Tag: obsolete military programs

Russia’s Underdog Achievement – High Tech / Innovative Advancements Shock USA

In a previous post, I outlined that path that the strategists in Russia have chosen since being disrespected in the 1990s by US/NATO advances in Russia’s “backyard”.

… the Russians have been quietly embarking on a strategic path toward learning from the fall of an over extended USSR and towards technological transformation to allow their “Tier 2” status not to render themselves defenseless from pressures from the outside. THIS is what defense is all about ..

This spring, Russia announced several technological advancements in various states of development that place quote a bit of the US’s military technology in early obsolescence. From this in depth article by Donald W. Miller Jr. MD at Lew Rockwell, six technological areas have been successfully realized by a country that spends only 10% what the US spends in their annual military budgets. The late John McCain as recent as three years ago in 2015 said:

“Look, Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country.”

Boy did he get this one wrong. After the US federal government released the “2018 Nuclear Posture Review: U.S. nuclear deterrence policy, strategy, and force posture” on 02FEB2018, Russia coolly waited almost a month and on 01MAR2018 released their bombshell:

President Vladimir Putin gave his annual State of the Nation speech to the Russian Federal Assembly in Moscow. The last third of his 2-hour, 13,340-word speech dealt with nuclear treaties and nuclear weapons.

As an overview to kick off this defensive method to retain sovereignty in the 21st century as nations that don’t want to end up like Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya went like this:

“Any use of nuclear weapons against Russia or its allies, weapons of short, medium or any range at all, will be considered as a nuclear attack on this country. Retaliation will be immediate, with all the attendant consequences. There should be no doubt about this whatsoever.”

This ain’t no gun-free zone. This isn’t a 3rd tier nation like Iraq with an antiquated military wrecked by sanctions, this is a 2nd tier nation who has taken the strategy to “shock-n-awe” without killing innocent people. Yet again, the US intelligence community was too busy with politics than achieving their main goal for this nation, to provide “data” so that this country will never be surprised, ideally. [NOTE: I purposely did NOT use the word “again” after that statement because the US government was NOT surprised on 11SEP2001 (WTC & Pentagon 9/11), and they were NOT surprised on 07DEC1941 with the attack on Pearl Harbor]

The first of six technological advances is the Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile.

Heavy as in the ability to place 10 tons in near earth orbit with a range that allows a trajectory that goes over the SOUTH pole on the way to the US mainland. If you ever heard of the Maginot Line in France during WWII, you know how quickly this “defense” was made obsolete by Hitler’s German military’s “trajectory”. The article states:

This new generation of thermonuclear warheads are both multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV) and maneuverable reentry vehicles (MARV). The Sarmat ICBM carries ten 750-kiloton nuclear warheads, 7.5 megatons, enough destructive power precisely dispersed to wipe out the state of Florida.

The next defensive weapon is the Kinzhal Hypersonic Missile that is launched from 60,000 feet above the earth from a high altitude aircraft like the MIG-31BM.

This missile is 26 ft. long, can accelerate to a speed of Mach 10 (7,500 mph), and executes evasive maneuvers along its flight trajectory.

Mach 10 and a 1200 mile range puts all current air defense technologies in the obsolete category.

Third on Putin’s list was the Avangard Hypersonic Glide Vehicle. The Sarmat, mentioned above, launches up to 16 of these EACH with 500 kiloton nuclear warheads. This glide vehicle’s speed is clocked at Mach 20 which is approximately 15,000 MPH.

President Putin described it this way: “It flies to its target like a meteorite, like a ball of fire. The temperature on its surface reaches 1,600-2,000 degrees Celsius [3,600 degrees Fahrenheit] but the cruise bloc nevertheless stays reliably guided.”

The fourth emerging technology that Russia will be using for its defense is a yet to be named (publicly) low-flying, terrain-hugging Nuclear Powered GLOBAL Cruise Missile. Testing from “ground-launch” site is underway

The fifth is an Underwater Nuclear Drone with a 5000 mile range at speeds of 50-80 knots and can descend to depths of 3000 feet equipped with a 2,50 or 100 megaton warhead. Placed well, these could trigger tsunamis that would generate waves ranging from 300 to over 1000 feet!

The sixth item, to be used for critical anti-missile defense is the Combat Laser which is most likely powered by a miniaturized nuclear reactor.

