defenses | Common News Update

Jun152020 by adminNo Comments

Russian President Vladimir Putin: Russia is building defenses against hypersonic missiles

Business

June 15 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia leads the world in hypersonic weapons research and will have defense systems to counteract opponents' weapons. The United States and China have begun hypersonic missile programs, building nuclear-equipped armaments capable of traveling up to 5,000 mph in a flat trajectory, indicating that defenders have less time to react. Advertisement Russia has tested similar missiles and appears to have deployed one, the Avangard cruise missile, into service. It also rolled out a radar station designed to simultaneously track over 1,000 incoming objects, including hypersonic missiles. In a television interview on Sunday, Putin said that by the time foreign missiles are operational, Russia will have all its required defenses. "They [hyperson...

Plants abandon defenses after attackers become immune, study shows

Science

Feb. 26 (UPI) -- While plants may deploy a combination of defenses agains their predators, they don't accumulate them ad infinitum. New research suggests plants abandon outdated defenses in favor of new ones.When scientists analyzed the genome of the Apocynaceae lineage, the group flowering plants commonly known as the dogbane family, they found a gene linked with the production of a toxic class of chemicals, called pyrrolizidine alkaloids, has become nonfunctional at least four different times in the family's evolutionary past.Researchers confirmed 75 percent of modern Apocynaceae species are descended from the same alkaloid-producing ancestor, and yet, most of the plants no longer generate the toxin.The latest research, published this week in the journal New Phytologist, suggests the Dan...

North Korean missile advances put new stress on US defenses

Technology

North Korea's newly demonstrated missile muscle puts Alaska within range of potential attack and stresses the Pentagon's missile defenses like never before. Even more worrisome, it may be only a matter of time before North Korea mates an even longer-range ICBM with a nuclear warhead, putting all of the United States at risk. The Pentagon has spent tens of billions to develop what it calls a limited defense against missiles capable of reaching U.S. soil. The system has never faced combat or been fully tested. The system succeeded May 30 in its first attempted intercept of a mock ICBM, but it hasn't faced more realistic conditions. Although Russia and China have long been capable of targeting the U.S. with a nuclear weapon, North Korea is seen as the bigger, more troubling threat. Its opaqu...