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Büchel Air Base
Büchel Air Base is a military air base of the Luftwaffe in Büchel (Germany), near the city of Cochem and at about 70 km from Spangdahlem Air Base. It is home to the Taktisches Luftwaffengeschwader 33 (Tactical Air Force Wing 33; abbreviated as: TaktLwG 33) (formerly Jagdbombergeschwader 33 or Fighter Bomber Wing 33) of the German Air Force (''Luftwaffe'') and the 702 Munitions Support Squadron of the United States Air Force (USAF). Since 1985, tactical Air Force Wing 33 has been operating German Panavia Tornado airplanes, which can deliver twenty B61 nuclear bombs, the only remaining nuclear weapons in Germany. Büchel was one of six active air bases in five European countries with B61 nuclear bombs in underground WS3 Weapon Storage and Security System inside aircraft shelters, per nuclear sharing. Since 1996 there have been annual protests and over one hundred activists have been sentenced for nonviolent protest. History Büchel Air Base formerly was the home of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Air Force
The German Air Force (, ) is the aerial warfare branch of the , the armed forces of Germany. The German Air Force (as part of the ) was founded in 1956 during the era of the Cold War as the aerial warfare branch of the armed forces of West Germany. After the reunification of West and East Germany in 1990, it integrated parts of the air force of the former German Democratic Republic, which itself had been founded in 1956 as part of the National People's Army. There is no organizational continuity between the current Luftwaffe of the Bundeswehr and the former Luftwaffe of the Wehrmacht founded in 1935, which was completely disbanded in 1945/46 after World War II. The term that is used for both the historic and the current German air force is the German-language generic designation of any air force. The commander of the German Air Force is Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz. As of 2015, the German Air Force uses eleven air bases, two of which host no flying units. Furthermore, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guido Westerwelle
Guido Westerwelle (; 27 December 1961 – 18 March 2016) was a German politician who served as foreign minister in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vice-Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011, being the first openly gay person to hold any of these positions. He also led the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) from 2001 until he stepped down in 2011. A lawyer by profession, he was a member of the Bundestag from 1996 to 2013. Early life and education Guido Westerwelle was born in Bad Honnef in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. His parents were lawyers. He graduated from Ernst Moritz Arndt Gymnasium in 1980 after academic struggles resulted in his departure from previous institutions where he was considered an average student at best, but substandard otherwise. He studied law at the University of Bonn from 1980 to 1987. Following the First and Second State Law Examinations in 1987 and 1991 respectively, he began practising as an attorney in Bonn in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aviano Air Base
Aviano Air Base () is a base in northeastern Italy, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. It is located in the Aviano municipality, at the foot of the Carnic Pre-Alps or Southern Carnic Alps, about from Pordenone. The Italian Air Force has ownership, and administrative and military control of the base. It hosts the U.S. Air Force's 31st Fighter Wing and per nuclear sharing is one of six active air bases in five European countries with B61 nuclear bombs in underground WS3 Weapon Storage and Security System inside aircraft shelters. The 31st Fighter Wing is the only U.S. fighter wing south of the Alps. The 31st Fighter Wing is made up of two General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter squadrons, the 555th Fighter Squadron and the 510th Fighter Squadron, allowing it to fly both attack and defensive missions. History Aviano Air Base was established by the Italian government in 1911 as the first airport in Italy, and was later used as training base for Italian pilots and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Campaign To Abolish Nuclear Weapons
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (abbreviated to ICAN, pronounced ) is a global civil society coalition working to promote adherence to and full implementation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The campaign helped bring about this treaty. ICAN was launched in 2007. In 2022, it counted 661 partner organizations in 110 countries. The campaign received the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize "for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons." Mission ICAN aims to reframe the disarmament discussion to center on the humanitarian threat that nuclear weapons pose by highlighting their extraordinary capacity for destruction, their disastrous health and environmental effects, their indiscriminate targeting, the crippling effects of a nuclear detonation on medical facilities and relief efforts, and the long-l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Civil Disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active and professed refusal of a citizenship, citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders, or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hence, civil disobedience is sometimes equated with peaceful protests or nonviolent resistance. Henry David Thoreau's essay ''Resistance to Civil Government'', first published in 1849 and then published posthumously in 1866 as ''Civil Disobedience (Thoreau), Civil Disobedience'', popularized the term in the US, although the concept itself was practiced long before this work. Various forms of civil disobedience have been used by prominent activists, such as Women's suffrage in the United States, American women's suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony in the late 19th century, Egyptian nationalist Saad Zaghloul during the 1910s, and Indian nationalist Mahatma Gandhi in 1920s British Raj, British India as part of his leadership of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Close Air Support
