By Hollie McKay | May 11, 2021 | 6:58pm EDT
An Iranian-made ballistic missile on display at the Holy Defense Museum in Tehran. (Photo by Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)
(CNSNews.com) – As talks continue in Vienna in a bid to resume the 2015 Iran nuclear deal abandoned by the Trump administration three years ago, foreign policy observers are also raising red flags about Tehran’s expanding stockpile of conventional weapons.
In particular, the regime’s proliferation of ballistic missiles is seen as an increasing threat to America’s allies and interests in the volatile region.
Although Iran has for four decades been party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it is not a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) or The Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation.
The latest arms compliance report also contains a slight but significant change in wording from last year’s report, suggesting U.S. intelligence agencies have clarified some questions about China’s covert biological warfare work. The 2020 report said China had engaged in activities with potential military applications. The 2021 report omits the word “potential,” indicating that the finding is based on new intelligence regarding the research.
One possible source for the new information is a People’s Liberation Army doctor who defected to a European nation last year with details on Beijing’s biowarfare program. The Washington Times reported the defection in September.
China nixed biowarfare meeting as coronavirus queries increased washingtontimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtontimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
More than three decades later they remain the mainstay of the Russian nuclear attack submarine fleet.
Here s What You Need to Know: The Soviet Akulas were significantly quieter than even the Improved Los Angeles–class submarines.
The Soviet Union produced hot-rod submarines that could swim faster, take more damage, and dive deeper than their American counterparts but the U.S. Navy remained fairly confident it had the Soviet submarines outmatched because they were all extremely noisy. Should the superpowers clash, the quieter American subs had better odds of detecting their Soviet counterparts first, and greeting them with a homing torpedo. However, that confidence was dented in the mid-1980s, when the Soviet Navy launched its Akula-class nuclear-powered attack submarines. Thirty years later they remain the mainstay of the Russian nuclear attack submarine fleet and are quieter than the majority of their American counterparts.