Free Republic

A NORTH Korean ballistic missile theoretically capable of reaching US territory fell into the sea after flying just 2km during a test launch last month, a report said today. Pyongyang on July 5 test-fired six short and mid-range missiles and one long-range missile, the Taepodong-2. All of them fell harmlessly in the Sea of Japan. Initial analysis by the Japanese Government had shown the Taepodong-2 flew about 400km, but the latest analysis showed that the missile fell in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) close to the east coast of North Korea, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported, citing government sources....

US bombers to practise in NT Brendan Nicholson July 24, 2006 UNITED States bombers will pound a test range in the Northern Territory this week, practising the pinpoint strikes they would use on targets such as nuclear weapons sites, missiles or terrorist bases. The bombers will fly non-stop from their base on Guam and back, and be refuelled in the air by American planes operating out of the RAAF base in Darwin. Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said it was important for Australia to work more effectively with its major ally to meet new threats, including those from terrorism and weapons...

JERUSALEM - An Israeli airstrike in Lebanon on Monday destroyed at least one long-range Iranian missile capable of hitting Tel Aviv, military officials said. Israeli aircraft targeted a truck carrying the weapons before they could be launched, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of military regulations. The force of the blast sent at least one missile flying into the air, but it fell nearby. During nearly a week of fighting, Hezbollah militants have fired missiles up to 25 miles into Israel. But officials have raised concerns the guerrilla group could strike Tel Aviv, about 80 miles south...

ISLAMABAD : Pakistan has developed 2,000 km long range missile Shaheen-II which would be test fired within a month, President Pervez Musharraf said. He ruled out any roll back of nuclear and missile programme in the wake of proliferation of nuclear technology by the country's top scientists. In an apparent attempt to demonstrate that its nuclear and missile programme was very much intact, Musharraf told a meeting of editors and columnists on Thursday in Rawalpindi that the country's long range missile Shaheen-II would be test fired within a month to consolidate country's missile programme. "The missile is ready for tests",...

PASADENA, California, (AFP) - Nuclear power may give NASA (news - web sites)'s long-range missions the speed and range that combustion engines cannot, but research is sputtering for lack of funds. NASA's head of the Prometheus program said the agency has three billion dollars for the next five years. "Beyond that, we know we need more money," Al Newhouse told AFP. "We are at a very early stage of this program. It has been in existence for slighty under a year." Nuclear propulsion first became a NASA budget line item in 2003, with 125 million dollars. NASA requested 279 million...

After surviving torture, another high-level defector has escaped Iraq. In this exclusive report, he details Saddam's progress toward truly frightening capabilities: "dirty" bombs that spew radioactivity, mobile bio-weapons facilities, and a new long-range ballistic missileBy David Rose January 2000: a chilly afternoon in Baghdad. At the downtown headquarters of Iraq’s Military Industrial Commission, the body responsible for arms development and purchase, its then chairman, General Amer al-Saadi, gathered 13 government officials around the boardroom table: scientists, soldiers, spies. More than a year had passed since the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, expelled the inspectors from the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM),...