Unlike most sales, arms sales have a wider impact beyond the primary parties (buyer/seller) and indeed, the recent announcement of the long sought sale of an improved S300 system to Iran by Russia has a wider circle of interested parties and corresponding impact beyond those two. First, though, we begin with the buyer. Iran – Filling…
Though it isn’t Thursday when we normally endeavor to post these updates (so sue us – ed.) it would appear that while we in the West are enjoying a typical holiday lull, those elsewhere, and in particular, in Russia are doing anything but. Item: Iran says Russia to supply new air defence system. TEHRAN (AFP)…
The clock in 1987 If you are any kind of student of national security policy and haven’t familiarized yourself with George Washington University’s excellent National Security Archives project, you really need to do so. Case in point is their latest project, the release of previously secret Soviet Politburo records and declassified American transcripts of…
A bit more about China and the Kitty Hawk deal, plus some more below the fold about another failure of Russia’s Bulava SLBM and some other aspects of the Russian defense industry. Panda Bashing? On the heels of the story of the Chinese turning away the Kitty Hawk comes that of the two minesweepers…
(see yesterday’s aticle re.the ’07 end of summer Arctic ice pack edge shrinkage – SJS) RUSSIAN NEWS AND INFORMATION SERVICE 23 OCT 07) MOSCOW. (RIA NOVOSTI POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT MAXIM KRANS) … The Arctic is rapidly becoming a scene of "competition and conflict for access to natural resources." This is how it is defined in A Cooperative…
While we have been busy over here, seems there is a bit of a dust-up that has arisen overseas between President Putin and his CGS, Yuriy Baluyevskiy centered on the INF treaty and Russia’s continued adherence in view of the proposed US European site for a portion of its ballistic missile defense system. When Secretaries…
The space race begins with the launch of Sputnik (Russian for traveler) by an indigenously developed and modified R-7 ICBM (NATO Codename SS-6 Sapwood). R-7 Семёрка/SS-6 SAPWOOD Design work began at OKB-1 (later S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia) in Kaliningrad (now Korolev) and other divisions in 1953 with the requirement for a…
Russia’s Navy Chief, Admiral Vladimir Masorin was fired by President Putin this past Thursday. In a terse announcement, Ria Novostia noted that he had "been dismissed due to length-of-service limitations." Over at the English-language daily, Moscow Times, speculation is that it came in the wake of having accepted an award from the outgoing CNO and…
PROTON-M Launch Failure Fallout On Sept 7th, a Proton-M carrying a Japanese COMSAT exploded shortly after launch from the Baikonur (aka Tyuratam) Cosmodrome, located in Kazakhstan. In doing so, over 200 tons of toxic chemicals were dumped into the atmosphere, primarily a mixture of heptyl and amyl. The toxicity is well known and, unfortunately have…
Lots to cover today: Airborne Laser (ABL) Passes Milestone Russia Declares for the Moon “by 2025” More Questions About the Bulava SLBM S-400 Triumf (SA-21) Production/Deployment Problems Second SS-27/Topol-M Battalion to Deploy By Year’s End More below the fold…
