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The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine has issued guidelines that suggest employing such terms as “chestfeeding,” “human milk feeding,” and “parent’s milk” to promote what it calls “gender-inclusive language.” The ABM position statement on “infant feeding and lactation-related language and gender,” co-authored by eight doctors and the academy, said that “the use of de-sexed or gender-inclusive language is appropriate in many settings.” “ABM recognizes that not all people who give birth and lactate identify as female, and that some of these individuals identify as neither female nor male,” said the four-page document posted July 29.

The US Army will acquire two Iron Dome batteries by 2020 as well as consider the full adoption of the Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2-Intercept, both systems developed by Israel, Inside Defense reported Wednesday. The Iron Dome batteries will provide US ground forces an interim capability against unmanned air vehicles, mortars, rockets, artillery and cruise missiles. The US Army has been working to transform the Israeli interceptor into an American system to defend forward-deployed US forces since 2017. The US Army has performed tests to evaluate which missile system would best serve this purpose. Rafael Advanced Defense System's Iron...

A nuclear weapons command exercise by NATO in November 1983 prompted fear in the leadership of the Soviet Union that the maneuvers were a cover for a nuclear surprise attack by the United States, triggering a series of unparalleled Soviet military re­sponses, according to a top-secret U.S. intelligence review that has just been declassified. “In 1983, we may have inadvertently placed our relations with the Soviet Union on a hair trigger,” the review concluded.

The US has activated a land-based missile defence station in Romania, which will form part of a larger and controversial European shield. Senior US and Nato officials attended the ceremony in Deveselu, southern Romania. The US says the Aegis system is a shield to protect Nato countries from short and medium-range missiles, particularly from the Middle East. But Russia sees it as a security threat - a claim denied by Nato. * * * Russia says installing such shields in countries on its doorstep is a threat to its security. "Who will this system be against?" President Vladimir Putin's spokesman,...

Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar left for Moscow on 30 October for a three-day visit before he leaves for ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM-Plus) in Malaysia. The takeaway of this trip is however the fact that all measures are in place for India to acquire world's most advanced anti-ballistic missile system — the S-400. Previously known as S-300PMU-3, S-400 is a new generation anti-aircraft weapon system developed by Russia's Almaz Central Design Bureau as an upgrade of the S-300 family. It is currently in service with the Russian Armed Forces. The S-400 is designed to protect nuclear reactors, population centres...

WASHINGTON — Americans following this year's presidential campaign would never know it from mainstream media coverage, but the commander in chief we hired four years ago has set the United States on a course for unilateral disarmament. The following people hope you won't notice until after Nov. 6: Vladimir Putin, Liang Guanglie, Kim Jong-un, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, A.Q. Khan and of course, Barack Obama. The 10 individuals above share a common fascination: nuclear weapons. Vladimir Putin, Russia's modern czar; Liang Guanglie, minister of national defense for...

On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan delivered a speech that horrified the liberal establishment of the time: his call for a Strategic Defense Initiative. Ronald Reagan was not your typical politician. The only president born and raised in Illinois (yes, Lincoln, Grant, and Obama moved to Illinois as adults, but only Ronald Reagan grew up there), he came to politics with a heartland sensibility: do what makes sense, do what’s right; don’t worry about what the elites from the Ivy League or Foggy Bottom insist upon. Reagan came to party activism late in life, running for public office for...

The Pentagon is beefing up the nation’s missile defense in the wake of provocative nuclear threats from North Korea and is set to deploy 14 additional ground-based interceptors at missile silos in Alaska and California, congressional and U.S. officials tell Fox News. An Obama administration official tells Fox News that the increase in interceptors is a logical response to an evolving threat from North Korea and that “anyone who suggests we should have stayed the course” with the Bush administration’s plan is engaging in “Monday morning quarterbacking.” Whether intentional or not, the announcement also coincides with 30th anniversary of President...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. forces using a new Raytheon Co interceptor missile downed another missile in space in a high-stakes test of a shield built to thwart growing capabilities of countries like North Korea and Iran. The mission off Hawaii late Tuesday was against a medium-range, separating ballistic missile, the Pentagon agency responsible for it said. The mock warhead split from the target's booster section, presenting what is supposed to be a more realistic attack scenario. "Initial indications are that all components performed as designed resulting in a very accurate intercept," the Missile Defense Agency, or MDA, said in a...

If it's true the Navy has been shooting down scud missiles over Libya from sea, and for whatever reason Navy information never reported this, it's time to cut the Navy Information budget by 75%.

Raytheon Company and Aerojet, a GenCorp company, completed a kinetic warhead system integration test for Standard Missile-3 Block IB. The test verified the ability of the warhead to detect, track and intercept a moving ballistic missile target in a zero-gravity environment. During the test, a fully operational, flight-weight kinetic warhead operated on an air-bearing test stand and performed in a high-altitude chamber at Aerojet’s Sacramento, Calif., facility. The kinetic warhead’s seeker tracked a simulated target while the guidance computer sent information to the new Throttleable Divert and Attitude Control System. Once the TDACS received the information, the system fired its...

