Agrégateur de flux

Les Nations Unies ont salué mercredi 31 juillet, l’annonce faite la veille par l’Angola selon laquelle les gouvernements de la République démocratique du Congo et du Rwanda ont convenu d’un cessez-le-feu qui devrait entrer en vigueur le 4 août.

Un conflit oppose l’armée congolaise à la rébellion du Mouvement du 23 mars (M23), appuyée par le Rwanda, dans la province du Nord-Kivu, dans l’Est de la RDC.

Professeur à la faculté de Théologie de l’Université Catholique du Congo à Kinshasa, abbé Guelord Mindela Bungu a appelé, mercredi 31 juillet, les enfants à honorer leurs parents.

Il a lancé cet appel en marge de la journée mondiale des parents vivants et morts, célébrée le 1er aout de chaque année.

Ce prélat catholique a fait savoir que la célébration de la fête des parents a un sens profond.

Austria's conservative-led coalition government is nominating conservative Finance Minister Magnus Brunner as its next European Commissioner, Chancellor Karl Nehammer said in a statement on Wednesday (31 July).

A portugál főváros, Lisszabon Belém kerületében, a Tejo torkolatának közvetlen közelében magasodik egy szürke, úszótalpas repülőgépet mintázó emlékmű. A gép légcsavaros orra az Atlanti-óceán felé néz, arra, amerre 1922. március 30-án két portugál repülő elindult, hogy eljusson Brazíliába.

Portugália, a kis ibériai ország, amely Luzitánia néven a Római Birodalom egyik tartománya volt, a XV. század második felétől a tengeri kereskedelem révén tornázta fel gazdaságát. Jelen volt az Atlanti-óceáni szigeteken és Afrikában, s még távolabb, India és a Távol-Kelet felé kacsintgatott. Miután Bartolomeu Dias és Vasco da Gama Afrika megkerülésével megtalálta a kelet felé vezető utat, a portugálok ott is megvetették a lábukat és folytatták azt, amit a fekete kontinensen már magas szinten űztek: a kizsákmányolást, és a helyi lakosság rabszolgasorba hajtását vagy legyilkolását. A Lisszabonból induló kereskedelmi hajók először az uralkodó passzáttal a dél-atlanti vizek felé hajóztak, hogy megkerülhessék Afrikát. Valószínűleg ennek volt köszönhető, hogy 1500 áprilisában a Pedro Álvares Cabral vezette flotta a mai Brazília partjaihoz vetődött. Az új területnek egy ideig nem szenteltek komolyabb figyelmet, mert a fókuszban továbbra is Afrika és a kelet kincsei valamint „humán erőforrása” volt. Idővel azért elkezdték rugalmasan értelmezni a világot spanyol és portugál érdekszférára osztó, 1494-es tordesillasi szerződést. Hosszas ottlétre rendezkedtek be a hatalmas földterületen, amely végül az 1530-as években portugál gyarmat lett. Nevét az atlanti erdőiben honos, vörös folyadékot tartalmazó brazilfáról kapta és a mai napig az egyetlen ország Dél-Amerikában, ahol a spanyol helyett a portugál a hivatalos nyelv.

[...] Bővebben!

Russian President Vladimir Putin doubled upfront payments for volunteers to fight in Ukraine on Wednesday (31 July), a move aimed at facilitating military recruitment but likely to create imbalances in the overheated economy.

Olympians dived into the River Seine on Wednesday (31 July) after a pre-dawn notice informed teams that its waters were safe enough to proceed with the triathlon, sparing France the embarrassment of a central Paris 2024 promise being swept away.

Potentially massive quantities of naturally produced hydrogen were discovered in France last year. Since then, prospectors across Europe have been on the lookout for more deposits and are calling for greater public support for their efforts.

Disinformation and propaganda, long mainstays of war, have been digitally supercharged in the battle for Ukraine, the biggest conflict the world has seen since the advent of smartphones and social media.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, facing mounting pressure to offer evidence his election victory was valid, said that opposition leaders should be imprisoned following deadly protests across the country.

