After years of ignoring the Israeli nuclear program—which was denounced in 1986 by former nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu—the United States' Department of Defense has acknowledged Israel nuclear power status for the first time.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of its own nuclear arsenal, but page 37 of the US Joint Forces Command report recognizes the fact, putting it in the same group as Pakistan, India, China, North Korea, Russia, along with an "emerging Iran," Taiwan, and Japan having "the capability to develop nuclear weapons quickly."

According to "The Samson Option" report—an investigative article written by reporter Seymour Hersh—Israel may have 200 to 400 atomic warheads, ready to use as the last resort in case of a massive attack that may put in danger the existence of the country.

This is a big deal for two reasons: First, because the subject has been dodged forever by the US government, including President Barack Obama, who recently ignored the question when asked by White House correspondent Helen Thomas. And second, because to the Symington Amendment—which bans support to countries developing nuclear weapons—this may mean the end of US help to Israel.

Or maybe this just means that someone at the DOD will get fired and the report corrected with a big black marker.

It can go either way, and it will still be very bad news. [US Army PDF via DOD Buzz]

There are four or five airfields in Cuba with 4,000-meter-long runways, which absolutely suit us.

That's what tovarishch Major General Anatoly Zhikharev—chief of staff of the Russian Air Force's long-range aviation—told Russian news agency Interfax, adding that "if the two chiefs of state display such a political will, we are ready to fly there."

So basically, the Russians are now at the dick-waving testing-the-new-guy stage. Add this to the Chinese plans to build carrier battlegroups and their recent harassment against a US Navy oceanographic ship in international waters, and you will have a pretty grim picture of what may be brewing. [Defense Tech]

Wang Diange was attending a wake in his home when an explosion took off half of his roof and left him dead in the wreckage. Because it had been a stormy day, family members and the police assumed that lightning was what killed Wang and left half of his home in ruins.

However, as Wang was being placed into the cremation chamber at his own funeral, his body exploded, causing the chamber's oven doors to fly off their hinges. Only then, spectators discovered a small piece of twisted metal, which led them to what really killed Mr. Wang:

A small weather rocket filled with silver iodide—shot into the sky in order to break up hail into rain—failed to explode in the atmosphere, and instead had fallen through Wang's roof and acted like a bullet, instantly killing Wang as it was lodged into his body.

Three years later, the Weather Bureau has given the Wang family 80,000 yuan (roughly $12,000USD) as a compensation for their loss. (And before you ask, no: I hold no relation to this particular Wang.) [Telegraph]

The rocket in the video is a Delta II launched by the USAF in 1997 to carry a 45 million dollar GPS Block IIR satellite to orbit. For sure, this Delta II variant is a much more powerful rocket than the 53-foot ATK Launch Vehicle X-1: At 127 feet, the Delta II 7925 is a 7000-Series (7) with nine boosters (9) and three stages—the second one a restartable Aerojet AJ10 engine (2) and the third one a payload assist module (encoded as 5 in the model number).

The first stage alone holds 10,000 gallons of fuel, so the mayhem that ensues after only 13 seconds of flight looks like a Jerry Bruckheimer wet dream. One that doesn't involve Bruce Willis. [IT Wire and Dark Roasted Blend, research Wikipedia and NASA]

[Editor's Note: Definitely a jet RC model!]

The Navy boys look so relaxed—and just look at the size of that shiny bomb. [Daily Mail and Burham-on-Sea]

El Presidente saying words during his SDI speeh

• 1984. The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization is established. Reagan puts Lt. General James Alan Abrahamson from the USAF in charge, a past Director of the NASA Space Shuttle program. On retrospective, not a good sign.
• 1987. The SDIO develops the idea of the Strategic Defense System Phase I Architecture, a system that included ground and space based sensors and weapons, all controlled from a central location. This is a concept that still works today.
• 1991. George Bush Sr. changes Reagan's tune and changes the focus of SDI to a more limited, more regional oriented. The Global Protection Against Limited Strikes is born.
• On 18 January 1991 a Patriot interceptor missile is reported to have engaged a SCUD missile over Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War. Later, it was found to be just a computer glitch. No SCUD ever launched on that day. The accuracy of Patriots was close to zero, according to analysis after the war. The success rate during the war was claimed to be 97% by George Bush Sr. (reportedly, the Israelis were so dissatisfied with the system they planed to retaliate against Iraq on their own.)
• 1993. Bill Clinton closes the SDIO and forms the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.
• During the George Bush Jr. administration the concept has been revived, forming the National Missile Defense and Ground-based Midcourse Defense.
• 20 February 2008. An Aegis missile successfully intercepts a defunct spy satellite the size of a bus falling down to Earth.

