https://twitter.com/timand2037/status/987102411637440512?s=12

US reporter walks around #Douma , talks to ordinary Syrians on the street, still no evidence of that CW attack. But they do talk about a 'game' that has happened before. #DoumaProvocation . #Syria .


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD9C9koRmro

These health professionals worked at #Douma hospital for years under 'Army of Islam' rule. They stayed on when the #SyrianArmy reclaimed the city. Now they are abused by western media as 'Assad stooges' for saying there was no chemical attack. #Syria .


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSrRV-zdNic

11-year-old #Syrian boy Hassan Diab who was showed in the video on the alleged chemical attack in #Douma witnesses that everything was staged by #WhiteHelmets. Watch the full interview by Russian war reporter @epoddubny here:
https:///2qHYwOl @VanessaBeeley


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPFaEG9vJT4

The subsequent images and videos will do all the talking

Akathriel:


Lucas, stop insulting Scully - the oracle & the spokesman of the irunmoles if you do not want thunder to strike you & all the inhabitants of chicago to death.

The blood of the bastard mod that banned my main moniker (for a month) shall be used to cleanse 3rd mainland bridge from Oworonshoki down to Ilubirin. Even if the bastard resides in Abuja or anywhere else, the day he sets foot in Lagos; Eshu Laalu Ogirioko shall push him to ply that route - and then Ogun Lakaaye Oshimale shall execute the job for me in the name of orunmila - Ashe!

How on earth did you get banned for a whole month? Lol! Is that the new way of things?

Finally, Amerika has provided evidence of Russia's guilt in this poisoning debacle.

According to the always refreshing and charismatic Heather Nauert:


Russia has lots of tentacles’: US says it needed no proof, only UK’s word to expel diplomats


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxKxcbE_cpg

Zoharariel:
Hahahahahahaaa! Anglo-Zionist MSM doing what they know how to do best. Well, this trash is duly noted & discarded into the bin.

These western hypocritical bastards should also go & label Angela Merkel of “Western Germany” a dictator for clinging to power for the 4th term.

Truth is Putin is still Russia's President and there's nothing any hating-bastard can do about it.

Gba be!

scully95:


They should give one Givi and the second one Motorola !

Seconded!

scully95:

If you have no read it yet, please check out Putin’s full address to the Federal Assembly.(Link Bellow) What stunned me, and many other, are the new weapon systems Putin has announced.

First, he confirmed that the Sarmat ICBM would replace the old but already formiable SS-18 “Satan”. Then he turned to new weapon systems:

A nuclear powered cruise missile with basically unlimited range
A nuclear powered unmanned submersible with intercontinental range, very high speed, silent propulsion and capable of moving a great depths
A Mach 10 hypersonic missile with a 2’000 kilometer range (named: Kinzhal)
A new strategic missile capable of Mach 20 velocities (named: Avangard)

All of these systems can be armed with conventional or nuclear warheads. Just think of the implications! Not only does that mean that the entire ABM effort of the USA is now void and useless, but also that from now US aircraft carrier battle groups can only be used against small, defenseless, nations !

Right now I simply don’t have the time to write a full analysis of the stunning, truly tectonic, implications of this announcement, so I will turn to my naval warfare expert friend Andrei Martyanov and repost his initial reaction to just one of these systems:



I can only add that I fully concur with him. It is indeed set, match and game over for the Empire: there is no more military option against Russia.