Americas The United States Air Force (USAF) F-22 Raptor made its debut at Exercise Pitch Black, Australia’s largest air warfare exercise. Deployed from Kadena Air Base, Japan, a contingent of six F-22s integrated seamlessly with a diverse array of allied aircraft, demonstrating the platform’s interoperability and combat capabilities. Lt. Col. Ryan Nickell, commander of the 27th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, highlighted the exercise as an invaluable opportunity to operate alongside partners from both NATO and the Asia-Pacific region. The expansive Australian airspace provided an ideal environment for the Raptors to showcase their full performance envelope. Ottawa-based WR Davis Engineering has received a supply chain contract to support the development of Canada’s future River-class guided missile destroyers. The $21.6-million deal stipulates the design and implementation of the warships’ full engine intake and exhaust system and its corresponding infrared suppression capabilities. Middle East & Africa Northrop Grumman won a $50 million contract for F-16 System Program Office Foreign Military Sales support. This contract provides for the repair and return of F-16 radar (AN/APG-68 version 9) components for 11 foreign military sales countries. Work will be performed at Linthicum Heights, Maryland, and is expected to be completed by July 30, 2030. This contract involves […]

Why Chinese strategists see little difference between the two.

The world is not ready to confront a new international terror threat.

A large fire broke out in Rome on Wednesday (31 July) on a hill near the Italian capital's court of justice and a public TV broadcasting centre, forcing the evacuation of several buildings and offices, firefighters said.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday (31 July) met with Warsaw Uprising veterans and asked for their "forgiveness" during a visit to Poland on the eve of the revolt's 80th anniversary.

Summary and Key Points: The U.S. military is developing its own anti-ship capabilities to counter threats in the Indo-Pacific, particularly from China's advanced anti-ship ballistic missiles like the DF-21D and DF-26B. During the 2024 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, the U.S. Air Force tested the Quicksink, a low-cost, GPS-guided bomb, using a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber to sink the ex-USS Dubuque.

-This new strategy emphasizes using stealth bombers to deliver precision-guided bombs, offering a potentially effective and economical method to neutralize large naval threats, including carriers, echoing tactics successfully employed during World War II.

The U.S. Military is Developing Its Own Carrier Killers – Meet the Quicksink

There has been a lot of hype about China's advanced anti-ship ballistic missiles. Both the DF-21D, with a range of up to 2,150 km, and the DF-26B, with a range of 4,000 km, threaten naval vessels operating in the Indo-Pacific – notably the U.S. Navy's nuclear-powered supercarriers.

The range of those weapons could deny access to U.S. and other warships in the South China Sea and in other waters Beijing claims.

However, the United States is also developing anti-ship ordnance, and earlier this month put its low-cost Quicksink to the test. The guided bomb was dropped by a U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bomber during the ongoing Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024 exercise. 

The long-range strategic bomber employed the relatively inexpensive GPS-guided bombs in a SINKEX of the ex-USS Dubuque (LPD-8), an Austin-class amphibious transport dock.

"This capability is an answer to an urgent need to quickly neutralize maritime threats over massive expanses of ocean around the world at minimal costs," the U.S. Navy's 3rd Fleet said in a statement following the sinking of the former LPD-8.

It was one of two SINKEX, a sink-at-sea live-fire training exercise involving decommissioned U.S. Navy warships, with the ex-USS Tarawa also sunk by a long-range anti-ship missile.

Stealth Bombers and Guided Bombs

Much of the emphasis on anti-ship ordnance in recent years has gone to ballistic missiles and hypersonic weapons. The speed and kinetic force of hypersonic missiles would mean that an explosive warhead might not be required to do significant damage to a warship such as a carrier.

But that is only if the missiles, hypersonic or otherwise, strike a target. 

Experts suggest that could be far more difficult than it sounds. The Pacific Ocean is vast, and carriers are speedy vessels screened by a carrier strike group that includes guided-missile destroyers specifically designed to counter incoming threats. Likewise, efforts are underway to develop Directed Energy Weapons including lasers that could counter missiles and drones.

