Free Republic

As the Defense Department is pushing aggressively to modernize its forces using fully autonomous drones and weapons systems, critics fear the start of a new arms race that could dramatically raise the risk of mass destruction, nuclear war and civilian casualties. The Pentagon and military tech industry are going into overdrive in a massive effort to scale out existing technology in what has been the Replicator initiative. It envisions a future force in which fully autonomous systems are deployed in flying drones, aircraft, water vessels and defense systems — connected through a computerized mainframe to synchronize and command units. Arms...

Russia and the United States have released their latest nuclear weapons count at a time when ties between Moscow and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance were in freefall. The Russian Foreign Ministry published on Monday its latest report on "the total number of strategic offensive arms," a tally required every six months by both Moscow and Washington as per their bilateral New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) that entered into force in 2011.... Russia counted 527 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), deployed submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and heavy bombers, 1,458 warheads...

UKRAINE has warned that it could build nuclear weapons to combat Russia if the West does not allow it to join NATO. This comes as Vladimir Putin has deployed tens of thousands of troops and tanks to the Ukrainian border in a worrying escalation of tensions. Ukraine was formerly a nuclear state with 176 ballistic missiles and 44 strategic bombers following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. However, the country agreed to eliminate its nukes in return for legally-binding security guarantees from Britain, the US and Russia. But with Putin threatening to invade, seven years after he annexed...

The dictator state is planning to beef up its arsenal with a research centre aimed at developing deadly missiles which could batter US defences. Dubbed the ‘Academy of National Defense Science’, the centre will research hypersonic missiles - which can’t be intercepted by existing defence systems.... North Korea is currently believed to have enough material to build 45 nukes capable of wiping Japan off the map, according to top scientist Dr Siegfried Hecker. And now a source has told Daily NK: “Internally, people are saying that since the nukes are completed, lots of Workers’ Party money will go into hypersonic...

Hypersonic cruise missiles which travel five times the speed of sound, are one step closer to being part of Australia’s arsenal. Last week Australia and the United States signed a new agreement to collaborate on developing and testing hypersonic cruise missile prototypes. When completed, the missiles will be able to traverse the distance of Sydney to Melbourne in just seven minutes. The missiles are difficult to stop not only because of their speed, but for their ability to slip past radar systems by gliding along the edge of the atmosphere. Hypersonics can also alter their route mid-flight. The weapons are...

When it comes to sheer military might, it is safe to say the United States Military is among the strongest armed forces in the world. It surpasses every other major superpower when it comes to military funding, technology, and power projection. However, unbeknownst to most people, there is a silent arms race happening right now for a technology that has the potential to change the status quo of military supremacy. That technology is artificial intelligence (A.I.). A.I., also known as machine learning, is the use of computer systems developed to perform tasks where human intelligence is normally necessary. Modern A.I....

Speaking to reporters, Mr Trump said Russia had "violated" the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. The US would not let Russia "go out and do weapons while we're not allowed to", Mr Trump said. "I don't know why President Obama didn't negotiate or pull out," the president said after a campaign rally in Nevada. "They've been violating it for many years." National Security Adviser John Bolton is expected to tell the Russians of the withdrawal during talks in Moscow later this week.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — High above Yemen’s rebel-held city of Hodeida, a drone controlled by Emirati forces hovered as an SUV carrying a top Shiite Houthi rebel official turned onto a small street and stopped, waiting for another vehicle in its convoy to catch up. Seconds later, the SUV exploded in flames, killing Saleh al-Samad, a top political figure. The drone that fired that missile in April was not one of the many American aircraft that have been buzzing across the skies of Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001. It was Chinese.. Across the Middle East,...

This is the full, unedited interview that Megyn Kelly held with Russian President Putin. You can read the English translation by clicking on the CC (close captions) button and then Settings, subtitles, English

We are just inches away from the outbreak of World War III, and yet most Americans seem completely oblivious to what is happening. On Friday, North Korea conducted a missile test which proved that it now has the capability of hitting major U.S. cities in the western half of the country.Every diplomatic effort to end North KoreaÂ’s nuclear program has completely failed, the Chinese have shown that they do not intend to do much of anything to intervene in this crisis, and the United Nations is a dead end. Given enough time, the North Koreans will build hundreds of ICBMs...

