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Norwegian Rocket Incident
The Norwegian rocket incident, also known as the Black Brant scare, occurred on January 25, 1995, when a team of Norwegian and American scientists launched a Black Brant XII four-stage sounding rocket from the Andøya Rocket Range off the northwestern coast of Norway. The rocket carried scientific equipment to study the aurora borealis over Svalbard, and flew on a high northbound trajectory, which included an air corridor that stretches from Minuteman III nuclear missile silos in North Dakota all the way to Moscow, the capital city of Russia. The rocket eventually reached an altitude of , resembling a US Navy submarine-launched Trident missile. Fearing a high-altitude nuclear attack that could blind Russian radar, Russian nuclear forces went on high alert, and the "nuclear briefcase" (the '' Cheget'') was taken to Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who then had to decide whether to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike against the United States. Russian observers determined th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Brant XII
The Black Brant is a family of Canadian-designed sounding rockets originally built by Bristol Aerospace, since absorbed by Magellan Aerospace in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Over 800 Black Brants of various versions have been launched since they were first produced in 1961, and the type remains one of the most popular sounding rockets. They have been repeatedly used by the Canadian Space Agency and NASA. History Black Brant was the result of research at Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment (CARDE) during the 1950s into the nature of the upper part of the atmosphere as part of ongoing research into anti-ballistic missile systems and very-long-range communication. In 1957, CARDE contracted Bristol to produce a simple rocket fuselage, called the Propulsion Test Vehicle, for studies into high-power solid fuels. The resulting design, by Albert Fia, was quite heavy, as it was designed to be able to accommodate a wide variety of engine burning times, propellant loadings and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse
A nuclear electromagnetic pulse (nuclear EMP or NEMP) is a burst of electromagnetic radiation created by a nuclear explosion. The resulting rapidly varying electric and magnetic fields may couple with electrical and electronic systems to produce damaging current and voltage surges. The specific characteristics of a particular nuclear EMP event vary according to a number of factors, the most important of which is the altitude of the detonation. The term "electromagnetic pulse" generally excludes optical (infrared, visible, ultraviolet) and ionizing (such as X-ray and gamma radiation) ranges. In military terminology, a nuclear warhead detonated tens to hundreds of miles above the Earth's surface is known as a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) device. Effects of a HEMP device depend on factors including the altitude of the detonation, energy yield, gamma ray output, interactions with the Earth's magnetic field and electromagnetic shielding of targets. History The fact th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murmansk Oblast, Russia
Murmansk Oblast is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia, located in the northwestern part of the country, with a total land area of . Its only internal border is the Republic of Karelia to the south, and it is bordered internationally by Finland to the west and Norway to the northwest and the Barents Sea lies to the north and White Sea lies to the south and east. Its administrative center is the city of Murmansk. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 795,409, but at the 2021 Census this had declined to 667,744. Geography Geographically, Murmansk Oblast is located mainly on the Kola Peninsula almost completely north of the Arctic Circle''2007 Atlas of Murmansk Oblast'', p. 2 and is a part of the larger Sápmi (Lapland) region that spans over four countries.Ratcliffe, p. 1 The oblast borders with the Republic of Karelia in Russia in the south, Lapland Region in Finland in the west, Finnmark County in Norway in the northwest, and is bounded by the Barents Se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Early-warning Radar
An early-warning radar is any radar system used primarily for the long-range detection of its targets, i.e., allowing defences to be alerted as ''early'' as possible before the intruder reaches its target, giving the air defences the maximum time in which to operate. This contrasts with systems used primarily for tracking or gun laying, which tend to offer shorter ranges but offer much higher accuracy. EW radars tend to share a number of design features that improve their performance in the role. For instance, EW radar typically operates at lower frequencies, and thus longer wavelengths, than other types. This greatly reduces their interaction with rain and snow in the air, and therefore improves their performance in the long-range role where their coverage area will often include precipitation. This also has the side-effect of lowering their optical resolution, but this is not important in this role. Likewise, EW radars often use much lower pulse repetition frequency to maximi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olenegorsk, Murmansk Oblast
Olenegorsk (, lit. ''reindeer mountain'') is a town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located north of the Arctic Circle, south of Murmansk. Population: 25,166 ( 2002 Census); History The railway station of Olenya () was opened in 1916, with the construction of the Murman Railway. The station facilities, and the small settlement associated with the station were located to the east of the railroad. Their importance was somewhat increased in the 1930s, as Olenya became a junction for the railway branch to the newly built town of Monchegorsk some to the southwest. In 1949, work started on the iron ore strip mines and ore-processing facilities a few kilometers to the west of the Olenya station. At the same time, construction of a company town, originally also named Olenya, started between the rail station and the mines, to the west of the railway. In December 1949, it was granted work settlement status. By the March 27, 1957 Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member states—30 European and 2 North American. Established in the aftermath of World War II, the organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949. NATO is a collective security system: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by third parties. During the Cold War, NATO operated as a check on the threat posed by the Soviet Union. The alliance remained in place after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, and has been involved in military operations in the Balkans, the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. The organization's motto is . The organization's strategic concepts include Deterrence theory, deterrence. NATO headquarters, NATO's main headquarter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russian Armed Forces
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military of Russia. They are organized into three service branches—the Russian Ground Forces, Ground Forces, Russian Navy, Navy, and Russian Aerospace Forces, Aerospace Forces—two independent combat arms (the Strategic Rocket Forces and Russian Airborne Forces, Airborne Forces), and the Special Operations Forces (Russia), Special Operations Forces Command. The Russian Armed Forces are the List of countries by number of military and paramilitary personnel, world's fifth largest military force, with about one million Active duty, active-duty personnel and close to two million Military reserve force, reservists. They maintain the Russia and weapons of mass destruction, world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, possess the world's second-largest fleet of ballistic missile submarines, and are the only armed forces outside the United States Armed Forces, United States and Pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1983 Soviet Nuclear False Alarm Incident
On 26 September 1983, during the Cold War, the Soviet nuclear early warning system Oko reported the launch of one intercontinental ballistic missile with four more missiles behind it, from the United States. These missile attack warnings were suspected to be false alarms by Stanislav Petrov, an engineer of the Soviet Air Defence Forces on duty at the command center of the early-warning system. He decided to wait for corroborating evidence—of which none arrived—rather than immediately relaying the warning up the chain of command. This decision is seen as having prevented a retaliatory nuclear strike against the United States and its NATO allies, which would likely have resulted in a full-scale nuclear war. Investigation of the satellite warning system later determined that the system had indeed malfunctioned. Background The incident occurred at a time of severely strained relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. Responding to the Soviet Union's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons delivery, nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of nuclear missiles in Cuba. The crisis lasted from 16to28 October 1962. The confrontation is widely considered List of nuclear close calls, the closest the Cold War came to escalating into full-scale Nuclear warfare, nuclear war. In 1961, the US government put PGM-19 Jupiter, Jupiter nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey. It had trained a paramilitary force of Cuban exiles, expatriate Cubans, which the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA led in an attempt to Bay of Pigs Invasion, invade Cuba and overthrow its government. Starting in November of that year, the US government engaged in a violent campaign of terrorism and sabotage in Cuba, referred to as the Cuban P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term ''Cold war (term), cold war'' is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and Nuclear arms race, nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, Economic sanctions, embargoes, and sports diplomacy. After the end of World War II in 1945, during which the US and USSR had been allies, the USSR installed satellite state, satellite governments in its occupied territories in Eastern Europe and N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Strike
In nuclear strategy, a retaliatory strike or second-strike capability is a country's assured ability to respond to a nuclear attack with powerful nuclear retaliation against the attacker. To have such an ability (and to convince an opponent of its viability) is considered vital in nuclear deterrence, as otherwise the other side might attempt to try to win a nuclear war in one massive Pre-emptive nuclear strike, first strike against its opponent's own nuclear forces. Theory The possession of second-strike capabilities counters a first-strike nuclear threat and can support a no first use nuclear strategy. Reciprocal second-strike capabilities usually cause a mutual assured destruction defence strategy, though one side may have a lower level minimal deterrence response. Second-strike capabilities can be further strengthened by implementing fail-deadly mechanisms. These mechanisms create a threshold and guaranteed consequences if that threshold is breached. For instance, a threshold m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to 1990. He later stood as a Independent politician, political independent, during which time he was viewed as being ideologically aligned with Liberalism in Russia, liberalism. Yeltsin was born in Butka, Russia, Butka, Ural Oblast (1923–1934), Ural Oblast. He would grow up in Kazan and Berezniki. He worked in construction after studying at the Ural State Technical University. After joining the Communist Party, he rose through its ranks, and in 1976, he became First Secretary of the party's Sverdlovsk Oblast committee. Yeltsin was initially a supporter of the ''perestroika'' reforms of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. He later criticized the reforms as being too moderate and called for a transition to a Multi-party system, multi-party repr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
