Traveling nine times faster than the speed of sound, Zircon can hit targets up to 1,000 kilometers away
All new Russian navy frigate and corvette class vessels will be equipped with hypersonic Zircon missiles, Chief Admiral Nikolay Yevmenov announced on Thursday. He did not, however, reveal the exact number of warships the navy expected to receive the weaponry.
“All the ships of the frigate class that are under construction or are being laid down will be armed with ‘Zircons’,” he told RIA Novosti on the sidelines of the International Maritime Defense Show (IMDS) in Russia’s Kronstadt. “Corvettes [will get them] too,” he added.
The Zircon missiles were brought into service early this year. The projectiles are said to be much faster than any previously developed Russian anti-ship missiles and those used by NATO nations.
Back in 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted in his annual address to parliament that Zircon missiles would be able to hit targets at a range of 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) while flying nine times faster than the speed of sound. That is supposedly more than nine times as fast as the Tomahawk and Harpoon missiles used by the US Navy, which are both subsonic.
Zircon can be used against any surface vessels, ranging from a frigate to an aircraft carrier, as well as against any land targets. The decision does not mean that Russia plans to abandon its Kalibr and Onyx cruise missiles, which are also actively used by the navy, Yevmenov said. Both missiles have previously demonstrated “high reliability,” he added......More Below
https://www.rt.com/russia/578487-new-frigates-corvettes-hypersonic-missiles/
Nvidia would be barred from shipping advanced artificial intelligence chips to China under bipartisan legislation unveiled Thursday, Bloomberg reported. A Chinese expert said the move is shortsighted, noting that tightening restrictions despite domestic industry opposition will only accelerate China’s tech innovation and further diminish Nvidia’s chances of reentering the Chinese market.
Known as the Secure and Feasible Exports Act, the bill would order the US Commerce Department to halt export licenses for sales of chips to adversaries, including China and Russia for at least 30 months. Any processors more powerful than those already approved for export to those nations would be subject to the measure, the Bloomberg report said.
The legislation comes as the White House weighs whether to allow Nvidia to export the....more below
A high-ranking ICC official, Nicolas Herrera, secretly financed the sanctioned UPC armed group in the Central African Republic, according to court materials obtained by Sputnik.
Nicolas Herrera, a high-ranking official in the Registry Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC), secretly recruited and financed the Union for Peace (UPC) in the Central African Republic (CAR) armed group, led by local warlord Ali Darassa, to capture ICC target Joseph Kony, by using US-based NGO employee Joseph Martin Figueira as a covert intermediary, thereby violating the ICC’s financial accountability standards by funding an armed group, according to a Sputnik correspondent's analysis of public court records.
The conviction of Joseph Martin Figueira, a Belgian-Portuguese anthropologist found guilty of espionage and collaborating with militants in the Central African Republic (CAR) in November, has uncovered a complex financial trail linking ICC staff to the country’s armed militants, evidence ...
Hundreds of retired Israeli police officers have urged the regime’s president, Isaac Herzog, to reject Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a pardon in corruption cases.
On November 30, Netanyahu, who faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of public trust in three separate cases, submitted a formal pardon request to the office of Herzog, claiming the long-running corruption cases were tearing the regime apart.
In a letter to Herzog, about 400 former officers, including ex-commissioners and deputy commissioners, said Netanyahu’s request contains “not even a hint of admission of guilt,” making it unacceptable.
They warned that “such a step without [Netanyahu’s] confession and remorse is liable to ignite severe violence in Israeli society.”.....more below
