Saturday, March 21, 2020
We need UPDF at Entebbe airport!!!! We are tired of these goons who do not love uganda
We need updf in Entebbe ASAP. Entebbe is becoming susceptible to foreigners from high risky countries affected by covid19. If this is not done quickly, Entebbe could turn into an epicenter of the Wuhan virus. Ruth Achieng is doing a great job but she's needs surport. The Chinese used their military to manage stiuations that wu'd compromise their efforts and now they are wining the war over covid19.
And these extortionist will be the ones to start blaming the gorvenment!!!!
Friday, March 20, 2020
7 promising Corona virus vaccine trials
Despite World Health Organisation warning last month that the first COVID-19 vaccine trials would come no sooner than after three to four months, quite a few pharmaceutical enterprises have ramped up efforts to attempt to roll out their much-coveted brainchildren ahead of schedule.
Here are the most discussed COVID-19 vaccine options that are approaching clinical tests and which will be conducted on people (if they are not already) sometime soon.
1. Russia's 'Vector'
The Russian consumer rights watchdog
Rospotrebnadzor announced on 20 March that its Novosibirsk-based research centre "Vector" had already started testing vaccines in the country, so the mass production of them could be launched in the fourth quarter of 2020. Although the substance hasn’t yet been named, the prototypes are mRNA, peptide, and subunit vaccines.
There are quite a few promising ventures by other countries, predominantly China, which have already entered stages 1-3 of clinical testing, or are just on the verge of doing so.
2. Chinese Gilead Sciences’ Remdisivir
The vaccine is tasked with easing patients’ fever and helping them to get out of hospital after no more than two weeks, Statnews wrote. The drug, which was also previously used in an Ebola virus study, is applied intravenously and is currently being tested by China (in phase 3) on 1,000 patients diagnosed with the coronavirus infection.
3. Ascletis Pharma's Venture
Somewhat less close to clinical testing is a development by another Chinese drug maker, Ascletis Pharma - a hybrid of two antiviral medicines: one approved for HIV and one approved for hepatitis C - anoprevir and ritonavir respectively. The company recently enrolled 11 patients with coronavirus-induced pneumonia and administered the combination, later boasting that the patients were successfully cured.
4. Moderna Therapeutics' MRNA-1273
Another Chinese enterprise, Moderna Therapeutics, has meanwhile entered phase 1 of clinical tests with its mRNA-1273, a vaccine candidate identified within just 42 days of tracking the novel coronavirus. The synthetic strand of the messenger known as mRNA is to convince human cells to release natural COVID-19 antibodies into the blood. The company is working with the National Institutes of Health and if mRNA-1273 proves to be safe, Moderna will enrol more patients to determine whether the vaccine safeguards from the infection. Among those who received the first jab were four American volunteers at the Kaiser Permanente research facility in Seattle, Washington.
5. Tianjin-headquartered CanSino Biologics Project
The marketer of the Ebola vaccine, this company is yet another entity scrambling to compete with all the rest in the development of an effective preventive measure against COVID-19. More specifically, it is trying to marry the coronavirus’ genetic code with a less dangerous virus and clinical tests, already approved by the Chinese authorities, are due to start in the near future.
6. CureVac: US-German Apple of Discord
There has reportedly been a tug of war lately between the US and Germany over a promising firm called CureVac, which is based in Tübingen, but also has branches in Frankfurt and the US state of Massachusetts. US President Donald Trump has reportedly been offering hefty sums to German scientists working on a vaccine in a bid to secure rights to their prospective brainchild, while other reports stated that Berlin has likewise tried to offer the promising company financial incentives for it to proceed with research in its home country. Last Friday, co-founder Florian von der Mülbe, who is in charge of the firm’s production, told Reuters that they had begun to pore over a slew of possible vaccines, with the two most viable ones expected to be picked later on for clinical testing, with human trials preliminarily expected in late summer.
