Prospects for Russian Navy amphibious forces development in the wake of the cancelled Mistral contract
“In military matters, capability, not intentions, matters most”.
Otto von Bismarck
In early 2014, Vice Adm. Frank C. Pandolphe, Director for Strategic Planning and Policy on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee that conventional armed forces made Russia a regional power, but the country had a limited capacity for global power projection. “Today,...
Rule, Britannia?
On November 23, Prime Minister David Cameron was in Parliament to present the latest update of the Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR), the document that lays the foundation for the defense policies of the United Kingdom in the decade to come. Contrary to prevailing expectations, the paper is openly belligerent.
The previous
version
of the SDSR was released in 2010 with the aim of optimizing and cutting the national forces after the active phase of operations in Iraq...
The official motto of the Brazilian Navy is “Protegendo nossas riquezas, cuidando da nossa gente” (Protecting our riches and taking care of our people). Whereas the latter part is almost philosophical, the former emphasizes the important role of the navy for the country with the ocean coastline of 8,500 kilometers. Importantly, there is a lot to protect in the territorial waters and the exclusive economic zone adjacent to the shore.
Challenges to security
Early in the 21st century, Brazil...
... the problem of the physical aging of a large part of their aircraft fleets. Therefore, to maintain strategic aircraft capabilities at least at the same level, there is no alternative but to develop new aircraft.
The terms of New START (the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) are another incentive for the development of the strategic bombing component of the nuclear triad. According to the Treaty, one warhead will be counted per bomber regardless of how many cruise missiles or bombs it actually carries....
Military aviation, unlike conventional arms — one of the oldest means of destroying an enemy’s bases, weaponry, military equipment and manpower — is a relatively new method of warfare. It was developed in the early 20th century, reaching its peak in the period from the 1950s ...
... hypersonic flight vehicles, i.e. gliding hypersonic warheads carried by ballistic missiles. The Russian Project 4202 and the Chinese project WU-14 point to a new spiral in the nuclear and nonnuclear technologies race. So far, this concerns technology but not arms because the Russian, Chinese and American (HTV-2 и AHW) experimental hypersonic vehicles are still in the R&D and testing stages.
However, it is not unreasonable to make the prediction that operational gliding missiles systems will significantly ...
Russia and China on the Latin American Arms Market
Argentina: Fighting on the Outskirts
The fledgling military-technical cooperation between Russia and Argentina was the subject of a recent
article
. The only recent contracts between the two parties are the delivery of two helicopters....
... do not give China a decisive maritime superiority in the region, but inevitably pose a threat to key countries of the Asia-Pacific
[19]
.
Crawling tigers
South-East Asia is the most dynamic region in terms of military activity. The Southeast Asian arms market is relatively small: the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimates it collectively worth only $2 billion to
$3 billion annually
. However, it is quite diverse in terms of suppliers: in contrast to Northeast Asia, ...
... the armed forces
with fighter aircraft (F-22 Raptors) and bombers (B-2 Spirit stealth bombers and B-52 Stratofortress bombers), which have been relocated from U.S. airbases to the United Kingdom.
REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/Pixstream
Vadim Trukhachev:
A New Arms Race in Eastern and Northern
Europe
However, a more objective analysis of U.S. and NATO military policy as a whole would refute the prevailing in Western media version that Washington and its allies are
orchestrating a re-militarization of Europe
...
Russia and China in the Brazilian Arms Market
In recent years, Latin American countries have drastically altered their military doctrines, most of them now willing to significantly diversify their military hardware suppliers and drop their absolute dependence on the United States and ...
