The Rise of the Second Soviet Empire

[American Patriot]

Lavrov to confirm Russian air defense system, surface missiles for Egypt, Russian Navy facilities at Alexandria

Posted by aurelius77 on November 13, 2013

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu start a two-day visit to Cairo Wednesday, Nov. 13, to wind up a major sale of advanced Russian weaponry for the Egyptian army and the Russian Navy’s access to port facilities on the Mediterranean.
debkafile’s military sources, which first revealed the coming transactions in the last week of October, now amplify that report by disclosing that Moscow has agreed to equip Egypt with a sophisticated combined double-layered system which covers both its defensive and offensive requirements.
1. The first layer will provide a shield against attack by stealth aircraft, drones and cruise missiles for all of Egypt’s airspace, including the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and its coastal waters, up to the central Mediterranean. Our military sources add that part of the system will be positioned in eastern Egypt for the protection of key Saudi cities as well.
2. The second layer will be built around sophisticated surface missiles with ranges that cover all points in the Middle East including Iran. Moscow and Cairo are keeping the types of missiles secret.
…
Egyptian officials continued Tuesday to deny reports that a Russian naval base would be established in an Egyptian port as “illogical,” saying it would “undermine the country’s independence and sovereignty.”
However, according to our sources, planning is already underway for the deployment of some 1,500 Russian military personnel in Egypt to have the new missiles up and running and local personnel trained in their use by mid-2014. A similar number of Russian naval and marine servicemen have been assigned to setting up the naval base, most probably in Alexandria.
We have learned that the visiting Russian ministers and Egypt’s rulers will also discuss permission for Russian warships to dock in Egypt’s Red Sea waters opposite the Saudi coast.

Full article: Lavrov to confirm Russian air defense system, surface missiles for Egypt, Russian Navy facilities at Alexandria (DEBKAfile)

[American Patriot]

Russia Preparing For Global Resources War

November 15, 2013 · by Fortuna's Corner · in Uncategorized
Russia Preparing for Global Resource War
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 10 Issue: 205
November 14, 2013 09:52 PM Age: 10 hrs
By: Pavel Felgenhauer


(Source: taringa.net)

In an interview aired by state TV channel Rossiya last weekend, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spelled out the three main military threats Russia is facing: international Islamist terrorism, the withdrawal of Western coalition forces from Afghanistan in 2014, and the continued expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to Russia’s borders. According to Shoigu, coalition forces “did a lot in Afghanistan” and “we have been telling our colleagues not to pull out so swiftly; it is premature.” To counter the threat, Russia will be rearming Tajikistan’s and Kyrgyzstan’s armies. The Russian 201st army base in Tajikistan has been reorganized into a division and is being reinforced. By next month, the 201st division, according to Shoigu, will be reinforced to 80 percent of manpower capacity, and next year must be fully (100 percent) manned and rearmed. Additional jets and helicopters are being deployed at the Russian airbase in Kant (Kyrgyzstan), “giving it a capacity to effectively attack targets in mountainous terrain” (http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=1152052).

While lamenting the “premature and speedy” withdrawal of Western forces from Afghanistan, Shoigu considers NATO “expansion” in other regions to, in itself to be a serious threat. Speaking last week at a defense ministry videoconference of top military commanders, Shoigu announced the deployment before the end of the year of two regiments of new mobile, multi-warhead Yars inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBM) “to sustain the balance of strategic deterrence.” The Yars ICBM will be the backbone of the land-mobile component of the Strategic Rocket forces (RVSN). An RVSN mobile missile regiment usually has ten deployed ICBMs. The Yars is specifically designed to counter the United States’ plans to develop a ballistic missile defense (BMD) system, which Russia sees as a threat (http://function.mil.ru/news_page/per...ws&_print=true).

According to Shoigu, Moscow will be “building air and naval bases, deploying combat forces to defend our national interests” in the Arctic. Bases built during the Cold War and later abandoned will be restored, according to Shoigu, on the uninhabited icy shores of the New Siberian Islands and the Franz Josef Land archipelago. Last September, under orders from the Kremlin, 150 Russian soldiers, 8,500 tons of supplies and 40 vehicles were deployed on Kotelny Island—a small stretch of barren icy tundra and part of the New Siberian Islands (between the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea)—to restore the functioning of the Temp facility, a former Soviet airbase that was abandoned in 1994 (http://function.mil.ru/news_page/person/more.htm?
id=11864973@egNews&_print=true). The troops will stay the coming polar winter on Kotelny, building themselves a home there, while repairing and extending the old runway—their only lifeline for fresh supplies to the island until the middle of next summer. A transport An-72 with a top brass military delegation headed by Deputy Defense Minister, Army-General Arcady Bakhyn landed on the Temp runway last month to observe and report on the progress to Moscow (http://nvo.ng.ru/nvoevents/2013-11-01/2_news.html).

As the Temp base is rebuilt and the runway extended, bigger planes will be able to land, possibly including strategic Tu-95 and Tu-160 bombers, which carry nuclear-tipped, long-range cruise missiles and may use Kotelny Island as a base from which they could attack potential targets in the US. It was reported this month that several Tu-95MS strategic bombers stationed permanently at the Engels airbase in the Saratov oblast on the Volga River were deployed on a temporary basis to the airbase in Kant, Kyrgyzstan—in addition to the Su-25 attack jets and Mi-8 helicopters based in Kant permanently. It was also reported that the Tu-95s performed several training sorties over the Kyrgyz Republic’s territory (http://www.ng.ru/armies/2013-11-01/1_oborona.html).

Russian concern over possible destabilization in former Soviet Central Asia, caused by an increased infiltration of radical Islamist militants from Afghanistan after the withdrawal of Western coalition forces, seems to be genuine. As such, Russia’s preparations to counter this threat also appear to be legitimate. The same aggravation about the Arctic and a rapid costly investment into military infrastructure in an uninhabited and uninviting region seems an overreaction at best, but not to the Russian government and its military command. A government program is being prepared to develop the Russian Arctic and it has a secret military component. The program cites “growing conflict potential in the Arctic” and the lack of readiness of the Russian military to “rapidly counter aggression by other Arctic nations [Denmark, Norway, Canada and the US].” Some 22 percent of Russian territory is officially considered “The Arctic zone of Russia,” producing some 5 percent of national GDP, with 1.6 percent of its population. The program to develop the Arctic until 2020 will cost some 0.6 trillion rubles ($20 billion) and must result in an increase of the Arctic’s share of national GDP to 14 percent (http://regulation.gov.ru/project/920...&stage_id=5393).

Russian leaders believe the Arctic is a new frontier with powerful growth potential that hostile foreign powers want to forcibly annex or otherwise refute Russian access to. Speaking last February in Moscow, Colonel General Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s first deputy defense minister and the chief of the General Staff, spelled out the military’s belief in an imminent threat of a future world war between leading powers for access to dwindling natural resources needed to feed a growingly impoverished world (http://ria.ru/defense_safety/2013021...#ixzz2kcNQmD3B). This Malthusian assumption seems to be the basis of strategic military planning in Moscow today and the main rationale of its present costly rearmament programs. Russia, with its abundance of oil, gas, other natural resources and an under-populated landmass—though mostly not particularly hospitable—could become a target of aggression of invading foreign armies from all directions.

Greenpeace activists were arrested last September when Russian special Federal Security Service (FSB) troops boarded their Arctic Sunrise research icebreaker in the Pechora Sea, where the environmentalist organization was protesting Arctic oil drilling by a Gazprom oil rig. The 28 activists and two reporters that were on the Arctic Sunrise have been jailed, initially charged with piracy and later with hooliganism, facing up to seven years in prison, if found guilty. Despite repeated calls by foreign and Russian dignitaries and human rights organizations for a speedy release from custody of the Greenpeace prisoners, this week they have been transferred by a special prison rail wagon from the northern port of Murmansk to St. Petersburg, where they were distributed to different pre-trial detention centers (http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131112/184...urg-Jails.html). The Russian authorities see the Greenpeace activists as the vanguard of a Western aggression force, preparing to take away “our Arctic” and are effectively treating them as a terrorist threat and seem unready to extend any clemency when the future of Russia (in their understanding) is at stake. According to polls, the majority of Russians support the authorities’ treatment of the Greenpeace prisoners (http://www.newsru.com/russia/11nov20...ace_print.html).

[more]

Senior Fellow Vladimir Socor Delivers Remarks on Social Media at Baku Forum Conference

Jamestown Foundation Senior Fellow Vladimir Socor provided remarks on “The New Social Media in Transitional Societies: Politics, Ethics, Responsibility” at the Baku International Humanitarian Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan,…

http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_...1#.UoYZPeKcsdw

[vector7]

Newly Developed Russian Winter Camouflage

November 15 2013 at 3:19 AM

[Ryan Ruck]

Looks like a decent camo pattern.

I'm partial to the French snow camo...



and German snow camo...

[American Patriot]

Makes a mess when you shoot that shit though.... Blood stands out all over the place on white.

[vector7]

Russia's Military Shows Its Might to Europeans
04 December 2013 | Issue 5270
By Andrew Foxall



More than 20 years after the end of the Cold War, one might have thought that Russia no longer viewed the West as its primary military target. Alas, this is not the case. While Russia's recent military exercises in Eastern Europe have gone largely unnoticed, they reveal that Russia still sees the West as a threat.

Russia's Zapad-2013 military exercises, held jointly with Belarus, took place in September. In theory, the exercises were a counterterrorism operation targeting "illegal armed groups." In practice, they were oriented toward fighting a large-scale war against conventional armies in Europe. And the language that Russia used toward NATO in the buildup to the exercises was highly charged. NATO, it was said, is an enemy because of its pursuit of a ballistic missile defense system and its continuing expansion.

Compared to Russia's previous military exercises — such as Zapad-2009, which envisaged three NATO-like brigades invading western Russia and culminated with a simulated nuclear strike on Warsaw, — the Zapad-2013 exercises demonstrated a significant improvement in Russia's ability to mobilize and deploy its armed forces.

It is likely that this improvement will continue. Russia's military budget increased by 26 percent this year, and Russia plans to spend $755 billion over the next decade increasing its technological capabilities.

Zapad-2013 should not be seen in isolation. Last month, five Russian warplanes staged simulated bombing attacks on Lithuania, Poland and Sweden. In April, meanwhile, two Russian Tu-22M3 bombers simulated an aerial assault on two military targets in Sweden, one of which was near the country's capital Stockholm. These developments point to an emboldened and increasingly confident Russia reasserting its global presence through hard power.

While Russia's military leaders openly claim that the country is surrounded by enemies who seek to destroy it, the Kremlin has threatened the independence and sovereignty of Lithuania, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and Armenia over recent months.

European security cannot be taken for granted. NATO's own military exercises in Eastern Europe in early November, which were their largest live-fire exercises in seven years, help give the continent a sense of security.

A generation after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the specter of Russia's military is again haunting Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. It should be a matter of grave concern in Western capitals.

[vector7]

Bad News for U.S. Warplane Pilots: Russia’s New Dogfighting Missile Can’t Miss

Moscow’s new active-array missile could be the most accurate ever

David Axe in War is Boring


Photo from militaryrussia.ru

• David Axe in War is Boring

By combining two existing technologies, Russian engineers have devised what could be the world’s deadliest air-to-air missile. And the U.S. military doesn’t have anything like it … or adequate defenses.

Designers at the Detal bureau, part of the state-owned Tactical Missile Munitions Corporation, added an active electronically-scanned array radar—a so-called “AESA”—to the nose of a long-range R-77 missile to produce the K-77M model. Thanks to its new guidance sensors, the K-77M is way more accurate than other missiles.

How accurate? Flying 40 miles or more, the K-77M should be able “to maintain lock on even the most agile maneuvering target,” according to one scientist and defense specialist in the Pacific region whose country’s laws prohibit him from speaking on the record about weaponry. In light of the scientist’s expertise, War is Boring agreed not to publish his name.

With enough funding, the K-77M could enter service as early as 2015, in time to be fitted to the first combat-ready versions of Russia’s new stealth fighter, the powerful T-50. The combination of T-50 and K-77M could match or even best America’s own F-22 stealth fighter, which is fast and hard to detect but lacks an advanced air-to-air missile.

And the T-50 with its new munition is sure to vastly outclass the U.S. F-35, a smaller, less capable stealth fighter meant to comprise the bulk of the American warplane fleet in coming decades.

[IMG]https://d262ilb51hltx0.cloudfront.net/max/768/1*vixtNbZPowvsp_gm6kIhtw.jpeg[/IMG]

An older-model R-77 missile being launched. Via Air Power Australia

Smarter missile

Traditional air-to-air missiles include a small mechanical radar antenna in the nose. These mechanical radar missiles have a major weakness that occurs in the final seconds before the munition reaches its target.

“The angular motion—and specifically the angle rate of antenna movement as the missile closes on the target—can be so high that the seeker cannot keep up and the target slips out of the antenna beam, causing missile lock to be broken,” the scientist explains.

In other words, if a pilot turns quickly in any direction right before a missile hits his plane, he stands a good chance of slipping outside the field of view of the missile’s radar, causing it to fly harmlessly away. The inability of most munitions to cope with violent maneuvers helps explain why radar-guided air-to-air missiles typically have very low hit rates.

But the K-77M could change all that. Gone is the mechanical array. In its place, Detal’s engineers have added what Russia Today describes as “a large number”—possibly hundreds—of individual digital arrays, each pointing its own radar beam essentially at the speed of light.

“Each cell receives only a part of the signal,” RT reports, “but once digitally processed, the information from all cells is summarized into a ‘full picture,’ enabling the K-77M missile to immediately respond to sharp turns of the target, making interception practically inevitable.”

That’s not hyperbole, according to the scientist. “Because an AESA or phased array is steered electronically, the antenna beam can be adjusted in direction several thousand times per second and is not limited in angle rate, thus allowing an AESA-equipped missile to maintain lock.”

Considering the huge advantage an active-array missile has over older munitions, it’s perhaps surprising that Russia is the only country developing one. Amid budget reductions, the U.S. and Europe have essentially stopped investing in new seekers for air-to-air missiles. Almost all of America’s aerospace capital is being poured into fixing problems with the F-35 as well as developing a new stealth bomber.

But Russia typically exports its missile technology to China—and the K-77M should be no exception. “We should not be surprised to see the AESA seeker sold to China for use in Chinese-built PL-12 [missile] in 2015 or 2016,” the scientist warns.

To survive a dogfight with a foe armed with K-77Ms, an American plane needs to be stealthier or employ better radar jamming, the scientist advises. Considering the F-35's many design compromises, U.S. stealth technology probably reached its pinnacle with the F-22, which ended its production run two years ago.

And as for jamming … the Pentagon for years has struggled to develop new electronic countermeasures, with the Air Force in particular having all but abandoned electronic warfare in favor of spending more money on stealth.

[vector7]

Obama Pursues "Reset" While Putin Pursues "Get Set"

Rebeccah Heinrichs

July 9, 2012 at 10:00 am



As reported by Bill Gertz, on the day Americans were celebrating our independence, Moscow dispatched bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons into the U.S. air defense zone on the Pacific Coast.

This was not a fluke. It was the second incident in two weeks, and it has actually been going on for a while.

In 2007, Russia began flying nuclear-capable bombers into air zones identified by the U.S., NATO, and Japanese as air defense zones. Indeed, according to October 2011 testimony by Mark Schneider before the House Armed Services Committee, since February 2007, Russian high-level political and military leaders have made an unprecedented number of nuclear threats, including, remarkably, about 15 nuclear-targeting and preemptive nuclear attack threats.

The Russian media routinely report that Moscow is conducting regional military exercises involving simulated nuclear weapons strikes against the U.S., NATO, and China.

Nuclear deterrence depends on a foe’s belief that its enemy is willing and able to employ nuclear weapons. Russian President Vladmir Putin understands this and has made nuclear weapons the centerpiece of Russian foreign policy. Nuclear weapons embolden Russia to push back and undermine U.S. foreign policy objectives throughout the world.

The Obama Administration, however, continues to take “the world” down the path to zero nuclear weapons by eliminating or failing to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal and to pursue “reset” with Russia while Moscow undermines, insults, embarrasses, and threatens to nuke the U.S. and our allies.