7. San Diego-based Arcturus Therapeutics' RNA Editing
The company is working on a vaccine that heavily relies on engineering RNA, so that the edited version of the virus would encode proteins that would protect against infection and load it into a liquid nanoparticle. The approach is believed to promise a better immune response at a lower vaccine dose than mRNA approaches. The company is planning to kickstart human trials as quickly as possible.
As per Worldometrics.info, the overall number of coronavirus infections has topped 245,850 around the globe, with the death toll exceeding 10,000. Italy has become the new epicentre of the pandemic with 3,405 having died of coronavirus-related illnesses, overtaking China’s death toll by more than 150. To date, 88,441 people are registered to have recovered around the world.
Latest on Corona virus
Numerous countries have imposed travel bans and introduced 14-day quarantines for citizens coming home amid growing numbers of infected. Outside China, where the COVID-19 was originally registered back in December, the worst-hit countries are Italy, Iran, and Spain, with Germany and the US also reporting mass increases in numbers.
Worldwide, the virus has infected more than 255,300 people in 163 nations, with 10,444 deaths, Johns Hopkins University reported on its global virus tracking website.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are at least 209,000 coronavirus cases in over 120 countries, with the death toll surpassing 8,700. At the same time, around 90,000 of those infected have already recovered from the disease.
Worldwide, the virus has infected more than 255,300 people in 163 nations, with 10,444 deaths, Johns Hopkins University reported on its global virus tracking website.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are at least 209,000 coronavirus cases in over 120 countries, with the death toll surpassing 8,700. At the same time, around 90,000 of those infected have already recovered from the disease.
The Tsirkon hypersonic missile will be test-fired for the first time this year in spring from the Admiral Gorshkov frigate, a source in the Russian defence industry said.
For the first time, the Tsirkon was test-launched from the Admiral Gorshkov in January in the Barents Sea, home to Russia’s Northern Fleet.
“The second test – but the first one this year – is scheduled for this spring. The missile will be test-fired from Admiral Gorshkov frigate. The tests are underway”, the source said.
The Tsirkon, a scramjet-powered maneuverable anti-ship cruise missile capable of accelerating to speeds of up to 11,100 km an hour, is one of half-a-dozen or so strategic systems being developed by Russia’s military.
The Tsirkon is believed to have a flight range of over 1,000 km, and is expected base aboard both surface ships and marine ships, including vessels equipped to carry existing Kalibr-class cruise missiles. The missile is also widely expected to be fitted aboard the new Husky class fifth-generation nuclear submarine presently in development
The US Department of Defence (DoD) has announced that it has successfully tested a common hypersonic glide body (C-HGB), firing it on 19 March from a missile range located on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. The DoD noted in an official statement that the launch was a "major milestone" in the US path to acquire hypersonic weaponry.
The statement went on to say that the missile travelled to the designated target at a "hypersonic speed". It further noted that the US Missile Defence Agency would be studying the flight data and reporting on the progress of the American hypersonics programme once it is done.
The Pentagon also released a video showing the moment when the new hypersonic weapon was launched from the range.
Washington started looking into developing a hypersonic weapon back in the 2000s, but decided to halt most of its programmes after initial tests failed to show the desired results. The US redoubled its efforts to develop hypersonic missiles, as well as the means to intercept them, after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin unveiled three Russian projects in the same sphere.
Russia has so far introduced the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle and air-launched Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missile into its armed forces, while it is finishing the development of zircon (NATO reporting name: SS-N-33) anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile.
Thursday, March 19, 2020
Inside the Russian K-560 Severodvinsk, a Yasen-class nuclear-powered attack submarine which USA fears very much.As described by Andrei stavanov,it is armed with anti-ship and land attack cruise missiles
The K-560 Severodvinsk, a Yasen-class nuclear-powered attack submarine armed with anti-ship and land attack cruise missiles, will soon be equipped to carry the Zircon, a new scramjet-powered maneuverable anti-ship missile capable of accelerating to speeds of up to 11,100 km per hour.
