Votkinsk Machine Building Plant. Located about 8.5 km to the east of the birthplace of Pytor Illyich Tchaikovsky, in the Russian Federation Republic of Udmurtia, is an industrial facility whose name, in typical Soviet fashion, obscures the products made there. It is a name unfamiliar to most outside of the arms control, intelligence or…
The term tipping point describes a point at which a slow gradual change becomes irreversible and then proceeds with gathering pace. It is derived from the metaphor of a rigid solid object being tilted to a point where it begins to topple. Couple of observations from the region… Iran to launch 1st domestic satellite soon…
North Korea to shutdown nuclear plant by July 2007. Russia’s Interfax news agency is reporting this AM that North korea will be shutting down and sealing up its controversial nuclear plant by July. This is the plant that serves as North Korea’s main nuclear reactor and source for weapons grade plutonium. The development comes on…
Missile and other news and notes from around the ‘sphere: MANPADs vs Helos Lots of concern/interest in countering the MANPAD (MAN Portable Air Defense) missiles in the wake of increased helo loses these past couple of weeks. While the CH-46 loss that has gained so much coverage appears to have been mechanical in nature (Update:…
Continuing the themes from yesterday’s post: a. India plans aerospace military command to oversee space-based assets: In yet more fallout from China’s ASAT test comes the announcement from India that they intend to “create an aerospace command to control and protect satellites and spacecraft orbiting the Earth.†Air Chief Marshal Shashi Tyagi said India was…
Reverberations continue this week over the Chinese ASAT test and allegations of Iranian and North Korean cooperative development of nukes and long range missiles; meanwhile Iran continues to rattle the cage with announcement of another Shahab-3 test and a “new†sub-surface ship killer missile; India announces its intent to establish a dedicated aerospace defense command…
Some increased levels of chatter these past few days re. cooperation between Iran and NK in nuclear weapons and missile fields. First up, the nuclear issue: NORTH KOREA HELPING IRANIANS TO SET UP NUKE TEST: REPORT: KOREANS SHARING THEIR TEST RESULTS, The VancouverProvince (British Columbia), January 24, 2007. North KoreaIran to prepare an underground nuclear…
Last week we went big – big planes, big ships, big nukes, big hair (no wait, that’s another story…). This week we go to the other end of the spectrum. < ?xml:namespace prefix = o /> Arms Race – 1950 1950 and the nuclear arms race is well and truly underway. The Soviets had surprised…