Indeed, if the U.S. continues along the current path of disarmament, the best the U.S. can hope for is strategic nuclear parity with Russia. If the U.S. continues to disarm while Russia is permitted to retain its overwhelming 10-to-1 advantage over the U.S. in short-range nuclear weapons, Russia will certainly attain overall nuclear superiority over the U.S.

Clearly, the Russians don’t believe that the U.S. is willing to do whatever is needed to protect and defend itself and its allies, and it’s possible our allies are beginning to doubt this as well. It is past time for an about-face in U.S. relations toward Russia and in U.S. nuclear deterrence strategy.

The U.S. commander in chief should make perfectly clear that he is in fact willing and able to do whatever is required of him to protect and defend the U.S. and its allies and has at his disposal a credible nuclear force capable of conveying this message.

[American Patriot]

Russia will go on the offensive in then next 2 years. Obama's got three years left.

Then Russia will actively incite the next President who ever that might be.

[Ryan Ruck]

Putin Recalls 'Romantic Years' Of Soviet Youth

October 29, 2013

The Soviet Union may be long gone but President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB spy, has revealed that he retains fond memories of the Communist Party's youth wing.

Putin spoke on the eve of the 95th anniversary of the establishment of the Komsomol, the youth division of the Communist Party, marked on Tuesday.

"This anniversary is an important date in the history of our state, in the lives of millions of people both in Russia and far outside its borders," Putin said in a statement.

The Russian strongman waxed nostalgic, saying memories of one's Komsomol youth united people from all walks of life, from scientists and public figures to artists and war veterans.

"Because Komsomol is not only politics, it's true friendship and love, student years and the romanticism of new roads, common goals and dreams and the most important -- being part of the fate of your homeland," he said on Monday.

Komsomol, an abbreviation of the All-Union Lenin Communist Union of Youth (known in Russian as the VLKSM), was established in 1918, a year after the Bolshevik Revolution.

Membership in the organisation was considered a stepping stone to top jobs, and several generations wore red Komsomol pins featuring Lenin's profile as a badge of honour.

The Soviet leadership cleverly harnessed the enthusiasm of Komsomol youth to build badly needed infrastructure like the monumental Baikal-Amur railroad.

Putin expressed hope that modern youth groups would find the "time-tested VLKSM traditions" useful in their work.

He once famously said that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century."

Since coming back to the Kremlin for a third term last year, he sharpened his patriotic rhetoric in a bid to rally support after huge protests against his decade-long rule.[/indent]

[Avvakum]

Putin Recalls 'Romantic Years' Of Soviet Youth

October 29, 2013

The Soviet Union may be long gone but President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB spy, has revealed that he retains fond memories of the Communist Party's youth wing.

Putin spoke on the eve of the 95th anniversary of the establishment of the Komsomol, the youth division of the Communist Party, marked on Tuesday.

"This anniversary is an important date in the history of our state, in the lives of millions of people both in Russia and far outside its borders," Putin said in a statement.

The Russian strongman waxed nostalgic, saying memories of one's Komsomol youth united people from all walks of life, from scientists and public figures to artists and war veterans.

"Because Komsomol is not only politics, it's true friendship and love, student years and the romanticism of new roads, common goals and dreams and the most important -- being part of the fate of your homeland," he said on Monday.

Komsomol, an abbreviation of the All-Union Lenin Communist Union of Youth (known in Russian as the VLKSM), was established in 1918, a year after the Bolshevik Revolution.

Membership in the organisation was considered a stepping stone to top jobs, and several generations wore red Komsomol pins featuring Lenin's profile as a badge of honour.

The Soviet leadership cleverly harnessed the enthusiasm of Komsomol youth to build badly needed infrastructure like the monumental Baikal-Amur railroad.

Putin expressed hope that modern youth groups would find the "time-tested VLKSM traditions" useful in their work.

He once famously said that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century."

Since coming back to the Kremlin for a third term last year, he sharpened his patriotic rhetoric in a bid to rally support after huge protests against his decade-long rule.[/indent]

"This anniversary is an important date in the history of our state, in the lives of millions of people both in Russia and far outside its borders,"

Ah, an unconcious slip, that Putin sees a continuity between the Bolshevik Regime and the 'Russia' of today, which is nothing but a 'Potemkin Village' to fool people within and without it's borders.

[American Patriot]

Ukraine is protesting getting back to the old days of the Soviet Union. Think they are "getting it"?

And thus Russia just did this:

Putin to Shut RIA in Overhaul of Russian State News Coverage

By Evgenia Pismennaya & Scott Rose - Dec 9, 2013 9:17 AM MT


President Vladimir Putin unexpectedly revamped Russian state-controlled print and radio news media, abolishing the RIA Novosti wire service and naming an outspoken television presenter to lead its successor.


Dmitry Kiselyov, a deputy director of Russia’s state television and radio holding VGTRK and a host of a weekly news program on the Rossiya 1 television channel, will head the newly formed agency, called Rossiya Segodnya or Russia Today, according to a document signed by Putin and published on the Kremlin’s website today.


“Today attitudes in the world toward Russia aren’t fair,” Kiselyov said in televised remarks. “Restoring a fair attitude toward Russia” is the goal of the new agency, he said.


Putin’s decision to eliminate the news agency founded days after Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 clears the deck for Kiselyov, Putin’s vocal backer who has drawn criticism for comments about gays and Ukrainian anti-government protests. The consolidation in the industry follows billionaire Vladimir Potanin’s sale of his media business last month to an OAO Gazprombank-backed group.


Putin has been criticized for rolling back press freedoms by working to centralize power and increase state ownership of mass media and the country’s biggest companies. Russia was ranked 148th among 179 countries in a 2013 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, a monitoring group based in Paris.
No Accident

“There’s been a consolidation in the media that’s involved in outwardly directed propaganda,” Boris Makarenko, deputy director of the Moscow-based Center for Political Technologies, said today by phone. “The holding’s new boss wasn’t an accidental choice. They’ve taken a person with the ethos of a Soviet-era propagandist, not a journalist.”


Kiselyov drew the ire of Ukrainian protesters for his coverage of anti-government demonstrations in Kiev, which confused the chronology of events that culminated in demonstrators being beaten by Berkut special police. He’s also spoken out in favor of a ban on gays donating blood or organs.


Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, declined to comment. The government will have a working meeting to discuss the implementation of Putin’s order, said Natalya Timakova, spokeswoman for Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.


The primary purpose of the new agency will be “to provide information on Russian state policy and Russian life and society for audiences abroad,” according to the decree.
Kiselyov’s ‘Oscar’

A protester in Kiev yesterday interrupted a broadcast by television broadcaster Rossiya 24, part of the network that employs Kiselyov, to hand the correspondent a statue in the shape of an Oscar. The man asked the reporter to deliver it to Kiselyov for his “lies and drivel” about the mass rallies gripping the former Soviet republic.


Putin decided to create the news agency to ensure “more rational use” of budget funds spent on the media, as well as to “improve the effectiveness of state news media,” said Sergei Ivanov, head of the presidential administration, the Interfax new service reported.


“Russia conducts an independent policy and firmly defends its national interests,” Ivanov was cited as saying. “That’s not easy to explain to the world, but it can and must be done.”


The new agency will also include the Voice of Russia radio station, according to the order. Its relationship to RT, the state-run television station previously known as Russia Today, wasn’t clear from the order.


Federal budget spending on RIA Novosti rose to as much as 3.18 billion rubles ($97 million) in 2011, from 1.07 billion rubles in 2008, the Kommersant newspaper reported on its website. The budget’s outlays this year equaled 2.97 billion rubles.


To contact the reporters on this story: Evgenia Pismennaya in Moscow at epismennaya@bloomberg.net; Scott Rose in Moscow at rrose10@bloomberg.net



To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net

[American Patriot]

Russian Military to Recruit 500,000 Professional Soldiers by 2022

Russia prioritizes full manning of airborne, special forces, naval infantry and peacekeeping units
© RIA Novosti. Andrei Alexandrov


20:57 10/12/2013
Tags: conscript, Russian Armed Forces, Russia’s Airborne Forces (VDV), Defense Ministry, Sergei Shoigu, Russia

• New organizational structure of the Russian Armed Forces

MOSCOW, December 10 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s military will have 500,000 soldiers serving on professional contracts within a decade, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday.


Half of the armed forces will be made up of professional service personnel by 2022 under plans to shift away from conscripts and more than double the number of contract soldiers from the present 220,000.


But Shoigu also acknowledged at an expanded meeting of the Defense Ministry Board that Russia’s armed forces are currently short of nearly one in five troops.


“At present, the Russian military has 82 percent of the required manpower,” Shoigu said.


“We have prioritized full manning of airborne, special forces, naval infantry and peacekeeping units, including those involved in ensuring security during the Winter Olympics in Sochi.”


Russia is undertaking major reform of the military that includes plans to spend $650 billion by 2020 on new equipment and a transition from a conscript army to a largely professional force.


But it has struggled with a shortage of recruits as a result of draft dodging and a shrinking pool of eligible conscripts. Draft evasion and demographic decline have forced the Defense Ministry to halve the number of conscripts in five consecutive recruitment periods since autumn 2011.


The military needs to enrol about 300,000 men during each draft to keep the number of personnel at the required level of 1 million. All Russian men between the ages of 18 and 27 are obliged by law to perform one year of military service.


Shoigu said the Defense Ministry would continue the practice of large-scale snap-alert drills in 2014 to check the combat readiness of the armed forces.


The Russian military has held six surprise inspections of combat readiness and most of the 750 planned army-level exercises since the beginning of this year.


Shoigu said the exercises helped create a realistic picture of the current state of the Russian armed forces and adjust arms procurement plans for various branches of the military.

[vector7]

Russia Warns of Nuclear Response to US Global Strike Program




MOSCOW, December 11 (RIA Novosti) – A senior government minister warned Wednesday that Russia could retaliate with a nuclear strike if a new US military strategy threatened its security.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that Russia was “preparing a response” to plans by the United States to develop a new fast-strike weapons platform capable of hitting high-priority targets around the globe.

He told the State Duma that the development of a global strike program was “the most important new strategy being developed by the United States today.”

“They may experiment with conventional weapons on strategic delivery platforms, but they must bear in mind, that if we are attacked, in certain circumstances we will of course respond with nuclear weapons,” Rogozin said.

He stressed that Russia cannot ignore the development of high-precision hypersonic weapon systems. Rogozin’s comment came a day after President Putin announced that 40 new Yars (SS-29) Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) would be added to Russia’s nuclear arsenal in 2014.

The US administration under President George W. Bush considered the idea of a global strike capability, but abandoned the project over fears that launching an ICBM with a conventional warhead might accidentally trigger a nuclear war.

