Super Power Countries of the World

1. The United States of America

United States of America is the number one super power in the world. It is the most influential country that contains the world’s strongest army and a powerful democracy, as well. United States reached to the highest powerful position after a long struggle and hard work. It is more commonly known as the Super power and it contains a highly influential media. This country is a prestigious and influential member of a number of influential bodies.

2. Russian Federation

This country contains the world’s second most powerful army and it controls several states in the Central Asian region. This country contains a large population. Due to its heavy population, it is safe from all kind of external influences on its internal politics, economic and financial issues.It can turn into a super power due to its powerful force.

3. Peoples Republic of China

This country contains the world’s 4th largest GNP. This country has received supremacy over France and Great Britain in last few years. This country contains a large and powerful army.

4. France

It is the world’s 5th most powerful country and it is the prestigious and influential member of UN Security Council. It is a nuclear power country with the influence on many African nations.

5. Britain

Britain is the member of UN Security Council and it is a powerful nuclear country. It is considered to have the world’s most stable democracy. This country influences on world politics. It is number one in music, films, media and other activities. This country is also the member of European Union.

6. Japan

Japan contains a large economy and it is one of the leading democratic power countries. This country has a large population but due to tough competition, it comes after above five countries.

7. Republic of India

This country is very popular and contains a powerful democracy. It is a rapidly growing country and it is a nuclear power.

8. Federal Republic of Germany

It contains the world’s third largest economy and it is the most influential and powerful member of the European Union. Germany lost much of its influence on world during the WWII.

9. Pakistan

Pakistan has a large population of Muslims and it is a nuclear power. It has one of the strongest world armies. It has greatly influenced by dictatorship and military interference and due to which its democracy becomes weak. This country has a great potential to grow.

10. Republic of Brazil

It is a large Latin American county, it is considered to have the world’s largest Portuguese speaking population. This country has an influential and stable media. This country has secure relations with rest of the world.

Shipwrecks and Maritime Disasters in U.S. History

Boats have been one of the most efficient ways to transport everything from vital supplies to humans throughout history. But this efficiency can come with a price, as human error and nature’s power sometimes leads to disaster. Here are the top 10 shipwrecks and maritime disasters in or near United States waters.

1. USS Arizona

Just before 8 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft from six fleet carriers attacked the heart of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet in the port of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The two attack waves destroyed or severely damaged many vessels including several of the U.S. Navy’s prized battleships: the USS Arizona, California, Oklahoma and West Virginia. The Arizona sustained eight direct bomb hits, one of which penetrated the deck and the black-powder magazine. The subsequent explosion and fire ripped through the forward part of the ship. The Arizona sank at its mooring taking the lives of 1,177 of the 1,400 sailors on board making it the greatest loss of life on any warship in U.S. history. Its fires burned for more than two days and oil continues to seep up from the wreckage to this day. In all, 2,402 Americans were killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, which came to be symbolized by the destruction of the USS Arizona.

2. SS Sultana

SS Sultana, a steamship that regularly traveled from St. Louis to New Orleans, was commissioned by the war department to transport just-released Union prisoners of war back home. The ship was legally registered to carry a maximum of less than 400 people, but with the government paying $5 per soldier, 2,300 soldiers were packed in so tightly that they could barely stand. At 2 a.m., April 27, three of the ship’s boilers exploded since they were rapidly and poorly repaired in order to get “first dibs” of the POWs. Fire quickly spread throughout the ship and those who survived jumped into the river and drowned. By the time the sun came up, more than 1,700 soldiers were dead and the Sultana sank about seven miles north of Memphis, Tennessee.

3. PS General Slocum

On June 15, 1904,  1,358 passengers boarded the ship for an annual church event up the East River. Shortly after launch, a small fire began in the forward section and within the hour, the fire had spread to a paint locker that contained gasoline and other flammable liquids. Unfortunately, the captain had not maintained any safety standards so all of the fire hoses had rotted away, the lifeboats were bolted in place, and life jackets were unusable. To make matters worse, the captain sailed into headwinds that actually spread the fire over the majority of the ship. By the time it sank off the Bronx shore, 1,021 people had died and it was New York’s largest loss of life in a single disaster until the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

4. SS Eastland

On July 24, 1915, the passenger ship SS Eastland was docked on the Chicago River in downtown Chicago preparing to depart for Lake Michigan. The ship had been chartered to take Western Electric Co. employees and their family members on a well-deserved cruise and picnic. As the 2,700 passengers boarded the ship, it began to list while still moored to the dock. Eventually, the weight caused the ship to roll onto its side, spilling hundreds of passengers into the river with the rest trapped underwater in the interior cabins. The disaster killed 844 passengers, mostly women and children. Its center of gravity was simply too high, which made it susceptible to listing.

5. Texas City Disaster

On April 16, 1947, a 437-foot French-registered vessel was docked in the port of Texas City on the Texas Gulf Coast. Known as the SS Grandcamp, its cargo included 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate that was used for fertilizer and high explosives. After a small fire started in the cargo hold, the captain ordered his men to steam out the fire in order to protect the cargo. The steam actually liquefied the ammonium nitrate and raised the temperature of the hold to 850 degrees Fahrenheit, which caused the water around the ship to boil. At 9:12 a.m., the ammonium nitrate detonated with an explosive force that shattered windows 40 miles away, ignited nearby oil refineries, destroyed hundreds of buildings and even sheared off the wings of overhead planes. The explosion, dubbed the “Texas City Disaster,” injured thousands and killed an estimated 600 people.

6. SS Central America

On Sept. 3, 1857, the ship departed from Panama with 476 passengers and three tons of gold, which included 5,200 newly minted $20 gold pieces from the San Francisco Mint. On Sept. 9, the ship was caught in a Category 2 hurricane off the Carolinas with sustained 100-mile-per-hour winds. With shredded sails, a boiler failure, and a leak in the paddlewheel, the ship began taking on water. After a failed attempt to bail the rising water, the crew flew the ship’s flag upside down (the maritime distress signal). But no one came to their rescue and the ship sank with 426 passengers on Sept. 12, 160 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The 50 remaining survivors were rescued by a Norwegian vessel five hours later.

7. USS Thresher

The USS Thresher was a 3,700-ton, nuclear-powered attack submarine commissioned in August 1961. On April 9, 1963, the Thresher sailed to an area 220 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and began a series of deep-sea trials. With a fleet of rescue ships that included the bathyscaphe Trieste, the submarine was found broken into six major sections at a depth of 8,400 feet.

8. SS Andrea Doria

On July 25, 1956, it was headed for New York near the island of Nantucket with 1,706 passengers. At the same time, the 528-foot MS Stockholm was on its transatlantic voyage back to Sweden. Unfortunately, the two ships charted similar courses at full speed completely unaware of each other’s presence. Once the ships spotted each other, it was too late and crucial errors in steering only made it worse. 1,660 passengers were rescued while 46 people died as a consequence of the collision.

9. SS Edmund Fitzgerald

On Nov. 9, 1975, the ship departed for Detroit loaded with more than 26,000 tons of iron. The Edmund Fitzgerald ran into a storm early the next morning, and by mid-afternoon, reported encountering 25-foot waves with 50-knot winds.

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank minutes later in Canadian waters 17 miles northwest of Whitefish Bay, Michigan. The entire crew of 29 went down with the ship and no bodies were recovered.

10. Exxon Valdez

On March 24, 1989, a 987-foot oil tanker, the Exxon Valdez on its way to California through Prince William Sound in Alaska. As Captain Joseph Hazelwood slept off an alcohol-induced bender below decks, his third mate steered the vessel right into Bligh Reef. The error spilled approximately 11 million gallons of crude oil, which eventually covered 1,300 miles of coastline and killed an estimated 250,000 seabirds and other marine life.

Most Expensive Vehicles of U.S. Military

1. Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit

The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, better known as the Stealth Bomber, can launch conventional and nuclear weapons against the most heavily protected enemy lines on earth thanks to its ability to evade radar detection. Originally, it was supposed to be manufactured in a run of 132, but it was so expensive that the initial 1987 order was slashed to 21. The cost of the B-2 program in 1997 was $737 million, or just over $1 billion today. Combined with procurement costs, the B-2 Spirit costs over $2 billion. The craft was first used during the Kosovo War in 1999, and it has been used successfully in Iraq and Afghanistan as well. They have also been used during the 2011 Libyan uprising, according to the BBC.No other country on earth has a larger defense budget than the United States. According to the Department of Defense, its base budget for fiscal year 2010 is over $500 billion, with another $130 billion to bolster the War on Terrorism and another $33 billion in supplemental spending on top of that. And that’s not to mention Homeland Security or nuclear arsenal maintenance.A lot of this money is spent on aircraft, tanks and ships, all of which are top – of – line and represent the furthest advances in military technology. In other words, they cost a lot of money.

2. Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey

The Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey is a versatile aircraft with vertical takeoff and landing capabilities similar to those of a helicopter. However, it’s much faster than any existing chopper and it can fly at speeds as high as those of conventional turboprop airplanes. It was first used for combat in 2007 in Iraq, and the Marine Corps intends to use them in Afghanistan by late 2011. Unfortunately, the Osprey was plagued by a series of accidents during its design and testing phase between 1991 and 2000, and during that period the aircraft was involved in multiple accidents that caused thirty fatalities. Since 2008, the Osprey program has cost $27 billion, and as of 2010, each unit has cost $67 million.

3. USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77)

Named for World War II veteran and former President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) is the final Nimitz supercarrier to be produced for the US Navy. It was commissioned in 2001 and built by Northrop Grumman for a cost of $6.2 billion.

The carrier was completed in 2009, and is docked in Virginia. At almost 1,100 feet in length, it’s one of the longest warships in the world. Its top speed is over 30 knots, which it reaches with the help of two onboard nuclear reactors. This power source is capable of keeping the ship running for more than twenty years without once having to refuel.

4. Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II

The F-35 Lightning II was developed as part of a joint program between the US, the UK and other allies known as the Joint Strike Fighter program. It was developed for use in air, ground and reconnaissance missions, it has a wingspan of 35 feet and a length of over 51 feet. Its internal fuel capacity is over 18,000 pounds and it can reach speeds of 1,200 miles per hour.

The F-35 Lightning II is armed with a 4-barreled Gatling cannon and eight types of missiles, and if all else fails, it also has a B61 nuclear bomb. The cost for one aircraft is $122 million. The US plans to purchase over 2,000 units, at a cost of $323 billion. When this deal was cut in 2001, it made Lockheed Martin the recipient of the largest military contract in history.

5. McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet

The F/A-18 Hornet was introduced by McDonnell Douglas and is manufactured by Boeing, who acquired the company in 1997. After making it maiden voyage in 1978, it was introduced in 1983 and since then, it has been used in a variety of capacities. It was used in Operation Desert Storm, and it’s the featured aircraft of the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy’s Flight Demonstration Squadron. However, its primary functions are reconnaissance and air support.

The Hornet can reach a maximum speed of 1190 miles per hour, and it can climb up to 50,000 feet in a minute. Outside of the US, the fighter is used by the armed forces of such countries as Australia, Canada and Switzerland, and it has appeared in the 1996 science fiction film Independence Day as the aircraft used to defeat the alien menace. A 2006 report by the US Navy estimated that the cost of one unit is $57 million.

6. Boeing EA-18G Growler

The Boeing EA-18G Growler is a carrier-based fighter used for electronic warfare. It can disrupt radar and jam an enemy communication system with electromagnetic radiation and directed-energy weapons. Because of its use as an electronic warfare fighter, it carries no guns, although it carries missiles for self-defense.

The Growler is a modified version of the F/A-18F Super Hornet, and it’s relatively new; it went into production in 2007 and only began operating in September 2009. The aircraft has a wingspan of over 44 feet and a length of over 60 feet. According to the US Navy, it costs $67 million to manufacture a single unit.

7. Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

The Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle had its fifteen minutes of fame when 2008 presidential candidate John McCain cited the amphibious assault vehicle as the basis for a costly program that was wasting billions of taxpayer dollars. Developed for the US Marine Corps, it is deployed at sea and transports a full marine rifle squad to shore, then operates on land with the full capabilities of a tank.

The Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle is manufactured by General Dynamics, and the cost for each unit is over $22 million. To date, the program, which is expected to be complete in 2015, has a project cost of $15 billion, $3 billion of which has already been spent. The Bowles-Simpson Commission has recommended that the program be cancelled, and Secretary of Defense Gates said in January 2011 that he believes the program should end.

8. Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeye

The E-2 Hawkeye is an airborne early warning aircraft that dates back to the 1960s. It has been upgraded to the E-2B and E-2C models when advances were made to its radar and communications capabilities, but the most recent model, the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, is the most sophisticated yet. It features a new radar system that triples the craft’s ability to monitor territory.

The E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, which took its first flight in 2007, costs $232 million to produce. It features a brand new avionics suite, complete with satellite communications capability, and the capability for midair refueling. According to Northrup Grumman, the aircraft began delivery to the US Navy in 2010.

9. Boeing C-17 Globemaster III

The C17A Globemaster III is a military transport aircraft in operation since 1993. The plane, which can drop over 100 paratroopers into a war zone at one time, has been used to move troops into Iraq and Afghanistan, and has also been used to deliver humanitarian aid and perform medical evacuations.

The price for one unit is $191 million. McDonnell Douglas developed it during the 1980s for strategic and tactical airlift, and it’s used by the militaries of the U . K . and Canada, as well as by NATO. Both the United Arab Emirates and India are planning to use the aircraft as well.

10. Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor

According to its manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, the F-22 Raptor is the best combat aircraft on earth. While this might seem tantamount to saying your son is brilliant, one look at the aircraft’s capabilities actually bears out the manufacturer’s statement. It can break the sound barrier, it can avoid detection by radar and it can shoot down cruise missiles.

Unfortunately, an Air Force budget document estimated that one unit costs $150 million, with an overall program cost of $65 billion. The high price inspired the Defense Department to call for the program’s end in 2009. The Senate voted to end it in July of that year, and when the military policy bill was signed into law three months later, funding for further production of the F-22 had been cut.