Even as the U.S. military continues to develop hypersonic missiles, it is now exploring a rather old-school anti-ship approach – bombs dropped by aircraft. It worked with great success in World War II to send the Imperial Japanese Navy's fleet of carriers to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and it could do the same to China's new carriers.

"The B-2's demonstrated anti-maritime capability will constrain if not deter plan operations east of Taiwan or off the Philippines," retired U.S. Navy Capt. Carl O. Schuster, former director of the U.S. Pacific Command Joint Intelligence Center, told CNN. "You cannot ignore a weapon that can sink a 25,000-plus-ton ship with one hit."

Schuster makes a good point. A low-cost guided bomb delivered by a stealth aircraft – not a missile fired from land-based launchers – might just be the true carrier killer. 

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 and/or Shutterstock. 

En Centrafrique, plusieurs réactions politiques après la résolution du Conseil de sécurité des Nations Unies levant l'embargo sur les armes. Imposé au début de la guerre civile en 2013, il avait ensuite été assoupli. Depuis 2022, les autorités n'avaient plus qu'à signaler les achats au comité de suivi. Si le Président Faustin Archange Touadéra se félicite de la fin de cet embargo, l'opposition, elle, est plus mesurée. 

Summary and Key Points: The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) and South Korea are making significant advancements in electromagnetic and laser weapon technologies.

-Japan's new 13DDX destroyers may soon be equipped with electromagnetic railguns and high-powered lasers.

-Concurrently, South Korea's Hanwha Aerospace has begun production of the Laser Air Defense Weapon, Block-I, designed to neutralize North Korean drones.

-This system, part of Seoul's "Star Wars" initiative, offers a low-cost defense solution with each laser shot costing around $1.50.

-The platform, which can be mounted on trucks or warships, has a range of 1.8 miles and is expected to be deployed by year-end.

Japan and South Korea Push Boundaries with New Electromagnetic and Laser Weapons

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) announced that its new class of 13DDX destroyers could be armed with electromagnetic railguns and high-powered lasers. 

Just days after that announcement, South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said Hanwha Aerospace had begun production of a new anti-aircraft laser weapon.

According to a report from the Korean Times, the Laser Air Defense Weapon, Block-I was developed to shoot down North Korean drones. Deployment of the high-powered laser could begin by the end of the year. DAPA signed a contract with Hanwha last month, but the effort to develop the laser weapon has been years in the making.

Hanwha publicly unveiled the air-defense laser platform at the DX Korea 2020 Defense Show. The company said the weapon could detect and track small unmanned aerial vehicles and neutralize them at close range with a twenty kW laser. The platform was slated to complete testing by 2023 and has run a little behind schedule. 

The South Korean "Star Wars"

The Block-I laser weapon was developed as part of Seoul's "Star Wars" effort to integrate laser technology into current battlefield platforms. Lasers are seen as a low-cost solution to a low-cost threat. Small military drones can have a price tag in the thousands of dollars, but the air-defense missiles and rockets to shoot them down can cost tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A laser weapon can swing the pendulum back in favor of the air-defense system, with each shot costing only around $1.50 (~2,000 won).

"Low-cost drones and rockets have swung the economic calculus of offense and defense in favor of those using large volumes of cheap unmanned systems and munitions to overwhelm more-sophisticated air and missile defenses," James Black of RAND Europe wrote in a blog post in January, per CNN.

Small But Powerful 

According to DAPA, each Block-I laser platform measures just under 30 x 10 x 10 feet (9 x 3 x 3 meters) and can be mounted on a truck chassis for land mobility. It could also be mounted on warships. It can fire a laser ray that is nearly impossible to detect before impact. The laser beam has a range of around 1.8 miles (3 km).

"It is invisible and noiseless, does not require separate ammunition and can be operated only when electricity is supplied," the South Korean defense agency stated, while further noting that more powerful versions could be developed to take out larger targets, including aircraft and ballistic missiles. Development is already underway on a Block-II weapon that will offer improved output and range.

