Photo Taken at German Army artillery range
I know what you are thinking: “Why?”
Well, apparently it was made not to use in battle but to reduce noise to nearby communities in Germany.
The vehicle pictured is the M109G 155mm self-propelled howitzer.
Senator Joe Lieberman
The world faces a stark choice between imposing tough sanctions on Iran to stop its nuclear program, or attacking it, United States Senator Joe Lieberman said Saturday.
Lieberman is the influential chairman of the Senate committee on homeland security. He was speaking a day after Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that his country was ready to accept an international swap of uranium, but only under certain conditions.
“We have a choice here: to go to tough economic sanctions to make diplomacy work or we will face the prospect of military action against Iran,” Lieberman told the annual Munich Security Conference.
Top U.S. commanders are already working out how such a strike should be conducted, and although “no-one wants this to happen … unless we together act strongly and do more than talk that is exactly what will happen,” Lieberman said.
A nuclear-armed Iran would provoke chaos in the Middle East, send world oil prices soaring and end any hope of a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Lieberman said.
IAEA chief seeks ‘accelerated’ dialogue with Iran
Earlier Saturday, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said, after talks with Iran’s foreign minister on a nuclear fuel swap plan, that he sought an accelerated dialogue with Tehran.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Yukiya Amano told reporters after his talks in Munich with Mottaki that dialogue on Iran’s nuclear program is continuing.
Asked if he was confident of a breakthrough, Amano told reporters on the sidelines of an annual security conference in the German city “I prefer not to provide my perspective. Dialogue is continuing, this should be accelerated. That’s the point.”
Meanwhile, Mottaki described his meeting with the IAEA chief as “very good,” but repeated Iran’s insistence on determining the amount of fuel to be exchanged and said it might be less than the 1,200 kg of low-enriched uranium (LEU) which world powers have asked it to part with in one go.
In exchange, Iran would receive uranium of a higher grade which it could use to fuel a Tehran research reactor producing medical isotopes.
“It is very common that in business, the buyer talks and offers about the quantity, and the seller only offers the price,” Mottaki told reporters at the Munich Security Conference.
In the proposed swap, he said, “we determine the quantity on the basis of our needs and we would inform the parties about our requirements. Maybe it is less than this quantity you have already mentioned [1,200 kilograms] or a little more than the quantity we may need for our reactor.”
From the point of view of the United States and others, the proposed swap would reduce the risk of Iran enriching its low-grade uranium to the degree required for potential use in a nuclear weapon – an intention Tehran denies.
“We discussed and exchanged views on a wide range of issues – views about the proposal that is on the table,” Mottaki said.
“I tried to explain the views of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the Director-General,” Mottaki said.
He was elaborating on comments he made on Friday, suggesting an agreement was close. The United States and Germany on Saturday voiced skepticism about Iran’s intentions and said those remarks had not gone far enough.
Mottaki rejected a questioner’s suggestion that Iran’s leadership was divided over the proposed uranium deal.
“In Iran there is only one voice about the issue. And that is, the exchange of fuel has been accepted and recognized. As I told you before, there have been certain doubts about it, and efforts were made to remove these doubts,” he said.
Mottaki did not address the timing of a proposed swap, a problematic issue in negotiations. On Friday he spoke of a ’simultaneous’ swap, whereas the six-power group wants Iran first to ship its LEU abroad and then receive it back when sufficiently enriched to use in Tehran reactor.
The IAEA’s last report in November said Iran had registered a total of 1,763 kilograms of LEU, a quantity experts say would be more than enough for one nuclear bomb if it were enriched to the level of 90 percent.
Dhanush-missile
India successfully tested a nuclear-capable ballistic missile from a ship near the east coast on Sunday, a defence official said.
The Dhanush, which has a short range of 350 kilometres (220 miles), is a navy version of the surface-to-surface Prithvi missile and can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads.
The missile was successfully fired from a ship in the Bay of Bengal, said S.P. Das, director of Integrated Test Range, a unit of India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation.
“The test met all the requisite parameters,” he said.
The Dhanush was last tested in 2007.
Last month, India conducted the first night-time test of a nuclear-capable, medium-range ballistic missile but the attempt failed.
For the first time US Air Force has confirmed that its arsenal contains an advanced stealth aircraft called ‘Beast of Kandahar‘. The images of the unmanned drone appeared on the Internet sometime ago. Before Tuesday, the Air Force kept it covered in secrecy. It has been developed by eminent aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin and according to the US Air Force, the stealth aircraft is meant for giving surveillance support and reconnaissance to augment the ground forces.
The Drone got the name ‘Beast Of Kandahar’ after its photographs got leaked by a French magazine, Air & Cosmos, was apparently the first to publish the photo of the aircraft earlier this year. The photo quality isn’t particularly good, but even untrained eyes can recognize that the UAV isn’t a Predator, Reaper or Global Hawk, types often seen over Afghanistan and Iraq.. The photos showed the aircraft flying in the sky of southern Afghanistan. That was almost two years back. It is similar to the famous B-2 bomber in terms of looks. The state of the art stealth aircraft is the brain child of Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs, a facility that is involved in implementing top secret US defense projects. Lockheed is the entity that credited with making aeronautic marvels like the F-22 fighter jet, F-117 Nighthawk and the U-2 spy plane.
The presence of the drone in a nation like Afghanistan has prompted the war experts to question USA’s intention all the more closely. As everyone knows, the militants and insurgents in that country do not have enough surveillance equipment. Some people are looking at it as an indirect way of spying on the neighboring countries of Afghanistan. The US Air force has plans to increase the number of unmanned stealth aircraft in the future, and the Beast of Kandahar is a prime example of that intention.
More money wasted on the drug war…..
SAN DIEGO — U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Monday took delivery of its first Predator aircraft drone to scan U.S. waters for smugglers.
The Predator B (MQ-9 Reaper) is expected to begin testing in early 2010 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida and be used in the Caribbean to combat drug trafficking.
The plane has an enhanced radar system compared to the Predator B that has been used to combat drug smuggling and movement of illegal immigrants on land borders for four years. CBP operates three drones from Libby Army Airfield in Sierra Vista, Ariz., and two from Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota.
Another Predator B for maritime use is expected at Cape Canaveral in January, said CBP spokesman Juan Munoz-Torres. The agency plans to eventually have 12 drones for land patrols and six for maritime patrols.
The planes can be disassembled and flown in C-130 cargo planes to other locations but it is unlikely that the first plane will be used in San Diego, Munoz-Torres said. The Southern California seas has been the site of a surge in illegal immigrant smuggling from Mexico.
The plane delivered Monday was made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. in Palmdale, north of Los Angeles, for $13.5 million. Future deliveries are expected to cost $11 million to $12 million.
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