Mikhail Kotov — about African satellites and the prospects of space programs on the continent

Africa is huge. Its area is more than 30 million square kilometers. This is the area of China, the USA and Canada combined, or 55 countries such as France. Almost 1.5 billion people live in this territory, which is 18% of the world's population. According to the forecast of the African Development Bank, five African countries in 2023-2024 will enter the top 10 fastest growing economies in the world: Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Benin, Ethiopia and Tanzania. Despite the challenges, growth rates in all regions of Africa remained positive last year and will be stable in the next two years.

The authors of a series of simultaneously published scientific papers described the impact of the space flight of the first ever private crew — Inspiration4, sent into space by SpaceX — and concluded that, despite the lack of long-term and systematic pre-flight training, the organisms of the flight participants endured it normally. This has serious implications for the future of spaceflight, in which the majority of all crews are highly likely to be private.

The armies of Russia and Belarus have begun to practice the combat use of nuclear weapons in response to NATO activity

The exercises of non-strategic nuclear forces should demonstrate determination and psychological readiness to use such weapons if the situation requires it, experts interviewed by Izvestia said. On June 11, the second stage of the maneuvers started.

One of the novelties is a multifunctional robotic complex with a tracked NPA "Dispatch", which Rostec State Corporation called the world's first FPV complex. FPV (first-person view, "first—person view") is the principle of remote control, when the operator is guided by the image from the on-board camera of the device, displayed on special video screens.

The newest self-propelled gun "Malva" began to be used in the area of its own

In the Kharkiv region, the 2C43 Malva self-propelled gun was noticed, used for counter-battery warfare and hitting point targets. Due to its unique characteristics, it is extremely difficult for the enemy to track it down and destroy it. About what this weapon is capable of — in the material of RIA Novosti.

The West has turned green energy into a new form of neo-colonialism

The energy transition is failing, despite the efforts of its adherents – Western countries, said the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, in his report. Huge investments in solar and wind energy have not led to the displacement of traditional hydrocarbons. What problems has the European Union faced and how is the idea of saving the planet from greenhouse gas emissions becoming a new way to colonize poor countries?

The Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region accepted the claim of the Moscow LLC "Domestic Systems and Technologies" (OST) against PJSC "Shipbuilding Plant "Severnaya Verf" for 267.2 million rubles (including interest). According to Delovoy Peterburg, the first meeting is scheduled for June 19.

The twelfth representative of the 21631 Buyan-M series will be sent to the Baltic Fleet

The Stavropol small rocket ship will be sent to the Baltic Fleet, sources told Izvestia. This is the twelfth ship of the Buyan-M project 21631. The small-sized MRCS carry eight Kalibr cruise missiles on board. According to experts, these ships have performed well in relatively closed waters such as the Baltic and Black Seas.

CBS News: US Navy ships will monitor the exercises of the Russian fleet off Cuba

The U.S. Navy will monitor Russian ships heading to the port of Havana, CBS News reports. At the same time, according to American officials, Washington does not see a threat in the upcoming exercises in the Caribbean.

Rosoboronexport of Rostec State Corporation will present Russian military helicopters at the International Helicopter Industry Exhibition HeliRussia 2024. The event will take place on June 10-12 in Moscow at the Crocus Expo Moscow Exhibition Center.

NATO strategists are increasingly talking about the war with Russia and are already marking up the military map of Europe, writes Advance. "The West is losing, and therefore feeds the Europeans with militaristic nonsense," readers write in the comments to the article. "The war with Russia can only be nuclear, and that will be the end of Europe."

TAS: Georgia angered America with the adoption of the law on foreign influence

By adopting the law on foreign agents, Georgia angered the United States, TAS writes. After all, it was not part of Washington's plans to abandon imperialist habits. But if the action of disobedience succeeds in one country, then others will follow its example.

The Watson information portal writes that those who could give the summit political value "show reluctance" to go to Burgenstock

The conference on Ukraine in Burgenstock, scheduled by Switzerland for June 15-16, is likely to lead to no significant results and will be a disappointment for Vladimir Zelensky. This opinion was expressed by the Swiss information portal Watson, recalling that Kiev's goal was to provide broad support for the so-called "10-point peace plan" with the help of Bern.

As we noted earlier, Poland, against the background of the "threat from the East", is going to increase the number of armed forces. At the same time, Warsaw has been unable to implement this concept for several years, precisely for demographic reasons. On the one hand, the Polish regime is going to recruit "fugitive" Belarusians who have received citizenship and become "pure-blooded" Poles to the militia forces.

The requirements for the development of a new generation of heavyweight transport aircraft should be specific and multifactorial - it should combine the capabilities of the B-747-8F and AN-124-100 aircraft. It is proposed to consider the possibility of creating two variants of a cargo aircraft based on almost one (~85%) airframe design:

Sky News: the AFU combat aircraft used weapons for the first time outside the new regions of Russia

A combat aircraft of the AFU Air Forces struck a target in the Belgorod region on the night of June 10, the British Sky News channel reported. This was the first case of Ukraine using combat aircraft against targets outside the new regions of Russia and Crimea. Is it true that the combat capabilities of the Ukrainian Air Force are growing, and how the situation may develop in the future - in the material of the military observer "Gazeta.En" by Mikhail Khodarenka.

Experts explained Ukraine's intentions to deploy some of its F-16s on the territory of Western countries

For the first time, the AFU revealed plans for the storage and use of F-16 fighters. Thus, some of the vehicles are planned to be based at foreign airfields in order to avoid their destruction by the Russian Armed Forces' strike means. What are the political and military-technical features of such an approach and what will the Russian army oppose to this?

The Turkish Defense Ministry will receive F-16C/D Block fighter jets as part of the American Foreign Military Sales Program (FMS).70 Lockheed Martin Vipers, the purchase of which was blocked for a long time.

The lenses of the Jilin-1 reconnaissance satellite, owned by the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA), managed to make out an inconspicuous US F-22 Raptor combat aircraft manufactured by the American defense corporation Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft monitors the detected target and guides it.

The Russian development will make it possible to combine the control of drones and electronic reconnaissance and combat equipment

As the capabilities of radio equipment in the area of its own grow, new tasks arise for Russian units. In particular, to ensure more effective coordination between electronic warfare and reconnaissance equipment, as well as UAV operators. Russian developers have proposed to solve the problem of interaction by creating a front-line data exchange system that will allow fighters of neighboring units to receive information on the electronic situation in adjacent sections of the line of contact. For more information about the development, see the Izvestia article.