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The air force of neutral Sweden may not be one of the big-hitters in terms of global power projection. Indeed, it has barely even undertaken combat operations. When Swedish jets went into action over Libya in 2011, during Operation Unified Protector, the government only allowed them to fly reconnaissance missions. The previous time Swedish fighters deployed in combat was almost 50 years earlier, during the Congo crisis. However, Sweden always has taken its air defense very seriously—and has a proven track record of developing innovative, often indigenous solutions to meet its air-power needs. Now, the Swedish air force is about...

Some truths CNN reveals only accidentally. One such truth Anderson Cooper shared on the night of July 17. In speaking about the shoot down of Malaysian airliner MH 17 earlier that day, Cooper referred back to “July 17, 1996, when TWA Flight 800 was shot down off the coast of Long Island in New York.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States began building a case Friday that would pin the blame for the downing of the passenger jet over Ukraine on separatist forces supported by Russia, in a disaster that could dramatically escalate the crisis in Ukraine. President Barack Obama said one American was among the nearly 300 killed and called for an immediate cease-fire to allow for an unfettered investigation. Evidence indicates that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile from an area controlled by Russian-backed separatists, Obama said at the White House. He warned that the incident showed the...

<p>KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — An Air Force fighter jet has been shot down by an air-to-air missile fired from a Russian plane, a spokesman for Ukraine's Security Council said Thursday.</p> <p>Andrei Lysenko also said Ukrainian troops had been fired upon by missiles from a village just inside Russia.</p>

Fighting Get Breaking News Alerts to Your Desktop Red email - send us news tips Hamas fire anti-aircraft missile at IAF jets; miss target Arab media reports Egypt attempting to broker ceasefire, sends warning from Israel to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Elior Levy Published: 07.08.14, 12:06 / Israel News Hamas' military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, has fired an anti-aircraft missile at an IAF fighter jet flying above the Gaza Strip. The missile failed to hit its target. Meanwhile, reports indicate Egypt is working to broker a ceasefire agreement. The reports came as rockets rained down on Israel, with...

Hundreds of Arabs flocked to the Temple Mount on Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the barrage of rockets upon Israel's civilian population. The video, captioned in Arabic, reads "[c]elebrations at the Holy Al-Aqsa mosque after hearing the sounds of rockets explode in occupied Jerusalem."

Buried on page 40 of the Pentagon’s latest annual report on China’s military power is a brief mention of the YJ-12, a recent addition to China’s portfolio of anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM). The report notes that, “The new missile provides an increased threat to naval assets, due to its long range and supersonic speeds.” True, but in an understated way. In fact, the YJ-12 is the most dangerous anti-ship missile China has produced thus far, posing an even greater risk to the U.S. Navy’s surface forces in the Western Pacific than the much-discussed DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile. The arrival of...

A rocket fired by Gaza terrorists on Wednesday night, shortly before 1:00 a.m. exploded near a home in the city of Sderot and caused it minor damages. The rocket hit a local power line and caused blackouts in parts of the city, but there were no reports of physical injuries. Two other rockets exploded in open areas in the Shaar Hanegev region. There were no physical injuries or damages. The latest rocket fire follows a barrage of at least 20 rockets that were fired at southern Israel on Wednesday. A continuous rain of rockets have been fired on Israel this...

Japan will strike any North Korean ballistic missile that threatens to hit Japan in the coming weeks after Pyongyang recently fired medium-range missiles, a government source said on Saturday. Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera issued the order, which took effect on Thursday and runs through April 25, the day that marks the founding of North Korea's army, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Following the order, meant "to prepare for any additional missile launches," a destroyer was dispatched to the Sea of Japan and will fire if North Korea launches a missile that Tokyo deems in danger of striking...

President Barack Obama is seeking to abolish two highly successful missile programs that experts say has helped the U.S. Navy maintain military superiority for the past several decades. The Tomahawk missile program—known as “the world’s most advanced cruise missile”—is set to be cut by $128 million under Obama’s fiscal year 2015 budget proposal and completely eliminated by fiscal year 2016, according to budget documents released by the Navy. In addition to the monetary cuts to the program, the number of actual Tomahawk missiles acquired by the United States would drop significantly—from 196 last year to just 100 in 2015. The...

