September 05, 2019
Putin Trolls Trump
This is some high class trolling by Russia's President Vladimir Putin:
Putin said he offered U.S. President Donald Trump in a recent phone call the chance to buy one of the hypersonic nuclear weapons Moscow is developing. He said Trump spurned the offer and replied that Washington was making its own.
Hypersonic weapons fly faster than Mach 5 or five times the speed of sound. Their high speed leaves little warning time for the target. There are currently no practical defenses against them.
While the U.S. spent an enormous amount on developing large aircraft carriers, 'stealth' airplanes and useless missile defenses, Russia spent much less to developed weapons that can defeat all three. Carriers are today, at least for Russia, India and China, not threats but large and juicy targets.
Kh-47M2 Kinzhal Mach 12 capable missile carried by a MIG-31
Trump is wrong in claiming that the U.S. makes its own hypersonic weapons. While the U.S. has some in development none will be ready before 2022 and likely only much later. Hypersonic weapons are a Soviet/Russian invention. The ones Russia now puts into service are already the third generation. U.S. development of such missiles is at least two generations behind Russia's.
That Russian radar can 'see' stealth aircraft has been known since 1999 when a Yugoslav army unit shot down a U.S. F-117 Nighthawk stealth aircraft. Russian air and missile defense proved in Syria that it can defeat mass attacks by drones as well as by cruise missiles. U.S.-made air and missile defense in Saudi Arabia fails to take down even the primitive missiles Houthi forces fire against it.
The new weapons Russia announced in March 2018 make strategic missile defense useless.
The U.S. military and its weapons are regularly hyped in 'western' media. But it has long been clear to (non-U.S.) experts that U.S. military technology is not superior to that of other countries. In several important fields Russian, Chinese and even Indian weapons have much better capabilities. The reason is simple. U.S. weapons are not developed or built with a real strategic need in mind. They don't get developed for achieving the most effect in an existential war against a capable enemy but to create profit.
The last is probably the only thing Trump knows about them.
Posted by b on September 5, 2019 at 16:53 UTC | Permalink
"U.S. weapons are not developed or built with a real strategic need in mind. They don't get developed for achieving the most effect in an existential war against a capable enemy but to create profit."
Post-Vietnam, weapons manufacture became focused on corporate profit, rather than the military effectiveness. Profit for the defense industry became the be all and end all. With a fixed percentage profit, the more expensive the development the better. again, profit was everything.
Not only does it create an ineffective military, but the vast expense is hollowing out the country. Finally, neoliberalism is plundering the country itself.
The American experiment is over.
Posted by: Jeff Davis | Sep 5 2019 17:08 utc | 1
Andrei Martyanov's book, Losing Military Supremacy, covers all of this in great detail. Highly recommended.
Posted by: geoerge | Sep 5 2019 17:29 utc | 3
"to create profit"
Meh. On the institutional level, it probably has more to do with military keynesianism. Millions of jobs, and not just 'statistically', but for real, and in specific politically prearranged locations. "In key states and congressional districts", as they say.
Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Sep 5 2019 17:38 utc | 4
The USA has had a deployed hypersonic spy-plane, which I'm sure can carry at least 1 or 2 cruise missiles within its body, since the late 1980s.
It's the replacement for the sustained Mach 3 SR (Strike + Reconnaissance) 71 developed by the USAF and CIA in the early 1960s, and deployed until the early 1990s.
Correct, the spy-plane flies very high, so as to sustain something like Mach 5 or 6, and perhaps the Russians have figured out how to keep up such a speed briefly in horizontal flight.
No, the US president doesn't likely have the clearance to order this plane even on a mission, even in just its spy-plane configuration.
Not really news that tech exists to jamb radar or GPS, and yes, various parts of the US military have that gear. However, for whatever reason, they seem to be under orders not to ever use it. Example, all Aegis class USN cruisers and destroyers carry beam weapons. That's 1980s tech.
Posted by: Jay | Sep 5 2019 17:44 utc | 5
Seems the only thing the U$A excels at, are, exceptional nation propaganda, and economic terrorism...
Posted by: ben | Sep 5 2019 17:46 utc | 6
Well, as I recall, at about the same time President Putin publicly unveiled the new hypersonic missile systems (and that they were ready to be used)...
General 'Mad Dog' Mattis publicly declared that the U.S. military was officially allowing it's soldiers to chop their dongs off and grow boobs...
That just about sums things up in my opinion.
In reading this excellent brief analysis, I would suggest that followers read the also excellent books, Losing Military Supremacy "The Myopia of American Strategic Planning" by Andrei Martyanov and In the Shadows of the American Century "The Rise and Decline of US Global Power," by Alfred w. McCoy, to get an understanding of the minds of the Military Industrial Complex. The book by Mr. Martyanov provides examples of why the American military can't win battles against 2nd and 3rd peer adversaries (Vietnam (The American War as the Vietnamese call it), Korean War (The UN Police Action), Afghanistan War, and their future inability to win any future wars against a 1st peer adversary (Russia, China).
American military tells itself it is a great fighting force without peer but it also believes it's own press that the US military brought the German Werhmarcht to their knees, when we know the Russians won War World II. McCoy's book, which is well researched, also states the same premise but from an american perspective.
The MIC will be the downfall of the US and it the deepest of the Deep State. The 1 TRILLION dollar yearly military budget (minus the unknown Black budget) will bankrupt this country. It is also unfortunate that the noble peace prize winner Obama, authorized a Trillion dollar upgrade to the US nuclear arsenal, when he could have halved the number of warheads and still had plenty to destroy the planet a hundred times over. So much for the prince of peace.
We would also do well to stop giving other countries billions in military aid (israhell, saudi barbaria, UAE, etc) to drop bombs and snipe poor people attempting to live free. Hopefully the end is near.
PS: If you want to read a near term fictional book on the demise of the MIC and changes to the culture in America, the book "Twilight's Last Gleaming" by John Michael Greer is spellbinding and a great read. Interestingly enough, he has written over thirty books and writes about post industrial collapse and their outcomes.
Posted by: Tonymike | Sep 5 2019 17:54 utc | 8
Today Putin addressed the Eastern Economic Conference in Vladivostok in the manner of a skilled promoter with no mention of foreign policy, although there was one very noticeable change--all monetary amounts were made in Rubles, not dollars, which I saw as significant.
Pepe Escobar was on top of the affair and wrote a link-filled report focusing on the Putin-Modi Summit primarily because Putin-Abe's discussion wasn't to take place until today.
On the latest open thread, I posted this news that "Zvezda shipbuilding complex, Samsung Heavy Industries to build shuttle tankers together," which are Ice Breaker capable LNG tankers. I also posted this item that tangentially involves Russia in the latest BRI deal between Iran and China that will prove to be a game-changer.
So, despite its desperate attempts to destabilize Hong Kong to get at PRC and somehow slowdown the Russia-China Eurasian Integration Project, Trump and his Outlaw US Empire minions are badly failing. And Trump the bargain hunter passed up an excellent chance to save lots of money and time by taking Putin up on his offer--yet another big mistake by Trump!
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 5 2019 18:04 utc | 9
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