So Much For The U.S. Navy's 'Ship of The future'

U.S. Navy

David Axe, Daily Beast: Navy’s Ships of the Future, Sunk

The Littoral Combat Ship was supposed to represent the future of small, fast, and flexible warships. Instead it was beset by significant flaws and questions of reliability.

After years of work costing billions of dollars, the U.S. Navy is scaling back its controversial effort to build a fleet of small, speedy, flexible warships for near-shore patrols—a fleet plagued by design flaws, mismanagement and technical malfunctions.

But the Navy’s not cutting the fleet by choice—and not everyone is happy with the change. The decision to reduce the Littoral Combat Ship program from 52 ships to 40, while also building them all at one shipyard, reflects an ongoing conflict inside the Pentagon over America’s military strategy.

On one side are the advocates of what defense planners call “presence”—that is, stationing lots of inexpensive troops, planes and ships near potential hotspots in order to reassure America’s allies and ward off its enemies, theoretically preventing war without anyone firing a shot.

WNU Editor: So much for the U.S. Navy's goal of having 300 ships by 2019.

Azerbaijan's Currency And Financial Markets Collapsed Today

Radio Free Europe: Azerbaijanis Reel As Currency Tanks

A massive tumble in Azerbaijan's currency has shuttered shops and sent people scrambling to convert their manats into foreign currency or durable goods.

"This is such a miserable situation for the whole nation," a Baku man told RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service. "Everyone wants to buy dollars and only a few [banks and exchange officies will] sell.... There are almost no dollars left at exchange points."

The Azerbaijani Central Bank's decision to float the country's currency on December 21 led to the loss of some 48 percent of the manat's value -- from 1.05 to 1.55 manats to the dollar.

The drop led stores and even entire shopping malls across the country to close as people rushed to buy things before store owners raised their prices.

More News On Azerbaijan's Currency Collapse Today

Azerbaijani manat collapses after government abandons dollar peg -- Financial Times
Azerbaijan cuts its currency loose, triggering 32 pct plunge -- Reuters
Azerbaijan's Shift to Free Float Sends Manat to 20-Year Low -- Bloomberg
Azerbaijan's currency lost almost half its value overnight -- Business Insider
Oil price slump forces Azerbaijan to stop propping up currency -- AFP

Putin: 'Russians Don't Want A Return To The USSR .... But No One Believes Us'

Russian President Vladimir Putin during an interview with Rossiya 1 TV anchor Vladimir Solovyov © Aleksey Nikolskyi / Sputnik

AFP: Putin: 'We don't want the USSR back but no one believes us'

Moscow (AFP) - Russia is not trying to bring back the USSR, President Vladimir Putin said in a documentary aired Sunday, but the problem is that "nobody wants to believe it".

Since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis, which saw pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych ousted by pro-European demonstrators, Moscow has accused the West of using "the politics of containment" in a Cold War throwback.

"With Ukraine and other areas of the former USSR, I'm sure our Western partners aren't working in the interests of Ukraine, they are working to prevent the recreation of the USSR," he said in "World Order", a documentary broadcast on the public Rossiya 1 channel.

"But nobody wants to believe us, nobody wants to believe that we're not trying to bring the Soviet Union back," he said.

Update: West fears recreation of Soviet Union, despite nobody planning one – Putin (RT)

WNU Editor: Among all the Russians that I know .... family included .... I can count on one hand the number of people who may miss the "old days". They are all old .... alone .... on pensions .... wondering why no one is paying attention to them. The mass majority of Russians .... by far .... have no appetite for a return to the old Soviet Union. None. Zero. Nada. Myself included.

Playing The Race Card

NPR: WATCH: Obama Says Trump 'Exploiting' Anger, Fear Among 'Blue-Collar Men'

Donald Trump has gained traction in the Republican primary, according to President Obama, because the boisterous billionaire has found a way to play off American anxieties, especially among "blue-collar men."

The president told NPR's Steve Inskeep in an interview late last week that economic and demographic changes in the country, including his own "unique demographic," have left a void that Trump is "exploiting."

Update: Obama Accuses Trump of Exploiting Working-Class Fears (NYT).

WNU Editor: So .... President Obama is accusing Donald Trump of exploiting working-class fears .... now that is rich.