Earlier this year, in an article on the most fearsome missile submarines in the world, National Interest magazine listed the Yasen class of cruise missile submarines as a “threat to the US homeland,” owing to their “extremely quiet” operation, fast speed, “extremely potent sensors,” and, most importantly – their deadly payload – “32 dual nuclear/conventional capable 3M-14K Kalibr cruise missiles that have a range of over 2,500 kilometers.”
That, NI calculated, means that Yasen-class subs, including the Severodvinsk and her sister ship, the Kazan , “could easily close to 2,000 km off the American east coast and strike inland as far as the Great Lakes. Indeed, if the vessel…[could] close to within 1,000 km or less, it could strike as far inland as Chicago or even St. Louis.”
Fortunately for St. Louis, Russia’s nuclear doctrine remains unchanged: Moscow will not carry out a preemptive nuclear strike under any circumstances, and will use its nuclear arsenal only as a last resort in the event of an enemy first strike, or in response to large-scale conventional aggression.
But back to the Severodvinsk. What does the submarine's interior look like? What are the crew conditions like? What does its captain consider to be his boat's main purpose?
Crew members of atomic submarine "Severodvinsk"
Beyond a series of hatches and ladders, is the control room, where sailors monitor a series of computer screens which serve as the sub’s “brain.”
“Our main mission is the protection of strategic missile subs which keep those in the distant frontier at bay,” Captain First Rank Roman Sanarchuk, the submarine’s commander, says. “We ensure their combat survivability. Using the analogy of aircraft, they are the heavy bombers, while we’re fighters and attack aircraft rolled up into one. If the enemy dares to bare his teeth, we can approach and carry out strikes with our precision weapons – Kalibr cruise missiles.”
In the Central post of the nuclear submarine " Severodvinsk»
The Kalibr – a class of Russian surface ship-, submarine- and air-launched anti-ship, anti-sub and land attack cruise missiles, made its debut in 2015, when ships from Russia’s small but deadly Caspian Flotilla launched dozens of the missiles at terrorist targets over 1,500 km away in Syria. Since then, the weapons were used several more times, launched from both surface vessels and submarines, including the Severodvinsk.
‘They Fear Us for a Reason’
Sanarchuk says hiding from NATO’s prying eyes and ears is becoming more difficult with each passing year, with the NATO alliance improving its vast anti-submarine surveillance network, and US Navy Boeing P-8 Poseidon patrol planes taking off from Norwegian airfields to hunt for Russian subs. Fortunately, the Western alliance is still largely unfamiliar with the characteristics of Yasen-class submarines, forcing them to pay special attention. “They fear us for a reason,” the commander notes.
“This boat has very low noise characteristics, much lower than most foreign analogues. Its cruise missiles allow it to operate from big distances, with potential targets detected long before they can detect us. Furthermore, the boat will soon be modernized to carry hypersonic missiles. This will greatly expand its capabilities,” Sanarchuk explains.
Sanarchuk, 39, has almost two decades of service under his belt, starting his career aboard a Project 671RTM Schuka-class nuclear attack sub, and serving aboard a Project 949A Antey cruise missile submarine. Compared to those two boats, the Yasen class has a number of improvements, including more automated systems and electronics, more comfortable living conditions, and improved survivability, including a specially-designed rescue pod carried in the sail in case something goes wrong.
As with all vessels of its kind, the Severodvinsk’s crew’s daily routine includes drilling survivability into sailors’ blood. Emergency response drills to patch up holes or put out a fire take place almost daily.
“This is a military vessel, and that means eliminating damage is something that we pay special attention to,” Chief Petty Officer Maxim Gripich explains. “The area of water intake is usually announced by speakerphone, and emergency team arrives immediately. We start fighting for survivability. This is the main task of the entire crew, regardless of position. I’m the ship’s electrical technician, but if an accident takes place my responsibility is saving the ship and its crew.”