The Saker

PS: here are a few videos illustrating these systems:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVeQ6S8AMjk


See more Videos here
http://ooduarere.com/news-from-nigeria/world-news/putins-russian-weapons-systems/

Alas! We have finally arrived at a point in which the inevitable has come to pass: Russia has developed cutting edge weapons as a deterrent and final warning to Amerika's provocations. For years, Russia has played the diplomatic card despite of all the escalations and intransigence from the Hegemon. Putin has (and still continues to) addressed Amerika as a partner; offered several opportunities for detente and restoration of trust and cordial relations; even continued to cooperate within the dictates of international law and out of goodwill with Amerika on a number of issues and projects; Putin has even penned an article addressed directly to the Amerikan people and at some point bluntly asked the bought-for, propagandist Amerikan mainstream media why it stands by idly as its government drags the world to another world war.....but behold, the warmongers in Washington miscalculated and believed that they could push a post-USSR and weakened Russia around. The Amerikans reneged on a number of longstanding treaties that kept the delicate balance of peace in place; expanded NATO to Russia's borders; installed missile battery systems in Eastern Europe that threaten Russia and negates its retaliatory capacity in the event of a long planned first strike nuclear attack; armed islamists that threaten the existence of the Russian state; installed literal neo-nazis in Ukraine......and many other transgressions.

Oh wel...... the Bear is now saying enough is enough and is finally pushing back. Russia under the leadership of my own personal uncle, Lord Putin, who has restored Russia back from the precipice, is telling the Amerikans and their Jewish overlords that should they continue to proceed on this path which they have chosen (which in fact they have no choice over considering that the petro-dollar's time is almost up - amongst other facts) that their beloved cities and all that they hold dear will turn to radioactive ash..

How do you say KABOOM! in Russian?

This is just an incomplete list compiled by MoA of assorted Amerikan ThinkTankland and Gulf media "experts" pontificating on how Russia would meet the ultimate quagmire in Syria.

Bunch of sub-zoology m0r0ns doesn't even begin to qualify them.

Here we go:

Obama: Russia's strategy in Syria 'doomed to fail' - Al Jazeerah, September 11 2015
Could Syria be Putin's Afghanistan? - Al Jazeerah, September 14 2015
Why Iran’s Plan in Syria Will Fail - Aawsad, September 15 2015
U.S. to Putin: Welcome to the ISIS ‘Quagmire’ - The Daily Beast, September 29 2015
Secretary of Defense: Russia ‘Doomed to Fail’ in Syria - September 30, 2015
Saudi official says Russia will fail to save Syria's Assad - USA Today, September 30 2015
Why Putin is doomed to fail in Syria - Vox.com, October 1 2015
Obama: Russia heading for 'quagmire' in Syria - CNN, October 2 2015
Obama Sees Russia Failing in Syria Effort - NY Times, October 2, 2015
Like Brezhnev in Afghanistan, Putin will Fail in Syria - Palestinian Chronicla, October 5 2015
Putin will fail in Syria: The West must take a step back - CityAM, October 5 2015
DOD: Russia 'Doomed to Fail' in Syria - CNS news, October 6 2015
Don’t Chase Putin Out of Syria — Let Him Fail On His Own - GMF-US, October 9 2015
Echoes of Afghanistan in Syria - National Interest, October 9 2015
Russian army in Syria: A failure foretold - Ynet News, October 10 2015
Russia's ‘quagmire’ destroys all hope of defeating ISIS - The Hill, October 16 2015
Russians support airstrikes in Syria, despite haunting memories of quagmire in Afghanistan - Foxnew, October 20 2015
Russia risks Syrian quagmire -U.S. deputy secretary of state - Reuters, October 31 2015
The Syrian quagmire - Daily Times (Pakistan), November 3 2015
Putin is in a quagmire in Syria — and Russians deserve better - Chicago Tribune, November 11 2015
Is Russia’s Syria Intervention Doomed to Fail? - RUSI, November 20 2015
Russia's Failed Adventure in Syria - Gatestone Institute, December 1 2015
Putin risks a new Afghanistan, Obama warns - Politico, December 1 2015
Putin's Quagmire in Syria Proves Obama Prescient - Bloomberg, December 9 2015
Putin bogging down in Syria - December 10, 2015
Putin's Middle East Misadventures - U.S. News, December 11 2015
Is Syria Already A Quagmire For Putin? - Outside the Beltway, December 12 2015
The Danger of Putin Losing in Syria - The Atlantic, January 11 2016
Russia will 'fail to save' Syria's Assad: Saudi Foreign Minister - Daily Mail, February 14 2016
Putin is making a mistake in Syria — and Russia will pay the price - WaPo, September 26 2016
The Latest: Tillerson says Russia has ‘failed’ in Syria - Fox, April 6 2017
Russia is at a dead-end in Syria - Al Jazeerah, June 25 2015
Putin is drowning in Syria - Israel National News, June 28 2017