Earlier this year, the UK's Royal Navy announced it had developed a line-of-sight laser-directed energy weapon that could strike a £1 coin from a distance of up to a kilometer.

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 and/or Shutterstock. 

Summary and Key Points: The Kirov-class battlecruiser, a formidable nuclear-powered warship, was designed by the Soviet Navy to counter U.S. carrier strike groups and project naval power during the Cold War.

-Equipped with a vast array of weapons, including SS-N-19 long-range anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and torpedo systems, the Kirov-class is among the largest and most heavily armed surface combatants in operation today.

-Its nuclear propulsion grants it significant endurance at sea, making it a powerful tool for asserting Russian naval presence and disrupting potential adversaries. These battlecruisers were built as a strategic alternative to costly aircraft carriers.

Understanding the Kirov-class Battlecruiser

The Kirov is a class of nuclear-powered guided-missile battlecruisers built for the Soviet Navy and later operated by the Russian Navy. These warships are considered to be the largest and heaviest surface combatants in operation in the world today. 

The Kirov class was designed to counter the U.S. Navy’s submarines with its large payload of SS-N-14 anti-submarine missiles, and later to counter U.S. carrier strike groups. 

The Kirov class is powered by nuclear reactors, which provide a high degree of autonomy and endurance in comparison with conventionally powered warships. Their nuclear reactors enable the warships to operate for extended periods at sea without refueling.

The Specs on the Kirov-Class 

The Kirov class is equipped with an array of weapons systems, including a 130 mm AK-130 twin-barrel gun used for surface and air targets. SS-N-19 Shipwreck long-range anti-ship missiles are deployed. Twenty of these missiles can be launched from the ship.

Twelve eight-round Vertical Launch Systems are installed for these new missiles. 

Two main launchers that pop off SA-N-4 surface-to-air missiles are positioned on the bridge, with a total of forty missiles.  

Further, SA-N-9 surface-to-air missiles are loaded on the Kirov-class, with two octuple launchers installed at the forward deck, carrying an additional 16 missiles.

Not content with creating a giant missile truck at sea, the Russians installed 533 mm torpedo tubes on the Kirov class. Specifically, two quintuple launchers were installed at the hull, capable of launching Type 53 torpedoes and SS-N-15 missiles.

A single RBU-1200 is positioned on the forward deck while two RBU-1000s are located at the aft deck. 

Oh, and then there’s the potent CADS-N-1 CIWS (Close-In Weapon System) armed with SA-N-11 missiles. Six of these CIWS are installed on the boat’s superstructure, giving it potent defenses against incoming fire. 

The Kirov-class battlecruiser has a range of approximately 14,000 nautical miles at a speed of 30 knots.

The Reason for the Battlecruiser

Back in the Cold War, the Reds built the Kirov-class warships primarily to counter the U.S. Navy’s carrier battle groups and to assert naval power. The battlecruisers were designed to engage with and neutralize American aircraft carriers, which were considered the backbone of the U.S. Navy’s offensive capabilities. 

Additionally, the Kirov-class ships were intended to serve as commerce raiders, disrupting the flow of American and Canadian ground reinforcements to Europe in the event of a conflict. 

The Kirov-class battlecruiser is a powerful warship designed to project Soviet/Russian naval power and to counter U.S. naval forces. Its nuclear propulsion, long-range missiles, and extensive weapons systems make the Kirov a force on the high seas. 

They were built to counter the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carrier capabilities without replicating that expensive ability. It was, in fact, a smart stopgap for a nation, like Russia, that is not a conventional maritime power but will still need to hold the line at sea against any U.S. naval force. 

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. All photos are of various submarine styles. 

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Moussa Dadis Camara a été condamné à vingt ans de prison, mercredi 31 juillet, pour le massacre du 28 septembre 2009 au cours duquel plus de 150 personnes avaient été tuées et 1 400 blessées par des militaires, à Conakry.

The Slovak Supreme Audit Office compiled an analysis of the pandemic. The summary report highlighted the insufficiencies in the Slovak health system’s pre-pandemic preparedness and pandemic management.