In recent weeks, governments around the world have confronted the risk of the new coronavirus. On a submarine, owing to its cramped quarters and recirculated air, the spread of a virus like COVID-19 could be deadly for the entire vessel. But the Severodvinsk has a contingency for this: a special isolation ward with a separate cabin.
“At the moment, I live here,” Severodvinsk Medical Service Chief Dmitri Babanov says. “If needed, I’ll free the quarters for the patient, and take his place.” The sub has all the necessary equipment on board for diagnosis and treatment, including an X-ray machine, and electrocardiograph, defibrillator, and decompression kit to treat carbon monoxide poisoning.
“Thankfully, we don’t have coronavirus here,” the doctor jokes. “Apparently it freezes at these high latitudes.”
Months in the Depths
Beating in the Severodvinsk’s bowels is its atomic heart, whose 250,000 horsepower capacity allows for the 13,800 tonne, 139 meter-long submarine to accelerate to speeds of up to 31 knots (57 km) per hour. With an unlimited range, and endurance limited only by food and maintenance requirements. Because of this, Sanarchuk’s boat spends long periods at sea, deploying for about 150 days in the last year.
The massive, spherical antenna at the front of the boat, large and powerful enough to comfortably ‘see’ and ‘hear’ its surrounding environment, required the sub’s torpedo tubes to be transferred from the nose to the second compartment – an unprecedented engineering solution in Russian submarine construction. Along with Kalibrs, the sub can be fitted with the Onyx-class of anti-ship missiles.
Senior assistant to the commander of the nuclear submarine "Severodvinsk"
Secret Weapon
But despite its impressive firepower, unlimited range and stealthy characteristics, the key to the submarine's operational effectiveness is always its crew.
“Toward the end of a deployment you can usually feel the tension in the air. During free time, we try to defuse tension; we arrange all kinds of harmless practical jokes. For example, we might send a fresh sailor to some far-off compartment, supposedly to get a photofluorography. He’ll spend half a day searching, but return empty-handed. This is a kind of benign sea humour. Everyone smiles and the mood improves,” Sanarchuk explains.
For long journeys, cabins are equipped with televisions and a digital collection of films.
Sailors are fed four times a day, including multiple courses and a hundred grams of dry red wine for lunch. “For breakfast we alternate – porridge, tea, coffee, cottage cheese, sandwiches with cheese and sausage. We brew the coffee ourselves. When we go out to sea, evening tea is added to the ration, and we start cooking pastries – pies, pizza, blintzes and pancake,” ship cook able seaman Fanur Gazizullin says.
Earlier this year, in an article on the most fearsome missile submarines in the world, National Interest magazine listed the Yasen class of cruise missile submarines as a “threat to the US homeland,” owing to their “extremely quiet” operation, fast speed, “extremely potent sensors,” and, most importantly – their deadly payload – “32 dual nuclear/conventional capable 3M-14K Kalibr cruise missiles that have a range of over 2,500 kilometers.”
That, NI calculated, means that Yasen-class subs, including the Severodvinsk and her sister ship, the Kazan , “could easily close to 2,000 km off the American east coast and strike inland as far as the Great Lakes. Indeed, if the vessel…[could] close to within 1,000 km or less, it could strike as far inland as Chicago or even St. Louis.”
Fortunately for St. Louis, Russia’s nuclear doctrine remains unchanged: Moscow will not carry out a preemptive nuclear strike under any circumstances, and will use its nuclear arsenal only as a last resort in the event of an enemy first strike, or in response to large-scale conventional aggression.
But back to the Severodvinsk. What does the submarine's interior look like? What are the crew conditions like? What does its captain consider to be his boat's main purpose?
Beyond a series of hatches and ladders, is the control room, where sailors monitor a series of computer screens which serve as the sub’s “brain.”