We all like to scoff at that crazy little dictator, Kim Jong Un, who is a walking caricature, putting himself on the cover of a magazine as the sexiest man alive and talking smack like a WWF champ. But, in all seriousness, is North Korea actually a threat?Unfortunately, it looks like the answer to that question is yes…and they’re turning into a bigger one each year.Despite the buffoonery of their Dear Leader, the threat of North Korea is growing rapidly, according to the US Intelligence community. When prepping for a nuclear strike becomes the officially recommended course of action, it...

No longer sure they can rely on the United States, an increasing number of South Korean lawmakers say their country should develop its own nuclear arsenal to deter an attack by Kim Jong Un, their belligerent neighbor to the north. North Korea’s rapid missile advances, including successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in July and again on Friday, are reviving calls for South Korea to assert its “nuclear sovereignty.” South Koreans are wary of President Donald Trump’s isolationist rhetoric and his calls for Asian allies to shoulder more of the defense burdens borne by the U.S. military. “Trump’s ‘America-first’...

It was the strangest of settings for some very serious breaking news. There was Mika Brzezinski, cuddled up in her flannels on Morning Joe‘s special Christmas set. In the previous segment, Joe Scarborough had grilled Sean Spicer, whom President-elect Trump yesterday named as his White House spokesman, over Trump’s tweet of yesterday in which he said that the US needed to greatly strengthen its nuclear arsenal. Spicer repeatedly refused to say that the Trump tweet came in response from a statement by Vladimir Putin, just hours earlier, announcing Russia’s intention to strengthen its own nuclear arsenal. When the show returned...

Last year’s controversial Iran nuclear deal has sparked an atomic arms race, claimed Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon following a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah. Ya’alon revealed that Israel had indications suggesting that certain Arab countries were now actively pursuing nuclear weapons, reports the Telegraph. The Defense Minister declined to specify which countries or how Israel had ascertained they were working to create their own atomic arsenals. The Sunni Arab world has long feared the specter of a nuclear capable Iran, and now that the Iran deal effectively permits the Islamic Republic to resume its atomic program with no limits...

Saudi Arabia is not ruling out developing a nuclear bomb if its regional rival Iran obtains one, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday. Asked if Saudi Arabia had discussed seeking a nuclear bomb in the event Iran managed to obtain one, al-Jubeir replied the country would do "whatever we need to do in order to protect our people". "I don't think it would be logical to expect us to discuss any such issue in public and I don't think it would be reasonable to expect me to answer this question one way or another,"...

Washington (CNN) - Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tried out his best Tony Montana impersonation this week in an effort to illustrate his staunch rejection of the Iran nuclear deal. Speaking to a full room in Houston, Cruz spent much of Tuesday afternoon berating the deal; comparing its element of Iranian inspection to a self-inspecting, fictional, drug kingpin. "Have any of y'all seen the movie 'Scarface?'" Cruz asked. "This is the equivalent of law enforcement picking up the phone and calling Tony Montana and saying, 'Hey Tony, you got any drugs?' 'I don't got no drugs.' 'Thank you, Tony.' That is...

In May 1990, then-U.S. President George H.W. Bush was convinced that Pakistan was poised to use a covert nuclear weapon capability against India. The impending apocalypse—which would have dwarfed Hiroshima and Nagasaki—had to be prevented at all costs. Consequently, the White House dispatched a trusted emissary, Robert Gates (a man who would later become U.S. Defense Secretary in the George W. Bush and Obama administrations) on a top secret mission to South Asia—first to Pakistan and then to India. Eventually on May 21, 1990, it was concluded that the Gates mission had indeed succeeded and, paradoxically, the sense that the...

Saudi Arabia will join the nuclear club by buying “off the shelf” atomic weapons from Pakistan, US officials told a London newspaper.

Maj. Andrei Durnovtsev, a Soviet air force pilot and commander of a Tu-95 Bear bomber, holds a dubious honor in the history of the Cold War. Durnovtsev flew the aircraft that dropped the most powerful nuclear bomb ever. It had an explosive force of 50 megatons, or more than 3,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima weapon. Over the years, historians identified many names for the test bomb.

It was the most notorious spy case of the Cold War — the conviction and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union — and it rested largely on the testimony of Ms. Rosenberg’s brother, David Greenglass, an Army sergeant who had stolen nuclear intelligence from Los Alamos, N.M. For his role in the conspiracy, Mr. Greenglass went to prison for almost a decade, then changed his name and lived quietly until a journalist tracked him down. He admitted then, nearly a half-century later, that he had lied on the witness stand to save...