[vector7]

Russia to allocate $8 billion to build space center in Far East

Topic: Russian space programs



Vladimir Popovkin visiting the area where the Vostochny space center will be constructed

© Photo The Government of the Amur Region

07:04 11/08/2011
MOSCOW, August 11 (RIA Novosti)

Related News

• Putin urges Ukraine to join new Russian space center project
• Putin stresses importance of new Far East space center (Update 1)
• All Russia’s manned space flights to use new facility by 2018
• Russia allocates 24.7 billion rubles for new space center in Far East

Russia will allocate about 250 billion rubles ($8.4 billion) to build the Vostochny space center in Far East, the head of the country's space agency Roscosmos said on Thursday.

Russia currently uses two launch sites: Baikonur in Kazakhstan, which it has leased since the end of the Soviet Union, and Plesetsk in northwest Russia.

So far ground infrastructure, as well as technical and launch complexes are being designed, Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin said in an interview with the Kommersant daily.

"About 250 billion rubles are to be allocated for the construction," he said.
The Russian government earlier said it intended to spend 24.7 billion rubles (around $800 million) during the first three years of the construction of the space center, billed as a "new stage in the development of Russian cosmonautics."

The construction of Vostochny is scheduled to begin this year and end in 2016, with the first rocket launch to take place in 2015 and the first manned flight due in 2018.

The vast facility in the Amur Region will eventually include two launch pads, a training center and oxygen and hydrogen generation plants.

Popovkin also said the agency is currently studying space launch insurance, following the loss of three Glonass satellites last December. The satellites, meant to conclude the formation of Russia's Glonass navigation system, were lost when a Proton-M carrier rocket veered off course and crashed in the Pacific Ocean in December.

"The idea is to include the insurance into the satellite's cost. This is worldwide practice. But every case will be considered individually," Popovkin said. "We plan to select a group of insurance companies, from which we would choose a suitable one to insure our risks."

According to expert estimates, the losses from the failed launch could stand at about 2.5 billion rubles ($840 million).

250 billion rubles = $8.4 billion USD

I see that as a sign of things to come....

Russia speeds up work on Angara rocket base

11 December 2013

MOSCOW, December 11 (RIA Novosti) – Construction of a launchpad in northern Russia for the long-delayed Angara rocket will be completed ahead of previous estimates, the country's defense minister has said.

“We have implemented a monitoring system and reduced the construction backlog of the Angara launch facility at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome by three to six months,” Sergei Shoigu said.

He made the statement at a meeting of senior military figures in Moscow on Tuesday attended by President Vladimir Putin to discuss military procurement plans for 2014.

Development of the Angara rocket began in 1995. The maiden launch, originally scheduled for 2008, has slipped several times and is now slated for mid-2014. The first Angara was shipped to Plesetsk, in the northwestern Arkhangelsk Region, in May 2013, the Russian space agency said.

Built by the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, Angara has a modular design allowing it to launch payloads in a range of weight classes.

A variant known as Angara-5 will be launched from a new space launch complex known as Vostochny that Russia is constructing in the Far Eastern Amur region, according to a Russian space agency tender announced in July 2012.

Moscow wants the new cosmodrome to reduce its reliance on its main Baikonur facility, which it leases from Kazakhstan.

In August, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin described delays in the construction of Vostochny as “sabotage.”

[vector7]

Russian Official Says Nukes Are A Good Response To US Conventional Strike

Dec. 11, 2013, 11:47 AM


AP Dmitry Rogozin

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian Cabinet member says Moscow has reserved the right to use nuclear weapons in response to a conventional strike. Wednesday's comments by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin carried by Russian news agencies reflected Moscow's concern with prospective U.S. weapons.

Weapons that have been developed in the U.S. under the so-called "prompt global strike" program would be capable of striking targets anywhere in the world in as little as an hour with deadly precision. Russia, which has lagged far behind in developing such weapons, has described them as destabilizing.

Without naming the U.S., Rogozin said that those who "experiment with non-nuclear strategic weapons" should remember that "if we come under attack, we will undoubtedly use nuclear weapons in certain situations."

He described nuclear weapons as a "great equalizer.

[American Patriot]

Well, on the bright side, we won't attack Russia "first". They will have to do something stupid.

[vector7]

Companion Threads:

• Chinese PLA official to Australia: Choose between us or America
  
• Russia, China Plan New Joint Military Exercises

2:17 permalink Russia, China to boost military cooperation

Moscow and Beijing will work to bring cooperation between the two countries' armed forces “to a new level,” Chinese President Hu Jintao has said. President Vladimir Putin, who is visiting China, also said on Tuesday after a meeting with Hu that Russia and China will maintain relations between defense ministries, including a joint initiative to boost security in the Asia-Pacific region. Putin said that recent joint naval exercises were held in the Yellow Sea, “and they were the first of such exercises.” He added the two leaders had agreed that such cooperation will continue.

Chinese PLA treats Russian army as elder brothers

2013-08-19 — Russian and Chinese servicemen completed the joint antiterror exercise Peace Mission-2013 in Chelyabinsk Region that run through August 15. Lt-Gen Viktor Sevostyanov, commander of the Russian Air Force and Air Defence Force Second Command, told ITAR-TASS news agency how the experience gained during the drill will be taken into consideration by the Russian military’s combat training system.

Itar-Tass: Did the Russian servicemen gain a positive experience from the exercise?

Sevostyanov: The Chinese servicemen were cheering each other on, working as a team and generally being quite good at what they were doing.


Russian General gives a hug to his Chinese counterpart

The Chinese counterparts’ example motivated the Russian servicemen to teamwork. They made the effort to act as a single big and friendly family.