(LEAD) N. Korea fires 10 short-range missiles toward East Sea 2014/03/16 20:01 SEOUL, March 16 (Yonhap) -- North Korea fired off 10 short-range missiles toward the East Sea late Sunday, a source in Seoul said, the latest show of force in response to the on-going joint South Korea-U.S. military drills. The launches began at 6:20 p.m. and lasted about 10 minutes. The fired rockets flew about 70 kilometers before landing in the East Sea, according to the source

Let’s all give thanks to Obama and his magical “reset” button. The whole world is on fire. Hope and change. Lots of change. “Israeli Navy reports Hizbullah has acquired and deployed Russian cruise missile,” Special to WorldTribune.com, February 28, 2014 (thanks to Christian) TEL AVIV — Israel has determined that the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah acquired an advanced Russian cruise missile.

A worrisome culture of fear that made launch officers believe they had to get perfect test scores to be promoted fueled a widening cheating scandal within the military's nuclear missile corps, according to Air Force officials. (snip) Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said the scandal hasn't affected the safety or reliability of the military's nuclear mission. (snip) All 92 officers — nearly 17 percent of the force — have been decertified and taken off the job while the scandal is being investigated. That means other launch officers and staff must fill in, performing 10 24-hour shifts per month, instead...

National Security: While the administration guts the U.S. military, Pentagon experts warn that as soon as five years from now our missile defenses might pose little problem for China's new hypersonic strike vehicle. Behaving as the world power they are becoming, the Chinese are building state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles that Pentagon officials warn could overpower U.S. defenses in five years. As we recently mentioned, China's defense ministry has confirmed the Jan. 9 test of a hypersonic glide vehicle, known as the WU-14. It was designed to evade our missile and other defense systems, such as the Aegis sea-based missile defense guarding...

Just what we need, another arms race. China's stepping up its bid for ballistic missile superiority, having just successfully test-fired the country's first hypersonic missile delivery vehicle, one capable of penetrating American air defenses to potentially deliver nuclear warheads. The Pentagon is not amused. The WU-14 hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) is part of China's extremely secretive missile development program, which has been quietly modernizing the country's conventional and nuclear missile systems. The missile test itself was not broadcast among any public channels but was detected, an anonymous Pentagon official confirmed with the Washington Free Beacon, flying at extremely high speeds...

China has successfully tested its first hypersonic missile delivery vehicle capable of penetrating US missile defense system and delivering nuclear warheads with record breaking speeds, Pentagon officials have confirmed. The new hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), dubbed the WU-14 was allegedly spotted flying at record-breaking speeds during a flight test over China on January 9, an anonymous Pentagon official told the Washington Free Beacon. The new weapon delivery system is reportedly designed to be launched as the final stage of China’s intercontinental ballistic missile, which would approach its target at a velocity of up to 10 times the speed of sound....

A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commander said Saturday that Hezbollah in Lebanon has upgraded its capabilities in recent years and is now able to carry out pinpoint missile strikes on targets throughout Israel. Speaking in an interview with Iran's Fars News Agency, Commander of the IRGC's Aerospace Force, Brig-Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh said, "Based on our information, Hezbollah’s power has so much increased in recent years that they can attack any target in any part of the occupied territories with a high precision capability and with a very low margin of error.” Hajizadeh added that Hezbollah "has always shown that...

The White House says that an Iranian ballistic missile test would not invalidate a recently signed nuclear accord meant to temporarily halt some of Iran’s most controversial nuclear work. The White House clarified its stance just days before Iran is scheduled to launch another ballistic missile some 75 miles into the atmosphere. The statement contradicts recent remarks indicating that such a test would in fact violate and nullify the weeks-old agreement, which provides Iran with some $7 billion in relief from economic sanctions in exchange for a partial six-month freeze of its uranium enrichment program.

The Russian Defense Ministry reportedly reprimanded Israeli and US diplomats, following a joint Israeli-American naval exercise last Tuesday which involved the launch of a number of ballistic missiles, triggering Russian missile defense systems in the region and briefly provoking alarm in the Kremlin. According to the RIA Novosti news site, Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov personally reprimanded the Israeli and American attaches to his country, over actions that "could have a negative effect on security in the region and the world."

Russia’s early warning radars detected the launch of two ballistic rockets in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, Russia’s Defense Ministry stated. Israel later claimed responsibility for firing the target test rockets. The launch took place at 06:16 GMT Tuesday, according to Russia's Ministry of Defense. The trajectory of the missiles is reported to have been from the central part of the Mediterranean Sea towards the eastern landmass. Both rockets have allegedly fallen into the sea, RIA Novosti news agency reported. Russia’s President Putin has already been informed about the incident by Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu. The Syrian embassy in Moscow currently...