As a way of involving the people in these innovative technological projects, Putin invited the Russians to name these last three:

Putin invited Russians to submit names for the three yet unnamed weapons on a web portal set up for that purpose. For the underwater drone, Russians chose “Poseidon,” after the Greek god of the sea. For the nuclear-powered cruise missile, they chose “Burevestnik,” the Russian name for the Storm Petrel seabird, whose presence mariners believe foretells bad weather. And for the combat laser, “Peresvet,” after the medieval warrior monk, Alexander Peresvet, who died taking part in a 14th century battle against invading Mongols.

So, where does this leave the US military which has been spending 10x more than Russia?

The U.S. military has no such weapons—no hypersonic missiles or glide vehicles, no nuclear-powered cruise missiles or underwater drones, and no megawatt combat lasers.

The hub of America’s global navy, the aircraft carriers, are now highly vulnerable to these weapons. When you add up the the Ford-class carriers in the queue, 14 of them totaling $200B USD, you have to wonder at what point does the US military regroup and innovate, catch-up or remain in denial as to their eroding supremacy.

Beyond this, the F-35 program has proven to give the military a 2nd rate aircraft that is nowhere near the capability of the Russian SU-57. Another area where the US has failed to keep up is in their Littoral class ships that under-perform when compared to the Russian Corvette option which at half the displacement of the US equivalent, while able to launch cruise missiles (Kalibr-NK missile) up to 1500 miles away which the Littoral class can not do. In the submarine department, 4th generation Russian subs  started being deployed in 2014 and for the US it is estimated to be 2030.

The list goes on to include Russian S-400 and U.S. Patriot Missiles, Helicopters, Civil Nuclear Power .. all of these areas show significant lag on the US’s part to stay competitive.

The positive effect of this is it may keep the US Empire more humble in its reach around the world knowing that at any time, Russia could strategically and surgically strike defensively should the US arrogance play out. Bullies do tend to overplay their cards.

-SF1

When the Underdog Surprises the Main Dog (Russia & US Empire)

Via the SOUTH Pole (“Remember the French Maginot Line?”) Upper Right: Florida

The seeds of this day has been coming for 25 years, ever since the US promised Russia, in the vacuum left when the USSR peacefully split into republics, that US/NATO expansion into the vacuum would not happen.

Two things happened in the spring of 2018 that has made clear the ramifications of this move.

  • The revelations that the US under the Clinton Administration outright lied to Russia’s leader Boris Yeltsin in the period between 1991 and 1994
  • The revelations that Russia under Vladimir Putin unveiled in his 01MAR2018 address that let the world know that not just on one technological front, but on a half a dozen, that Russia has indeed check-mated the US Empire in military strategy with only 10% of the financial resources that the US had during these same two decades.

There is so much that has happened that it is essential to break this down into several posts as outlined below:

  • This post that will capture the essence of the promises made in the 1990s when the USSR unilaterally offered to end the Cold War competition and was led to believe that NATO expansion, the very item that worried the Russians the most, would not be a thing and an overview of the technological advances that the Russian military surprise the US military with this spring
  • Subsequent posts outlining these technological advances that has US military strategists wondering is if several US multi-billion dollar projects are already outdated/obsolete by the following Russian programs: RS-28 Sarmat heavy Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, Kinzhal Hypersonic Missile, Avangard Hypersonic Glide Vehicle, Burevestnik nuclear-powered precision-guided cruise missile,  Poseidon unmanned fast-moving underwater nuclear drone and an anti-missile Combat Laser –Peresvet.

I know that Americans have difficulty understanding the impact of history on current events, but those nations that have been duped by American foreign policy and treaties never forget. The USSR, a communist bastion of proud men and women, basically saw the writing on the wall that their political philosophy was not sustainable. Finances showed them in 1989 that their trajectory was unsustainable and as such, refused to lie to their peoples (many different people groups under the USSR umbrella) any longer.

Boris Yeltsin was critical to have in place at this point in time to humbly allow the transition from a communistic regime that prided itself in being a super power towards an admission that decentralized republics would best serve the people in the long term. This allowed local peoples to be more intimately involved in their destiny. Sure there was tons of corruption as the communist leadership released its grip on industry and the military let alone all the financial intricacies involved in “spin-down” of the USSR. Oligarchs are still an issue the Putin faces decades later.

