Milei's government advances in the purchase of French submarines

The country showed its interest in acquiring Scorpene submersibles by signing a letter of intent.

 Scorpene submarine made in France.

The government of Argentine President Javier Milei took another step towards its goal of acquiring new submarines for the country's Navy with the aim of recovering an operational capacity of this force after the loss of the submarine ARA San Juan, which sank in 2017, Todo Noticias reported on Sunday.

According to the media, a few weeks ago, Argentina's Ministry of Defense managed to sign a letter of intent with its French counterparts to acquire Scorpene-class units, which means that the Latin American country showed interest in moving forward with an eventual agreement. However, the signing of a letter of intent does not yet mean that the agreement has finally been finalized. 

Previously, it was already revealed that in the 2025 Budget the Milei government made a request for debt for some 2,300 million dollars "for the recovery of submarine capacity." The minimum repayment term is three years and the Ministry of Defense would take the loan.

The Argentine government is considering buying two French Scorpene submarines, developed by the company Naval Group, at a unit cost of 500 million dollars. Its construction may take up to seven years and it is not even ruled out that the Argentine shipyard Tandanor will participate in the process.

These submarines, which are 72 meters long, have a diving depth of 300 meters, an autonomy of 78 days to carry out missions in the open sea and a payload of 18 torpedoes and missiles.

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MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree approving Russia's updated nuclear doctrine, the Kremlin reported Tuesday.

The decree, published on the Kremlin website, states that aggression by any state in a military coalition or bloc against Russia or its allies is seen as aggression by the entire bloc as a whole and aggression from a non-nuclear state, with the involvement or support of a nuclear power, will be regarded as a joint attack on Russia.

According to the document, Russia views nuclear weapons "as a means of deterrence ... which is a last-resort and forced measure," and the country is taking "all necessary efforts" to reduce the nuclear threat and prevent the escalation of interstate tensions that could lead to military conflicts, including nuclear ones.

The revised doctrine further clarifies the states and military alliances subject to nuclear deterrence. According to the decree, nuclear deterrence is aimed at potential enemies, which are defined as "individual states and military coalitions that view Russia as a potential enemy" possessing nuclear weapons or significant general-purpose military capabilities.

Nuclear deterrence is also aimed at states that allow their territory and resources to be used for aggression against Russia, the decree added.

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BEIJING, (Xinhua) -- New equipment, including the J-35A fighter jet, will debut at the 15th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, also known as Airshow China, China's Air Force announced on Tuesday.

Apart from the J-35A medium-sized stealth fighter, the HQ-19 surface-to-air missile weapon system and a new attack reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle will also be unveiled for the first time at the air show, said Niu Wenbo with the Air Force equipment department at a press conference.

The air show, scheduled for Nov. 12-17 in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, features a diverse range of activities including aerobatic displays, according to Air Force spokesperson Xie Peng.

The aircraft set to fly at the show include the J-20, J-16, and the YY-20A for refueling. The cargo hold of Y-20 aircraft will also be open to the public.

The event coincides with the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force, which falls on Nov. 11. ■

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To understand what makes a DANA so destructive, it is first necessary to understand what this phenomenon consists of. Depressions, in meteorology, are areas of low atmospheric pressure, which means that the air is denser in the surroundings than in the center of this "bubble." This imbalance of pressures is essential to generate rain, storms and strong winds.

In the case of a DANA, the situation is even more complex. This phenomenon, which is also known as a "cold drop," occurs when a mass of very cold polar air is isolated at high altitude, between 5,000 and 9,000 meters above sea level. Unlike other storms, the DANA forms in isolation from the air currents that normally regulate the climate in the northern hemisphere, such as the polar jet stream or the subtropical jet stream. This isolation allows the cold air mass to begin to interact with the warm, humid air in its surroundings, generating conditions of atmospheric instability. The orography of the Iberian Peninsula, particularly the arrangement of the mountains in the Valencia region, favors the rise of warm, humid air from the sea into the atmosphere, where it meets the cold air of the DANA. This clash between air masses in different states of temperature and humidity intensifies rainfall and generates extremely unstable conditions.

During the days of greatest activity, some areas of Valencia recorded more than 500 (mm) of water, the equivalent of a year's worth of rain in a matter of hours. This led to massive flooding that swept away entire towns and left thousands of people trapped in their homes and vehicles. The combination of heavy rain, water-saturated land, and an urban drainage system unable to handle this extreme volume of rainfall contributed to the water accumulating rapidly. It should be added that the rains were not only accompanied by thunderstorms, but also by strong winds and, in some cases, tornadoes that hit the region. The magnitude of this phenomenon led the Emergency Coordination Centre (CCE) to raise the alert level to red in several areas of Valencia, issuing warnings to the population to avoid non-essential travel. The frequency and intensity of DANAs have been increasing in recent years. A recent study by the American Meteorological Society confirms that since the 1960s, the number of episodes of this type has grown significantly in the Mediterranean, and many experts point to climate change as a fundamental factor.

Global warming raises the temperature of the Mediterranean, allowing DANAs to be more intense. The World Weather Attribution organisation, which is dedicated to analysing the effects of climate change on extreme phenomena, estimates that torrential rains of this type are now 12% more intense and twice as likely compared to the pre-industrial climate. Friederike Otto, a researcher at Imperial College London, explains that “we are seeing events from the past, but they are becoming more common and extreme due to global warming.” This phenomenon in Valencia is an example of how climate change is already affecting communities and ecosystems, and emphasizes the need to take measures to prepare for an increasingly unpredictable climate.

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