Foreign Policy Magazine: India Has A Secret Thermonuclear Weapons Program

An Indian Agni-II intermediate range ballistic missile on a road-mobile launcher, displayed at the Republic Day Parade on New Delhi's Rajpath, January 26, 2004. Wikipedia

RYOT: India’s New Secret Nuclear Facility Risks Military Build-Up in Asia

A recent report in Foreign Policy magazine claims that India is building a massive new nuclear research facility. The facility would also help produce fuel for the country’s nuclear submarines and reactors.

More troubling, the report claims that India will use the space to create an extra stockpile of enriched uranium fuel for use in nuclear weapons, particularly a powerful thermonuclear weapon.

If true, this revelation could spark fears in China and Pakistan, rivals in the region, wary of India’s secretive nuclear program.

The report says: “India’s close neighbors, China and Pakistan, would see this move as a provocation: Experts say they might respond by ratcheting up their own nuclear firepower.”

Pakistan’s estimated stockpile nuclear weapons is about 120, while China is said to possess about 260 nuclear warheads.

WNU Editor: For those who may not know .... thermonuclear weapons use atomic weapons as a trigger to produce a far greater explosion. The Foreign Policy article is here .... India Is Building a Top-Secret Nuclear City to Produce Thermonuclear Weapons, Experts Say (Foreign Policy). Whats my take .... if these reports are true, China and Pakistan will probably expand their nuclear weapons program.

More News On India's Nuclear Program

India building secret nuke facility, says magazine -- Hindustan Times
India building secret city to produce nuclear weapons reports US-based Foreign Policy magazine -- Indian Express
India building top secret nuclear facility in Karnataka, seeking to upgrade weapons to unsettle Pakistan -- Zee news
Experts worry that India is creating new fuel for an arsenal of H-bombs -- Center for Public Integrity

Report: Russian Fighter Jets May Escort Syrian President Assad's Plane During His Trip To Iran

Russian warplanes began bombarding opposition targets in Syria on September 30 [Reuters]

Al Jazeera: Russian jets could escort Assad on Iran trip: reports

Paper says Moscow proposed sending jets to protect Syrian president and warned coalition against "getting close".

Russia has proposed sending four fighter jets to escort the plane carrying Syrian President Bashar al-Assad when he makes a visit to the Iranian capital, regional media outlets have reported.

Al-Diyar, a Lebanese newspaper close to the regime of Assad, said on Monday that Moscow had alerted the US-led coalition not to "get close to Assad's plane in order to avoid an aerial battle".

It is expected that Assad's plane will fly to Iran through Iraqi airspace, al-Diyar reported.

WNU Editor: Would the U.S. or the coalition force down this plane .... it looks like some in the Syrian government believe that such a possibility is very real.

Taliban On The Verge Of A Huge Victory In The Key Afghan Province Of Helmand (Updated)

Sydney Morning Herald: Afghanistan's Helmand province 'on the brink' of falling to Taliban

Kabul: Afghanistan's Helmand province could fall to the Taliban after months of heavy fighting, with 90 members of the security forces killed over the past two days, the deputy governor of the volatile southern province warned.Mohammad Jan Rasulyar said unless President Ashraf Ghani took urgent action, the province, a centre of opium production and a Taliban heartland that British and American troops struggled to control for years, would be lost.

"Your Excellency, Helmand is standing on the brink and there is a serious need for you to come," he wrote on Facebook.

WNU Editor: This is becoming a disaster.

More News On The Battle For The Afghan Province Of Helmand

Afghanistan Taliban: Militants close to capturing Sangin -- BBC
Taliban forces take control of key district in Afghanistan's Helmand province -- CNN
Taliban seize control of strategic district in southern Afghanistan -- FOX News
Clashes as Taliban advance in Afghanistan's Helmand province -- ABC News (Australia)
Taliban forces overrun Sangin district in Afghanistan's Helmand province -- UPI
Fierce fight for Helmand as Afghan Taliban gains ground -- Al Jazeera
Afghan district where 106 British troops died is set to fall to Taliban again -- The Telegraph
Afghanistan ‘a disaster from start to finish,’ says war veteran as Taliban advance in Helmand -- RT
Taliban on Verge of Huge Victory in Afghanistan -- Rick Moran, PJ Media
If the Taleban takes Helmand, then Afghanistan could go the way of Syria -- Ahmed Rashid, Spectator
Afghanistan: The Taliban is recapturing Helmand before our eyes -- The Independent editorial