Health Alert Issued After Qatar Airways Passenger With Measles Traveled To Los Angeles On ThanksgivingSMU feeling good heading into ACC opener against VirginiaThe US Navy is to transform three, white elephant, stealth destroyers by fitting them with first-of-their-kind shipborne hypersonic weapons. The USS Zumwalt is at a Mississippi shipyard where workers have installed missile tubes that replace twin turrets from a gun system that was never activated because it was too expensive. Once the system is complete, the Zumwalt will provide a platform for conducting fast, precision strikes from greater distances, adding to the usefulness of the warship. “It was a costly blunder. But the Navy could take victory from the jaws of defeat here, and get some utility out of (the ships) by making them into a hypersonic platform,” said Bryan Clark, a defence analyst at the Hudson Institute. The US has had several types of hypersonic weapons in development for the past two decades, but recent tests by both Russia and China have added pressure to the US military to hasten their production. Hypersonic weapons travel beyond Mach 5, five times the speed of sound, with added manoeuvrability making them harder to shoot down. Last year, The Washington Post newspaper reported that among the documents leaked by former Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira was a defence department briefing that confirmed China had recently tested an intermediate-range hypersonic weapon called the DF-27. While the Pentagon had previously acknowledged the weapon’s development, it had not recognised its testing. One of the US programmes in development and planned for the Zumwalt is the Conventional Prompt Strike. It would launch like a ballistic missile and then release a hypersonic glide vehicle that would travel at speeds seven to eight times faster than the speed of sound before hitting the target. The weapon system is being developed jointly by the Navy and Army. Each of the three Zumwalt-class destroyers would be equipped with four missile tubes, each with three of the missiles for a total of 12 hypersonic weapons per ship. In choosing the Zumwalt, the Navy is attempting to add to the usefulness of a 7.5 billion US dollars (£5.9 billion) warship that is considered by critics to be an expensive mistake despite serving as a test platform for multiple innovations. The Zumwalt was envisioned as providing land-attack capability with an advanced gun system with rocket-assisted projectiles to open the way for Marines to charge ashore. But the system featuring 155mm guns hidden in stealthy turrets was cancelled because each of the rocket-assisted projectiles cost up to one million dollars (£790,000). Despite the stain on their reputation, the three Zumwalt-class destroyers: Zumwalt, Michael Monsoor and Lyndon B Johnson; remain the Navy’s most advanced surface warships in terms of new technologies. Those innovations include electric propulsion, an angular shape to minimise radar signature, an unconventional wave-piercing hull, automated fire and damage control and a composite deckhouse that hides radar and other sensors. The US is accelerating development because hypersonics have been identified as vital to US national security with “survivable and lethal capabilities”, said James Weber, principal director for hypersonics in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Critical Technologies. “Fielding new capabilities that are based on hypersonic technologies is a priority for the defence department to sustain and strengthen our integrated deterrence, and to build enduring advantages,” he said.
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Did the performance of the central and State governments impact on the voting preference of the voters in Jharkhand? The Lokniti-CSDS survey indicates that voting was largely based on local specificities. Further, the party preference of voters appears to influence their analysis of the performance of the central and State governments. Jharkhand Assembly elections: Full coverage Voters in Jharkhand were positive in their assessment of both the central and State governments. There was a marginally higher level of satisfaction with the central government. If one were to view net satisfaction (satisfaction minus dissatisfaction) with the two levels of government, the central government had a six-percentage point higher assessment than the State government. This assessment was largely on party lines. Two-thirds of those fully satisfied with the central government voted for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidates (68%). On the other hand, seven of every 10 persons of those fully dissatisfied with the central government favoured the INDIA coalition (Table 1). When it came to the State government, two thirds of those fully satisfied with the State government favoured the INDIA coalition, while two thirds of those fully dissatisfied with the State government voted for the NDA (Table 2). This highlights the possibility that satisfaction and vote choice may not have a ‘cause-effect’ relationship. Instead, voters’ predetermined choices shape their assessment of other issues including the performance of the governments. Other issues How did respondents assess progress on key issues? There was a lukewarm response to progress on industrialisation. There was a visible assertion about the rise of corruption in the last five years. Respondents felt that both naxal attacks and communal violence had reduced. They also felt that religious harmony remained more or less the same (Table 3). Barring corruption, the less critical assessment of the government on other key parameters could well explain the success of the JMM-led coalition. The survey also indicated the unhappiness of the respondents with rising inflation and shrinking employment opportunities. On availability of drinking water, improvement of roads, performance of government schools, supply of electricity, availability of health-care facilities and the safety of women, a majority said that these had improved or remained the same (Table 4). Thus, the absence of a strong negative reaction to the State government, save on the question of corruption, would have helped the incumbent government win another term. Sandeep Shastri is Director-Academics, NITTE Education Trust and National Coordinator of the Lokniti Network Published - November 26, 2024 01:17 am IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Jharkhand Assembly Elections 2024 / Jharkhand / government / voting / National Democratic Alliance / society / inflation and deflation / employment / health / gender / electricity production and distribution / power (infrastructure) / corruption & bribery / politics
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