This means that there certainly was a positive experience, and that the formula I have invented actually works, including during such major drills.

Itar-Tass: Do you believe this esprit de corps will last, and will be adopted elsewhere in the Russian Army?

Sevostyanov: We will certainly do our best to use the morale demonstrated during the exercise as the foundation for our future personnel training efforts.

The very fact that Peace Mission 2013 was held in Russia’s Central Military District is a great achievement in and of itself.

The Chinese army aviation aircraft flew more than 4,000 km to attend the drill. We learnt to understand and work together with our Chinese colleagues.

I had attended several previous Peace Mission exercises, including the one held in China in 2009, so I have something to go on when appraising this latest drill.

According to my observations, the Chinese servicemen hold us in great respect and treat us as elder brothers. You can tell from the way they speak to us.

They have adopted a lot from the Soviet Army traditions, including with regard to personnel training. This was evident during the practical phase of Peace Mission 2013. The Chinese followed Soviet field manuals to the letter.

As for aviation, the Russian and Chinese pilots managed to attain complete synergy, even though the drill turned into a competition of sorts for them.

I believe that the Russian pilots’ performance was totally satisfactory; they had managed to eliminate the shortcomings revealed during the preparatory sorties.

Itar-Tass: How did you deal with the language barrier?

Sevostyanov: It is true that finding a common language with the PLA servicemen was the hardest part of our preparations for the drill and the exercise itself.

However, despite the obvious differences between the two languages, there exist several Chinese hieroglyphs and Russian words which are understandable to the respective counterpart, including to pilots. For example, the Russian and Chinese terms for “take off” are understood by the other country’s pilots.

They know the sequence of actions that has to follow this short order. The word “take off” may mean nothing to you but to servicemen, it means the aircraft’s acceleration from the beginning of the take-off run to the climbout.

Therefore, when the interpreter said that we were now discussing the take-off procedure, the servicemen understood what was going on.

Of course, in personal communication we sometimes had to exercise patience when trying to understand our Chinese colleagues. For example, when asked what time it is they will reply in a good two dozen words.

This is because they have to convey to you that 2000 hours, for example, is well into the afternoon but not entirely nighttime yet. There is no single term in Chinese that would describe 2000 hours.

Another problem is that Chinese underuse gesticulation. I experienced this personally when travelling with a Chinese driver and no interpreter. I attempted gestures to tell the driver to stop the vehicle but nothing happened.

Itar-Tass: What other difficulties did you encounter during the drill?

Sevostyanov: The two armies’ different units had just one hour to demonstrate their combat potential. In real life, an antiterror operation of this kind would last for several days.

Our hardest task was to coordinate the actions of the joint force, align the schedule of strikes, and fit the plan for joint actions into 60 minutes. We could not have accomplished this objective without extensive preparations.

Itar-Tass: How effective did the antiterror operation prove?

Sevostyanov: It is of great importance to the Chinese military that the drill was conducted jointly with the Russian Armed Forces. China is willing and ready to learn from us.

The PLA looks up to us, not to NATO armies. China would not stage a similar exercise with NATO troops. This friendship is beneficial to our army, since we have an extensive border with China.

We have a lot in common, despite the linguistic and cultural differences. We have established a good dialogue; we have common goals and objectives.

In my opinion, joint counteraction to terrorisms represents a very promising aspect of cooperation between the Russian and Chinese armed forces; this is something we are going to develop in future.

If we get caught up into a skirmish in the region, Russia will strike without warning.

This is my own prediction. They WILL "strike without warning". They are biding their time to do so and it won't be a little tactical nuke, it will be a major strike on many facilities in Europe, Asia and even on US soil.

[vector7]

What is Russia planning to do that would provoke a military response?

In essence they are saying any response will give them the right to respond with a nuclear strike.

In fact they have said...

Report: Russia to allow pre-emptive nuclear strikes

Oct 14 11:09 AM US/Eastern
By DAVID NOWAK
Associated Press Writer



MOSCOW (AP) - A top Russian security official says Moscow reserves the right to conduct pre-emptive nuclear strikes to safeguard the country against aggression on both a large and a local scale, according to a newspaper interview published Wednesday.

Presidential Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev also singled out the U.S. and NATO, saying Moscow's Cold War foes still pose potential threats to Russia despite what he called a global trend toward local conflicts.

The interview appeared in the daily Izvestia during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, as U.S. and Russian negotiators try to hammer out a nuclear arms reduction treaty by December. It also came amid grumbling in Moscow over U.S. moves to modify plans for a missile shield near Russia's borders rather than ditch the idea outright.

Patrushev said a sweeping document on military policy including a passage on preventative nuclear force will be handed to President Dmitry Medvedev by the end of the year, according to Izvestia.
Officials are examining "a variety of possibilities for using nuclear force, depending on the situation and the intentions of the possible opponent," Patrushev was quoted as saying. "In situations critical to national security, options including a preventative nuclear strike on the aggressor are not excluded."

The proposed doctrine would allow for the use of nuclear weapons "to repel an aggression with the use of conventional weapons not only in a large-scale but also in a regional and even local war," Patrushev was quoted as saying. He said a government analysis of the threat of conflict in the world showed "a shift from large-scale conflicts to local wars and armed conflicts."

"However, earlier military dangers and threats for our country have not lost significance," he was quoted as saying. "Activity on receiving new members into NATO is not ceasing. The military activity of the bloc is being stepped up. U.S. strategic forces are conducting intensive training on using strategic nuclear weapons."