Close air support (CAS) is defined as aerial warfare actions—often air-to-ground actions such as strafes or airstrikes—by military aircraft against hostile targets in close proximity to friendly forces. A form of fire support, CAS requires detailed integration of each air mission with fire and movement of all forces involved. CAS may be conducted using aerial bombs, glide bombs, missiles, rockets, autocannons, machine guns, and even directed-energy weapons such as lasers.''Close Air Support''. United States Department of Defense, 2014. The requirement for detailed integration because of proximity, fires or movement is the determining factor. CAS may need to be conducted during shaping operations with special forces if the mission requires detailed integration with the fire and movement of those forces. A closely related subset of air interdiction, battlefield air interdiction, denotes interdiction against units with near-term effects on friendly units, but which does not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nörvenich Air Base
Nörvenich Air Base (Fliegerhorst Nörvenich) is a German Air Force air base in Nörvenich, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany . It has been the home of Taktisches Luftwaffengeschwader 31 "Boelcke", which flies the Eurofighter Typhoon. Since 2023, Tactical Air Force Wing 33 from Büchel Air Base, the sole remaining German base with nuclear weapons, has been exercising at Nörvenich Air Base, while Büchel´s airfield will be renovated to accommodate the new F-35 jets by 2026. History Nörvenich Air Base was built in Nörvenich, near Düren, North Rhine-Westphalia for the RAF Germany in 1952 and opened in August 1954. In 1958, Jagdbombergeschwader 31 (Fighter-Bomber Wing 31; abbreviated as: ''JaBoG 31'') based at Nörvenich, was the first German fighter-bomber wing to use the U.S.-built Republic F-84F Thunderstreak of the United States Air Force. In January 1959, this squadron was the first German Air Force wing to be assigned to NATO. In 1961, it was the first wing to use Lockhee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bundeswehr
The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: German Army, German Navy, German Air Force and Cyber and Information Domain Service (Germany), Cyber and Information Domain Service, which are supported by the Bundeswehr Support Area. , the had a strength of 180,215 active-duty military personnel and 80,761 civilians, placing it among the 30 largest military forces in the world, and making it the second largest in the European Union behind French Armed Forces, France. In addition, the has approximately 34,600 reserve personnel (2024). With German military expenditures at $88.5 billion (2024), the is the fourth-highest-funded military in the world, though military expenditures have until recently remained low at an average at 1.5% of national GDP, well below the non-binding NATO targ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
F-35
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, supersonic stealth strike fighters. A multirole combat aircraft designed for both air superiority and strike missions, it also has electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. Lockheed Martin is the prime F-35 contractor with principal partners Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems. The aircraft has three main variants: the conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) F-35A, the short take-off and vertical-landing (STOVL) F-35B, and the carrier variant (CV) catapult-assisted take-off but arrested recovery (CATOBAR) F-35C. The aircraft descends from the Lockheed Martin X-35, which in 2001 beat the Boeing X-32 to win the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program intended to replace the F-16 Fighting Falcon, F/A-18 Hornet, and the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II "jump jet", among others. Its development is principally funded by the United States, with addit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Federal Ministry Of Defence (Germany)
The Federal Ministry of Defence (, ; abbreviated BMVg) is a top-level federal agency, headed by the Federal Minister of Defence as a member of the Cabinet of Germany. The ministry is headquartered at the Hardthöhe barracks itself located at the Hardthöhe district in Bonn and has a second office in the ''Bendlerblock'' building in Berlin, which is occasionally used as a metonym to denote the entire Ministry. According to Article 65a of the German Constitution (''Grundgesetz)'', the Federal Minister of Defence is Commander-in-chief of the , the German armed forces, with around 260,953 active soldiers and civilians. Article 115b decrees that in the state of defence, declared by the Bundestag with consent of the Bundesrat, the command in chief passes to the Chancellor. The ministry currently has approximately 2,000 employees. Organization On April 1, 2012, the Federal Ministry of Defence (DEU MOD) changes its organization to the following general structure: Senior Manageme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2022 Russian Invasion Of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thousands of Casualties of the Russo-Ukrainian War, military casualties and tens of thousands of Ukrainian Attacks on civilians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, civilian casualties. As of 2025, Russian troops Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, occupy about 20% of Ukraine. From a population of 41 million, about 8 million Ukrainians had been internally displaced and more than 8.2 million Ukrainian refugee crisis, had fled the country by April 2023, creating Europe's List of largest refugee crises, largest refugee crisis since World War II. In late 2021, Russia Prelude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, massed troops near Ukraine's borders and December 2021 Russian ultimatum to NATO, issued demands to the Western world, West i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rolf Mützenich
Rolf Heinrich Mützenich (born 25 June 1959) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) who served as leader of the SPD group in the Bundestag from June 2019 until February 2025 Early life and education Mützenich was born on 25 June 1959 in Cologne and studied political science and history at the University of Bremen and earned his PhD in 1991. Early career After completing his doctorate, Mützenich joined the State Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of North Rhine-Westphalia. From 1993 he worked as a research assistant for the SPD parliamentary group in the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia until he returned to the State Ministry of Social Affairs in 1998, under the leadership of minister Ilse Brusis. From 2001 to 2002 he served as chief of staff to the President of the North Rhine-Westphalian State Parliament, Ulrich Schmidt. Political career Mützenich entered in the SPD in 1975. He has been a member of the German Bundestag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