“Our main mission is the protection of strategic missile subs which keep those in the distant frontier at bay,” Captain First Rank Roman Sanarchuk, the submarine’s commander, says. “We ensure their combat survivability. Using the analogy of aircraft, they are the heavy bombers, while we’re fighters and attack aircraft rolled up into one. If the enemy dares to bare his teeth, we can approach and carry out strikes with our precision weapons – Kalibr cruise missiles.”
The Kalibr – a class of Russian surface ship-, submarine- and air-launched anti-ship, anti-sub and land attack cruise missiles, made its debut in 2015, when ships from Russia’s small but deadly Caspian Flotilla launched dozens of the missiles at terrorist targets over 1,500 km away in Syria. Since then, the weapons were used several more times, launched from both surface vessels and submarines, including the Severodvinsk.
‘They Fear Us for a Reason’
Sanarchuk says hiding from NATO’s prying eyes and ears is becoming more difficult with each passing year, with the NATO alliance improving its vast anti-submarine surveillance network, and US Navy Boeing P-8 Poseidon patrol planes taking off from Norwegian airfields to hunt for Russian subs. Fortunately, the Western alliance is still largely unfamiliar with the characteristics of Yasen-class submarines, forcing them to pay special attention. “They fear us for a reason,” the commander notes.
“This boat has very low noise characteristics, much lower than most foreign analogues. Its cruise missiles allow it to operate from big distances, with potential targets detected long before they can detect us. Furthermore, the boat will soon be modernized to carry hypersonic missiles. This will greatly expand its capabilities,” Sanarchuk explains.
Sanarchuk, 39, has almost two decades of service under his belt, starting his career aboard a Project 671RTM Schuka-class nuclear attack sub, and serving aboard a Project 949A Antey cruise missile submarine. Compared to those two boats, the Yasen class has a number of improvements, including more automated systems and electronics, more comfortable living conditions, and improved survivability, including a specially-designed rescue pod carried in the sail in case something goes wrong.
A cabin is pictured aboard K-560 Severodvinsk nuclear submarine at Zapadnaya Litsa naval base some 100 kilometers north of Murmansk, Russia
As with all vessels of its kind, the Severodvinsk’s crew’s daily routine includes drilling survivability into sailors’ blood. Emergency response drills to patch up holes or put out a fire take place almost daily.
“This is a military vessel, and that means eliminating damage is something that we pay special attention to,” Chief Petty Officer Maxim Gripich explains. “The area of water intake is usually announced by speakerphone, and emergency team arrives immediately. We start fighting for survivability. This is the main task of the entire crew, regardless of position. I’m the ship’s electrical technician, but if an accident takes place my responsibility is saving the ship and its crew.”
In recent weeks, governments around the world have confronted the risk of the new coronavirus. On a submarine, owing to its cramped quarters and recirculated air, the spread of a virus like COVID-19 could be deadly for the entire vessel. But the Severodvinsk has a contingency for this: a special isolation ward with a separate cabin.
“At the moment, I live here,” Severodvinsk Medical Service Chief Dmitri Babanov says. “If needed, I’ll free the quarters for the patient, and take his place.” The sub has all the necessary equipment on board for diagnosis and treatment, including an X-ray machine, and electrocardiograph, defibrillator, and decompression kit to treat carbon monoxide poisoning.
“Thankfully, we don’t have coronavirus here,” the doctor jokes. “Apparently it freezes at these high latitudes.”
Months in the Depths
Beating in the Severodvinsk’s bowels is its atomic heart, whose 250,000 horsepower capacity allows for the 13,800 tonne, 139 meter-long submarine to accelerate to speeds of up to 31 knots (57 km) per hour. With an unlimited range, and endurance limited only by food and maintenance requirements. Because of this, Sanarchuk’s boat spends long periods at sea, deploying for about 150 days in the last year.
The massive, spherical antenna at the front of the boat, large and powerful enough to comfortably ‘see’ and ‘hear’ its surrounding environment, required the sub’s torpedo tubes to be transferred from the nose to the second compartment – an unprecedented engineering solution in Russian submarine construction. Along with Kalibrs, the sub can be fitted with the Onyx-class of anti-ship missiles.