[Wikipedia]

The B-2 Spirit follows the same ideas pioneered by John Knudsen Northrop, who founded Northrop to pursue his flying wing designs, and the Nazi Horten Ho-IX, one of the most advanced planes at its time, designed by the Horten brothers.

The Ho-IX, also called Gotha Go 229 or Ho 229, took off for the first time in 1944 and was the only plane to meet Luftwaffe's chief, frustrated transvestite and absolute nutter Hermann Göring 1000-1000-1000 performance standards: the Horten was capable of transporting 1,000 kilograms of bombs (2,200 lb) over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) at 1,000 kilometers an hour.

Fortunately, it never reached production and most airframes were destroyed by US forces to avoid the Soviets getting their paws all over them. The U.S. VIII Corps of General Patton's Third Army captured one, however, and its low-drag, no-unnecessary surfaces live now in the B-2.

Unlike the experimental Horten and the flying wing designs that Northrop designed in the 40s (like 1948's Northrop YB-49, a jet-based variation of the 1946's YB-35 strategic bomber) the Spirit became fully operational.

The B-2 bombers are amazingly efficient: like its 20 sister vessels still in service, the Air Vehicle-12 Spirit of Kansas was capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear bombs to any target around the world in a few hours, with just one refueling. Powered by four General Electric F118-GE-100 turbofans capable of 17,300 pounds of thrust each, the aircraft can reach 410 knots (470mph) at a maximum altitude of 50,000 feet.

Another advantage of its simple design —coupled with its radar-absorbing coating, called Alternate High-Frequency Material—is that their radar profile is extremely low. Coupled with its operational altitude, this make them extremely hard to detect and shoot down. That's the reason why this crash, with no known reasons yet, is so exceptional. That and the effect of watching $1.2 billion dollars disappearing in an crater in a concrete runway.

According to the Air Force, an investigation is currently under way about why the Spirit of Kansas went to Oz at Guam. But don't worry, taxpayers, I'm sure you will get a cool 3D simulation of how it all happened from the Wizard in Chief, General Dorothy and Commander Toto, at the Pentagon. [Military.com, Ho-XI at Wikipedia, Jack Northrop at Wikipedia, Air Force — Main photo by Bobbi Garcia for the AFFTC]

The mission was simple. At 10:26PM EST, a standard missile 3 carrying a kinetic warhead was launched northwest of Hawaii from the USS Lake Eire, a Ticonderoga Class missile defense cruiser. 24 minutes later, at 10:50, the Joint Space Operations Center at the Vandenberg Air Force base confirmed the breakup of the satellite at 153 nautical miles above the Earth from a direct hit.

While they can't confirm completely the destruction of the tank, which was needed to release the toxic fuel that may have posed a danger to us Earthlings, the Pentagon has declared the mission a complete success and with good reason. Some experts criticized the plan as probable failure during the past days, with the argument that the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense, part of the Ballistic Missile Defense System being developed by the US Missile Defense Agency, wasn't designed to do this and, therefore, it wasn't going to be able to hit the target and destroy it effectively.

Their reasons were three: first, the kinetic warhead, launched in a long range standard missile 3, a isn't designed to destroy targets by explosion but by the sheer force of multiple impacts. While this is enough to destroy other incoming missiles, the critics said that this wasn't going to be enough to destroy the much larger satellite. Second was the speed of the target, which was traveling at double the speed of the missiles which are the usual target of the Aegis. And third, the tracking system, which wasn't originally designed to operate in high orbits.

The video, however, shows that the direct kinetic hit has completely obliterated its target. Now the world can rest at peace. Until A542B, that asteroid ten times bigger than Texas, finally arrives. [Wikipedia, Defense Tech Org and BBC]

The Navy is researching rail guns because they would weigh less than conventional ones, and since they rely on electromagnetics to fire rounds, you wouldn't need a big, dangerous pile of explosives stored in a magazine. All of that means a lighter ship, and a much more deadly ship: a combat-ready rail gun would be able to fire Mach 5 projectiles over 200 miles with pinpoint accuracy, hitting 5 meter targets.

Yesterday's test firing at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division used just some of the potential 32-megajoules the laboratory test gun is capable of, and that's only half the 64-megajoules the Navy is aiming at for the final weapon. Expect even more dramatic videos, sometime soon. [Navy Times and Danger Room]