One recent article that highlights what has been learned about this time of transition is from the Lew Rockwell site and is quoted below:

The new documents, compiled by the National Security Archive from US and Russian government files, show that US officials gave misguiding statements to Russian President Boris Yeltsin about plans for the expansion of NATO. They told Yeltsin that the Partnership for Peace — a NATO program to encourage military co-operation between NATO members and other Euro-Atlantic and ex-Soviet states — was an alternative to expanding NATO. At the same time they were planning to expand NATO membership while dismissing Russian officials’ concerns about being excluded from future Europe-wide security partnerships.

How many times does THIS have to happen for people all around the world to understand the rotten character of the US Empire. From treaties with the American Indians to the 21st century, it seems that the US can never be trusted. Lately, with Bin Laden (freedom fighter), Saddam Hussein (Iraq), and Qaddafi (Libya) leaders each being supported by US/CIA for years until they out-lived their usefulness and we turned on, no wonder Iran, North Korea and now China and Russia have their doubts about the “word” of the US Empire. This is exactly how bullies act.

The US dispatched vice President Gore to try to smooth things over, but when Clinton and Yeltsin met in Moscow in May 1995, Yeltsin was still concerned with the American push for NATO expansion. A record of the meeting shows that Yeltsin objected:

“I see nothing but humiliation for Russia if you proceed… Why do you want to do this? We need a new structure for Pan-European security, not old ones! But for me to agree to the borders of NATO expanding towards those of Russia — that would constitute a betrayal on my part of the Russian people.”

So for more than four years at this point, Yeltsin objects to how the US leaders were two-faced in their dealings with the Soviets and now with the new republics.

Clinton assured Yeltsin once more that any expansion would be ‘gradual, steady, measured’ and that ‘I won’t support any change that undermines Russia’s security or redivides Europe’. Ultimately the two leaders agreed that any NATO expansion would be deferred until after the 1996 Presidential elections in both of their respective countries.

By this time the damage was done, see here the effects:

Do you still believe anything that the Clintons/Bushes/US Government says?

It is obvious, especially since 2000 that the people and leadership in Russia have not stood still in waiting on the promises of the US government. Russia has emerged as an underdog in several ways and recently have received a badge of honor in being targeted with multiple sanctions for lies the US government is using to justify its actions. Whether it is election meddling (which the US government is a pro at, over 80 times since WWII) or being involved in various false flags that have the CIA fingerprints, the bully does not want its motives exposed. Probably the biggest thing Russia has done is reveal to what degree the US and other NATO powers were involved in the “color revolution” in Ukraine as well as support of ISIS in Syria. The US is accustomed to having other countries cover for them, and tipping off the world to the real US mode of operations (MOs) is something the US exceptionalism band (Republicans and Democrats) desires revenge on.

While the US/NATO has been manipulating Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Pakistan as well as countries close to the Russian border, the Russians have been quietly embarking on a strategic path toward learning from the fall of an over extended USSR and towards technological transformation to allow their “Tier 2” status not to render themselves defenseless from pressures from the outside. THIS is what defense is all about and this translates into a nationalistic pride that has Russians being solidly behind the limited external missions that Russia chooses to be involved with (i.e. Syria).

The timing of the revelations that have the US Empire back-pedaling and attempting to save face are stark and reveal once more that the US intelligence community is more involved in politics than in intelligence. Their inability to communicate what they knew about 9/11 must have clued the Russians in toward exploiting this intelligence gap! Just as the US Empire is ratcheting up sanctions and trade wars while also almost openly supporting ISIS in Syria, Russia was able to help the thinking people in this world that Russia is not weak, but that it is willing, in a controlled and strategic way to offer an alternative to the US hegemony. Russia now has China, Iran and an increasingly number of NATO nations that are willing to continue trade, and this allows Russia to be a healthy competitor to both the US military, but also to the US morals displayed yet again globally.

Each of these six technological achievements (seen in this great article **NOTE** with incorrect link naming) alone could have been big news, but that Russia dropped this bomb this spring is no accident. In subsequent posts I hope to share the significance of each one of these technological milestones as well as possible fallout in the US space for military expertise.

Apparently, the Russian strategists in the 2000s firmly believed the following: