Kwangmyong is North Korea’s national intranet launched in the early 2000s, a closed network that provides email, websites, and digital resources only within North Korea to isolate citizens from the global Internet. <li North Korea’s first internal email service, Sili Bank, was established in 2001 to enable internal electronic correspondence on Kwangmyong. The first intranet…
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In 2025, enterprise adoption of generative AI doubled to 65% of organizations, with 92% of Fortune 500 companies leveraging OpenAI’s technology. In June 2025 IBM announced fault-tolerant quantum error-correction progress and unveiled Starling, a 200-logical-qubit machine (~10,000 physical qubits) planned to be operational by 2029. CRISPR-based therapies for blood disorders are expected to receive regulatory…
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The United States fields the LGM-30G Minuteman III ICBM (silo-based) with a ~13,000 km range that carries 1× nuclear RV (W78/W87, ~335 kt) and the UGM-133 Trident II D5 SLBM (submarine-launched) with >12,000 km range capable of up to 8 MIRVs (W76/W88). The U.S. LRHW “Dark Eagle” program develops a long-range hypersonic boost-glide missile with…
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1957 – The Atoms for Peace agreement between the United States and Iran launches Iran’s civil nuclear program. 1967 – Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) is a 5 MW reactor supplied by the United States, using weapons-grade uranium fuel (93% enriched). 1968–1970 – Iran signs and ratifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT); IAEA safeguards enter force…
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Fiber-optic drones carry control commands and high-bandwidth video via a tether, delivering a 1 Gbps (1000Base-T) link with near-zero latency and immunity to RF jamming. Fiber communications were pioneered by Charles Kao in 1966 and proven practical by 1977, enabling high-bandwidth data transfer for drones. Russia deployed fiber-tethered kamikaze FPV drones in spring 2024 during…
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The F-22 Raptor is a fifth-generation stealth air-superiority fighter that first flew in 1997 and achieved Initial Operational Capability in December 2005, with 187 production aircraft completed by 2012. It can sustain supersonic flight without afterburner, achieving supercruise at speeds above Mach 1.5. In standard configuration it carries eight internally mounted air-to-air weapons: six AIM-120C…
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Starlink’s upfront CapEx was estimated at about $10 billion and later as high as $30 billion, SpaceX launched over 8,000 Starlink satellites with about 4,000 in operation by April 2025, and the service exceeded 5 million subscribers worldwide by 2025. Amazon’s Project Kuiper is a $10 billion plan for a 3,236-satellite constellation, with 27 production…
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The F-16 began as General Dynamics’ YF-16 in the USAF’s Lightweight Fighter program, with the prototype’s maiden flight in 1974 and the first operational F-16A delivered in 1979. It introduced relaxed static stability and fly-by-wire controls, enabling exceptional agility and the ability to sustain 9 g turns. The cockpit features a frameless bubble canopy for…
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The Sukhoi Su-57 Felon is Russia’s first fifth-generation stealth fighter, developed under the PAK FA program, with the T-50 prototype’s maiden flight on January 29, 2010 and the name Su-57 adopted in 2017. It measures about 20.1 m in length, 14.0 m wingspan, and 4.8 m in height, uses internal weapon bays, and employs radar-absorbing…
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In 2023, the global space economy reached $570 billion, with private/commercial ventures accounting for about 78%. In 2023 there were 221 orbital launches (the most on record), more than 2,500 satellites launched, and experts project up to 100,000 satellites in orbit within the next decade. Since 2009, investors have poured about $347.9 billion into roughly…
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