon J. Weichert, a National Interest national security analyst, is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, the Asia Times, and The-Pipeline. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His next book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine, is due October 22 from Encounter Books. Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.

All images are Creative Commons or Shutterstock.

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