Russia Launches New Submarine

MOSCOW Russia, Tuesday, launching a nuclear-powered attack submarines that require 17 years to make because of lack of funds after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Severodvinsk President Dmitry Medvedev said it would “increase our military strength and potential of our navy, and to strengthen Russia’s position in the world’s oceans.”

“Russia must modernize the navy simply, we must build ships very modern,” Medvedev said at a ceremony at the Sevmash shipyard on the White Sea port. Some observers warned that the ship has not been completed at all and still face trial.

“By placing it in the water does not indicate that the submarine is ready,” said Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy director at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies is headquartered in Moscow. Some officials at the Sevmash said the submarine was 80 percent complete and that the trial will begin this summer, according to Itar-Tass news agency.

State-owned news agency RIA add to the size of Severodvinsk 119 meters (393 feet) it is Yasen-class submarines / Graney first, and designed to carry nuclear-powered cruise missile distance and other weaponry. RIA and Itar Tass reported that the Severodvinsk is expected to begin serving in 2011, and declared Makiyenko not very optimistic. According to him, the submarine was still requires three to five years.

He also said it was unclear whether Russia will have the funds to produce a few more submarines of the same class, if Severodvinsk successful. According to RIA, Russia plans to create at least six class submarines. Work was started last year in the making of the second submarine in the series, which was named after Kazan.

Making Severodvinsk started in 1993, but Makiyenko said making it effectively been frozen for about a decade due to lack of funds. Russian armed forces suffer from a shortage of money for more than a decade after the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991. Funds have been added, but still it was a problem financing.(AFP)

Somali Pirates plants to Blow the Ship Oil for $ 20 million

Nairobi  Somali pirates on Wednesday threatened to blow up a ship hijacked the majors unless the ransom was paid $ 20 million, and hijack a Panamanian-flagged merchant ship. South Korea sent a destroyer to ambush dream Samho carrying two million barrels of crude oil with a crew that includes five South Koreans and 19 citizens of the Philippines, after the ship was seized this month.

“We are demanding $ 20 million ransom for the release of South Korean ship,” said Hashi, leader of the pirates that controlled the ship was owned by a Singapore company. “The ship and its crew safe. We know that a number of warships to attack plan, but told them that the ship will be detonated if they attack us,” said the pirate nest in Hobyo.

Meanwhile, Andrew Mwangura, officials of the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme based in Kenya, said the Panamanian-flagged vessel MV VOC controlled pirate Daisy at dawn at the site some 190 kilometers southeast of the port Salalah in Oman. The ship was manned by 21 Filipinos.

He said the big ship sailing from the United Arab Emirates to a port that is not mentioned on the Suez Canal when it was hijacked. It is unclear what brought the ship of goods.

EU naval patrols in the area confirmed the hijacking of ships weighing 47,183 tons of it in the news site. Three hijacked Thai fishing vessel at the weekend and a series of failed attacks launched since then.

Pirates operating off the coast of Somalia to increase piracy attacks on ships in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden in recent months despite a foreign navy held off the coast of the Horn of Africa . The waters off the coast of Somalia is home to most piracy-prone world, and the International Maritime Bureau reporting 24 attacks in the region between April and June 2008 alone.

The pirates attacked more than 130 merchant ships in that year, an increase of more than 200 percent of the attacks in 2007, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Pirate groups in Somalia, which operates in a strategic sea lane that connects Asia and Europe, making millions of dollars in ransoms from hijacking ships in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden.

Multinational naval patrols in the strategic sea route connecting Europe with Asia through the Gulf of Aden availability appears that only the bands of pirates operating expand their attacks deeper into the Indian Ocean.

Pirate the failed Horn of Africa country is currently holding a dozen ships and over 200 crew, including British couples ship hijacked off the Seychelles. Security Council has approved the operation of incursions into Somali territorial waters to fight piracy, but warships patrolling the area did not do much, according to Puntland Fisheries Minister Ahmed Saed Ali Nur.

the weak Somali transitional government, currently battling a bloody insurgency, is not able to stop the action of the pirates who hijack ships and demand ransom for the release of vessels and their crews. Pirates armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles, using speedboats to pursue their goal. Submerged Somalia since the lifting of energy and anarchism war commanders overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. In addition to piracy, kidnappings and deadly violence have also affected the country.( Reuters)

E-2C Hawkeye aircraft crashes into Arabian Sea

One person is missing after a US navy radar plane supporting operations in Afghanistan ploughed into the Arabian Sea.The E-2C Hawkeye aircraft “was returning from conducting operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom” when it malfunctioned, the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet said in a statement.The crew “performed a controlled bailout” from the plane when it went down in the northern Arabian Sea on its way to the USS Dwight D Eisenhower aircraft carrier.

The navy says three crew members were rescued and have returned to the carrier “alive and well”.”Search and rescue efforts are continuing for the missing aviator and are expected to continue through the night or until he or she is found,” said public affairs officer Lieutenant Matthew Allen.The crash is under investigation.The US navy says the E-2C is used to provide “all-weather airborne early warnings, battle management and command and control functions”.Based on US aircraft carriers, the E-2C is also used for “ground surveillance, strike coordination and communications relay”.According to the US navy website, an E-2C costs $US80 million.