Secret Weapon
But despite its impressive firepower, unlimited range and stealthy characteristics, the key to the submarine's operational effectiveness is always its crew.
“Toward the end of a deployment you can usually feel the tension in the air. During free time, we try to defuse tension; we arrange all kinds of harmless practical jokes. For example, we might send a fresh sailor to some far-off compartment, supposedly to get a photofluorography. He’ll spend half a day searching, but return empty-handed. This is a kind of benign sea humour. Everyone smiles and the mood improves,” Sanarchuk explains.
For long journeys, cabins are equipped with televisions and a digital collection of films.
Sailors are fed four times a day, including multiple courses and a hundred grams of dry red wine for lunch. “For breakfast we alternate – porridge, tea, coffee, cottage cheese, sandwiches with cheese and sausage. We brew the coffee ourselves. When we go out to sea, evening tea is added to the ration, and we start cooking pastries – pies, pizza, blintzes and pancake,” ship cook able seaman Fanur Gazizullin says.
Douglas Englen has described how operation Neptune that killed Osama bin laden was plannedx
The May, 2011 raid to assassinate Osama bin Laden, codenamed Operation Neptune Spear, reportedly involved four helicopters: two heavy-lift Chinooks and two stealth Black Hawks. The officer in charge of the air component of the operation has now retired and revealed some details about what happened that day.
One of the American helicopters involved in the mission against Osama bin Laden was chased by a Pakistani fighter jet, an eyewitness has said.
Douglas Englen, a decorated special-ops aviator who was the planner and flight lead of the operation, said his Chinook transport helicopter had been “engaged” by an F-35 while he was returning to base in Afghanistan after the raid.
“It was as an electronic fight. A missile never left the rail. So I was able to evade him electronically. That’s all I’ll say. But, he was searching and hunting for me, and three times came very close to actually launching a missile,” he told the Marine Corps Times .
Englen said the risk to the airframes was higher during the four-hour flight back to Afghanistan than it was on the objective: “It was not typical. That risk would be typical of the early days of Iraq, when we had air defense and we had to use electronic warfare tactics.”
“We felt safe (when we returned to Afghanistan),” Englen recalled, “Which is a totally weird thing to say about (a war zone) in Afghanistan.”
Englen, who retired this month as the secretary of the Army’s senior warrant adviser, revealed that he had taken part in three previous unsuccessful attempts to kill Bin Laden, then the world’s most wanted terrorist. One was in Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan in 2001, another northeast of Jalalabad in 2006, and still another close to the border with Pakistan in 2008.
Bin Laden was killed on May 1, 2011 during a raid on his compound in Abottabad, some 120 km north of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. Al-Qaeda confirmed his death days later.
According to Englen, a few people had been planning the operation for about four months, including himself. The rest of the air crew and the ground force were read into it just two and a half weeks before the mission.
Englen, who also claims to have gone after the late Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and rescued would-be Afghan President Khalid Karzai from the Taliban encirclement in 2001, said the raid on the Al-Qaeda’s leader involved two Chinook transport helicopters and two Black Hawks. The Chinooks had set up a refuel site for the Black Hawks and were on the objective as a backup.
“The use of Black Hawks was to get them (the Navy SEALs) quickly roped into the objective,” he explained. “The Chinooks were the ‘smack down force’ — the extra assaulters, extra gas in case anything were to happen — like an aircraft crash.”
One Black Hawk did crash that night; it appeared that the copter wasn’t damaged by enemy fire and exploded due to a miscalculation by its crew: Englen suggested that the air was hotter than expected and the helicopter had too much fuel. No troops were injured in the crash, but then-CIA boss Leon Panetta was angry.
“I think crashing a helicopter on one of the most important missions of our generation, and later being asked by the director of the CIA, ‘Why the hell did you crash?’ I think that’s enough said,” Englen said.
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