RUSSIA DEMONSTRATES NEW NUCLEAR MISSILE; UNITED STATES AND NATO ALLIES WITHDRAW FROM TREATY Fighting continues in Ukraine as a long, cold winter quickly approaches and once again, thousands of Ukrainians are left without power following Russian strikes on energy facilities. As Congress struggles to agree on further aid packages amidst ongoing spending and unrelated debates, Europe has […]
The Latest Nuclear Boondoggle?
By Connor Murray The Pentagon recently announced plans to develop a new variant of the B61 nuclear gravity bomb, the B61-13. This proposed bomb would, as the name suggests, be the 13th variant of the B61 and “provide the President with additional options against certain harder and large-area military targets.” The weapon would be delivered […]
Fact Sheet: Space Weapons
A growing interest in the space domain has led to the emergence of new weapon systems. This new class of space weapons is generally divided into three categories: Earth-to-space, space-to-space, and space-to-Earth. Moreover, systems can have both kinetic and non-kinetic effects that are either permanent or reversible. Earth-to-space weapons pose the greatest current danger and […]
Fact Sheet: Hypersonic Weapons
Technically speaking, hypersonic weapons have existed since the middle of the 20th century. A hypersonic weapon is merely something that travels at Mach-5 or faster, or at least five times the speed of sound. Ballistic missiles have long possessed these speeds. What differentiates today’s emerging class of hypersonic capabilities is the use of aerodynamic lift […]
Fact Sheet: Autonomous Weapons
Often misleadingly referred to as “killer robots,” autonomous systems can interact with their environments by gathering information, determining a course of action and undertaking actions to achieve a goal, all with limited or no human interaction. In the realm of weaponry, autonomous technologies have most prominently been deployed in unmanned aerial and submersible drones. Such […]