Free Republic

Earlier this month, Ukrainian media reported that significant progress had been made on the development of a Grom-2, a new tactical ballistic missile system meant to compete with Russia's Iskander SRBM. Now, new information has become available regarding the weapons system, including its secretive financier. At the beginning of the month, speaking to local media, Pavlograd Chemical Plant director Leonid Schiemann revealed that after receiving financing of about one billion hryvnia ($40 million) from an unnamed investor, engineers at enterprises under the umbrella of the Ukrainian State Space Agency had made significant progress in the development of the Grom-2, an...

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which the Soviet Union and the United States signed in 1987, prohibits conventional and nuclear-armed land-based ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 km. The U.S. Department of State concluded in 2014 that Russia is in violation of its treaty obligations, raising doubts about the treaty's durability and how the United States should respond. At the moment, U.S. policy remains committed to the treaty and seeks to encourage Russia to return to compliance by eliminating prohibited systems, but attempts to revive the treaty could take several years and might not succeed....

A half-dozen probes have not hit any huge object in front of Bertha, adding to the mystery of what’s blocking the stalled Highway 99 tunnel machine.

Bertha, the world's largest tunneling machine, churning through the rock and mud beneath Seattle, has hit a mysterious roadblock—so mysterious, it is only known for now as "the object." The New York Times reports that the machine—300 feet long and 5 stories tall—has ground to a halt. Built precisely not to be stopped by, well, just about anything, Bertha has apparently met her match. But what exactly is it? "Something unknown, engineers say—and all the more intriguing to many residents for being unknown—has blocked the progress of the biggest-diameter tunnel-boring machine in use on the planet," the NYT writes. It...

The world's widest tunnel boring machine arrived in Seattle in pieces Tuesday aboard a ship from Japan. It will be reassembled in a pit to begin the year-long dig to create a two-mile tunnel under downtown Seattle.

<p>Proof of cooperation between Iran and Syria in the proliferation and development of weapons of mass destruction was brought to light Monday in a Jane's Magazine report that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria.</p>