India mulls fresh trial of AAD missile BALASORE: India is contemplating a fresh trial of the advanced air defence (AAD) interceptor missile to strengthen its anti-ballistic missile defence shield. The projectile has reportedly been scheduled to be flight-tested in February second week. Sources said the missile will be launched from the launching complex IV of Wheelers' Island off the Orissa coast. "The interceptor missile was scheduled to be tested in December last year, but the test was postponed. Now, it has again been rescheduled to February 10. The projectile will destroy an incoming missile to prove its effectiveness," said the...

Historically, the Russian Duma acts quickly to ratify international treaties that the country's leaders have signed. In the case of international treaties with the U.S., the process is short and takes place only after U.S. ratification. In an interview with a Soviet ambassador, I was once told that although the process entails several steps, it is pro forma once the treaty is signed by both parties and ratified by the U.S. Congress. The SALT II Treaty, signed by Presidents Carter and Brezhnev in 1979, was never ratified by either party. On Jan. 3, 1980, President Carter requested the Senate majority...

The first fly out of Israel's new Arrow-3 anti-ballistic missile interceptor will be performed by mid-2011. Israel Aerospace Industries, which is developing the Arrow-3, is currently performing ground testing of the new missile, which will intercept incoming ballistic missiles using kinetic kill instead of proximity warhead detonation as with the operational Arrow-2. Israeli sources say the Arrow-3 will be the most advanced ballistic missile interceptor in the world. They say it will be "very energetic" and have "super manoeuvrability", enabling it to change its trajectory to engage another target that was detected after launch. The sources say the Arrow-3 will...

late October, a Japanese Kongo class destroyer shot down a ballistic missile off Hawaii, using its Aegis anti-missile system. That makes three successful Aegis tests for Japan's Aegis equipped destroyers, out of four attempts. Overall, Aegis has been successful in 85 percent of its test firings. Currently, the U.S. Navy has 20 ships with the Aegis anti-missile system. Within three years, the navy will have 27 such ships. But in the meantime, the Aegis ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile)s are in high demand by U.S. commanders, seeking some protection from hostile missiles in their area of operation. Japan has six Aegis ABM...

China recently conducted a long-range missile flight test that remains shrouded in secrecy. The Sept. 25 test highlights what China military specialists say is the growing threat posed by Beijing's development of long- and short-range ballistic and cruise missiles, and its new missile defense interceptors. A U.S. official confirmed that China's military fired a missile from the Taiyuan missile center, about 320 miles southwest of Beijing, to Korla, a city in western China some 1,800 miles away. Officials declined to provide details, saying the test data are classified. China watchers in Asia and the United States were alerted to the...

India is developing a series of directed energy weapons (DEW) to improve the anti-ballistic missile capability, local media reported on Tuesday. A laser weapon of the DEW family is being developed, which could fire a beam with a potency of 25 kilowatt. This type of laser weapon would intercept a ballistic missile in its terminal phase within the range of seven kilometers, Indian newspaper the Times of India quoted Anil Kumar Maini, the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO)'s Laser Science and Technology Center director, as saying. The ballistic missile would explode as its shell temperature is heated to 200-300...

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has overseen the signing of an amendment to a US-Polish agreement on the basing of missile interceptors in Poland. Repeating a theme the Russians have consistently rejected, Mrs Clinton said Moscow has nothing to fear from a Nato-endorsed missile defence system based in Europe because it will be aimed at Iran's missile arsenal. "This is a purely defensive system," she said, with her Polish counterpart, Radek Sikorski, at her side. "It does not threaten Russia." Moscow views the project as a potential threat to its own missile arsenal. Mr Sikorski said his country fully...

Three years after the first foreign customer (Syria) received the Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft systems, the Russian Air Force is getting some. The Russian Air Force recently received the S1E version, with an improved radar (36 kilometer range) and missile (more reliable). Curiously, the air force is using their first ten Pantsir-S1s to guard S-300 anti-aircraft missile bases located around Moscow. There was no explanation from the Russians as to why they felt a mobile, low level anti-aircraft system was needed to guard a larger, high altitude one. Perhaps additional protection against cruise missiles. The Russians aren't saying. These ten vehicles were...

next-generation missile interceptor being co-developed by Japan and the United States would not be able to take out U.S.-bound North Korean long-range ballistic missiles flying over Japan, senior Defense Ministry officials said Sunday. This is because the range of the interceptor, dubbed the Standard Missile 3 Block 2A, would not allow an Aegis-equipped ship deployed off Japan to target high-flying missiles, the officials told Kyodo News. The outlook could affect debate in Japan over whether to exercise the constitutionally banned right of collective self-defense so as to shoot down U.S.-bound missiles flying over the country. With an estimated range of...