Russian military analysts said the hawkish former domestic intelligence chief's remarks were mostly muscle-flexing for show, because what he revealed about the proposed new doctrine suggests it differs little from the current one.

One independent analyst, Alexander Golts, said current policy already allows for a nuclear strike to repel an aggression of any sort. Another, Pavel Felgenhauer, said that effectively allows for a pre-emptive strike because the type of aggression that would warrant such a strike is not clearly defined.

Russia' NATO envoy, Dmitry Rogozin, argued the proposed doctrine does not contradict arms reduction efforts. "We are moving toward a reduction in nuclear arsenals," he told Ekho Moskvy radio.
Still, Patrushev's focus on local conflicts could rattle Georgia, the small neighbor that Russia routed in a five-day conventional war with Russia last year.

Analysts also said his description of the proposed policy shows Russia's growing reliance on nuclear arms as its conventional arsenal decays and unpopular military reforms stall. Observers say the war with Georgia exposed frailties in Russia's military, adding urgency to planned reforms.

In a symptomatic setback, a scheduled test launch of the new Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile—which has failed in seven of its 11 test launches so far—was postponed, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported. The Bulava has been billed as the future of Russia's nuclear arsenal.

Followed by: Russia scrambles to build 5000 new bomb shelters by 2012 for strategic nuclear strike


Rogozin: If Russia is attacked, it will use nuclear weapons

13:34 11/12/2013 .
12 comments


Дмитриј Рогозин


RUSSIAN Deputy Prime Minister warned potential aggressors
RF THAT IT IS TO DEFEND AND territory and state interests

Dmitry Rogozin

For Russia 's nuclear weapons - weapons of deterrence and retribution , which flattens the chances

If attacked , Russia will defend the use of nuclear weapons - has warned RF Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin .

By performing in the State Duma , in the " government hour " Rogozin explained :

"It 's conventional weapons " hook " on the strategic missile - carriers can be in this regard experiment to your heart's content , but Russia will - if it is attacked, and in accordance with its doctrine - under certain circumstances their territory and Largest national interests required to defend using nuclear weapons . Every aggressor - or group of aggressors - to advance to know that for us it is precisely this possibility a major deterrent and the possible circumvention of provocation and aggression against the Russian Federation . "

We never - stressed Rogozin - nimo downplayed the role of nuclear weapons as weapons of vengeance that compensates chances .

Russian " nuclear suitcase " - a mobile center for national strategic forces . of 7 May 2012th Again it with Vladimir Putin.

There are two such " suitcase " and they are constantly in addition to the RF Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the Chief of the General Valery Gerasimov , who discovered that Russia will next year give priority to supply units with modern missiles " Jars " and the strengthening of its mobile strategic nuclear forces.

[vector7]

PUTIN: Americans with EvroPRO want to dissolve the strategic balance in the world

15:45 10.12.2013 .
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Shoigu: 2014 to build a management center for defense of the State

The Russian army will get in 2014: 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles , more than 200 new aircraft and 250 modern tanks and armored infantry fighting machine

Putin expanded collegium of the Ministry of Defense RF : " One should always be in front of the other in today's world, not only benefits the one who is spiritually stronger than the one who has better weapons and knows how to use it better and to better manage its military forces "

That's why we have to work seriously on all these counts. That's especially important role military headquarters , particularly the General Staff. Our staffs have to be an analytical centers . "It is now more important than ever" - underlined Putin.

BEHIND U.S. missile shield in Europe lies in an attempt to soften and dissolve the strategic balance in the world - said Vladimir Putin , performing at the expanded session of the collegium of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation .

The Russian president said that the arming of the national army new weapons and technology is advancing at a good pace . He pointed out that the share of new weapons in the Russian army in a year , but will reach 30 percent and that its strategic forces during in 2014. Get 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles , more than 200 new aircraft and 250 modern tanks and armored infantry fighting machine .

Putin noted with satisfaction that the Russian naval fleet in in 2014 to get two modern nuclear submarine "Alexander Nevsky" and " Vladimir Monomakh " and CCE each carry 16 ballistic missiles by " Bulava " .

Management of the Ministry of Defense RF Putin urged to get rid of stereotypes and archaic and mastery savermenim ways of conducting combat operations .

" One should always be in front of the other . In today's world, not only benefits the one who is spiritually stronger than the one who has better weapons and knows how to use it better and to better manage its military forces .

That's why we have to work seriously on all these counts. That's especially important role military headquarters , particularly the General Staff. Our staffs have to be an analytical centers . It is now more important than ever " - said Putin .



Russian military leadership of the Head of State briefed that during in 2014. form a group of units that will " guarantee military security and protect the national interests of Russia in the Arctic ."

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu briefed the Head of State that the plan to open military airfields and naval military infrastructure on Earth Franz Joseph and Novosibirsk Islands. This, according to him , include the revival of the northern airport Tiksi , Naryan- Mar, Alikelj , Amderma , Anadyr , Rogachevo and Nagurskaja .

This will include everything , said Shoigu , working on the principle : each airport by aircraft regiment .

Russian Defense Minister said that by the end of this year, four other Russian air base to be transformed into " Mixed Aviation Division ."

RF Armed Forces , he said , used a total of 134 airports.

"After the New Year - proudly said Shoigu - begin to build a center for the management of state defense . Thank you , Vladimir Vladimirovich , you signed a decree to set it up because Russia would get him a unique center management throughout its military organization . With him will be able to operationally respond to all emergencies in the world and the country and the national leadership prepares a proposal draft decisions . "