Zoharariel:
The Sweet Smell Of Victory! I rejoice with the Syrians that the plans & expectations of their enemies (Amerika, Israel, Britain, Saudi Arabia & NATO) over their Country did not come to pass - simply because of the mighty rod of Putin

The world needs more heroes like Vladimirovich Putin to point the fvcking finger to Amerika - and say that's the bad guy

Without Putin & the beautiful people of Russia, Syria would have ended up being a terrorist nest like Libya - and butchered into pieces by her enemies.

Meanwhile, the demonization of Putin in the “west” has entered “gear 20”

Just lastweek, Russian media “RTAmerica” was forced to register as a foreign agent in Amerika. Using this designation as justification, Twitter & Facebook too have now banned RT and Sputnik from advertising on their services. This is all over the alleged Russian “interference” in the 2016 Presidential Election, for which there is still not a single piece of clear evidence.

This is the same “United Snakes of Amerika” , where freedom of the press is literally one of the founding principles of the cursed-nation. They celebrate their freedom every time they’re forced to stand through their useless national anthem.

Tell me, what would the press reaction have been if Russia had forced the BBC or CNN, for example, to register as foreign agents?

How many Amerikan or European media outlets have ever been forced to register as foreign agents in “autocratic” Russia where Putin has allegedly “shut down the free press”?

The answer is “Zero”.

“Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty” has operated in Russia and Eastern Europe for nearly 70 years. It is an American destabilization programme.

That is not a “conspiracy theory” - It is even acknowledged in the public record that “Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty” was established by the Amerikan State Department in conjunction with the CIA in order to spread Amerikan propaganda behind the Iron Curtain. They have never been barred from operating in Russia.

Now, imagine it was on the public record that the “FSB” had founded RT. Imagine it was written into Sputnik’s mission statement that their job was to undermine the Amerikan government. Would they have been allowed to broadcast in the United Snakes of Amerika? Would they have come anywhere NEAR 68 years of operation?

Look at the Moscow Times, a Russian paper that is owned by a Finnish conglomerate and prints exclusively in English. It is routinely, even pathologically, critical of the Russian government. Would this situation ever be allowed to stand in reverse?

If there were a newspaper calling itself The London Times, which was owned by a Venezuelan and printed nothing but anti-government stories, exclusively in Russian…would it be allowed to operate in Amerika? Would people cite it as a decent source of information?

Look at CNN, where Anderson Cooper - an ex CIA “intern” - solemnly nods his way through autocues full of baseless propaganda. Repeating, verbatim, the statements of nameless “intelligence sources”, without analysis or question. Can you imagine if RT’s headline reporter had worked for the KGB?

RT is launching a French-language channel next month - the world is already being warned by the French MSM about how RT makes up fake news to further Putin’s evil propaganda aims. Can you imagine?

The United Snakes of Amerika & her allies are the masters of molesting other nations. It’s not even a secret what they’ve been up to. Look at their budgets or the size of the intelligence buildings.

Most journalists know full well of their programs, including those on social media, which they even reported on a few years back.

The Guardian run stories by the CIA created & Amerikan state funded “Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty” & then tell the world with a straight face that Russia's RT is state propaganda which is destroying their corruption-personified democracy.

Powerful Amerikans who have been organising mass genocide in war-torn Countries all over the globe to become rich, are being painted by the Zionist MSM as Amerikan businessmen & philanthropists while the Russians are reported as murdering savages.

So, the Russians cannot do business in Amerika but the Amerikan bastards must be protected to do business in Russia?

In Ijebu, we have a word for this hypocrisy, double standard & duplicity - it is called “agabagebe”

I only pity my fellow Afrikans who are deeply submerged into the Hollywood fantasy - and have been brainwashed into believing that Amerika represents a force for the good of mankind. Amerika is responsible for all the chaos & anarchy ravaging all the continents since ww2.

To my bestfriend - Kim Jong-Un, do not ever make a mistake of sitting at the negotiating table with Amerika, else it will be your doom.

As Amerikan aircraft carriers & destroyers are being sent by Trump to patrol the Korean-peninsula just to frighten & intimidate you; you too - send 15 nuclear-armed submarines from your fleet to be patrolling the Amerikan territorial waters in New York, Washington & Florida so that the Amerikan bastards can have a taste of their medicine.

This is Y Putin & Vladimir Zhirinovsky are feared in the whole world.

I swear to Obatala, Ogun Lakaaye Oshimale, Shango & Eshu Laalu Ogirioko - ww3 would have ended a long time ago if I were in Kim Jong-Un's shoe.

Kai! Zoharariel! The whole of Siberia -along with its plentiful resources - fall on you!

How exactly is North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism? Amerika thinks it can just slap labels and accusations on countries as they wish and fool everyone with their lies

A hug was necessary in addition to the customary handshake. ISIS is on its last legs. Peace is within reach.

Meanwhile having lost out in Syria, "God's Chosen Ones", "The Only Democracy in the Middle East" are preparing to invade Lebanon

"There are millions of blacks who could come to the Mediterranean to cross to France and Italy, and Libya plays a role in security in the Mediterranean,"

Muammar Gaddafi, France24 Interview, March 2011


Libya may become the Somalia of North Africa, of the Mediterranean. You will see the pirates in Sicily, in Crete, in Lampedusa. You will see millions of illegal immigrants. The terror will be next door,"

Saif Gaddafi, France24 Interview, March 2011


Let's thank Obama, Sarkozy, Cameron and NATO for a job well done

seunny4lif:

Don't write what you don't know
Visit Brazil and you will understand.

The ignorance on display here is shocking and appalling. They should go on YouTube and Google Brazil and racism and find out for themselves. There are so many videos on the subject matter. Here is one of them:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1xnIdtn3FI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbUU_9bOcnM

The reality is that the US homeland is extremely vulnerable to any kind of attack. This is only in part due to recent Russian advances in military technology. For example, the “just on time” manufacturing or delivery practices which are aimed to minimize costs and inventory are, from a strategic/military point of view, extremely dangerous as it take very little disruption (for example in the distribution network) to create catastrophic consequences. Likewise, the high concentration of some industries in specific areas of the United States (oil in the Mexican Gulf) only serve to further weaken the ability of the United State to take any kind of punishment in case of war.

Most TV watching Americans will dismiss all of the above by saying that “anybody come mess with us and we will kick their ass” or something equally sophisticated. And there is some truth to that. But what this mindset also indicate is a complete mental inability to operate in a scenario when deterrence has failed and the “other guy” is coming for you. That mindset is the prerogative of civilians. Those tasked with the defense of their country simply cannot think that way and have to look beyond the “threshold of deterrence”. They will be the one asked to fix the bloody mess once the civilians screw-up. Georges Clemenceau reportedly once said that “War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men”. I believe that the exact opposite is true, that war is too serious a matter to entrust to civilians, especially the US Neocons (the vast majority of whom have never spent any time in uniform) and who always make it sound like the next war will be easy, safe and painless. Remember Ken Adleman and his famous Iraqi “cakewalk”? The very same kind of scum is in power today and they want us to believe that the next war will also be a cakewalk or that being on a high speed collision course with Russia is something the USA can afford and should therefore engage in. The combined effect of the myth of US military superiority with the myth about the US invulnerability result in a US American sense of detachment, or even impunity, which is not at all supported by fact. I just fervently hope that the people of the USA will not find out how mistaken they are the hard way.

In the meantime, the Russian Chief of General Staff, General Gerasimov, has announced that Russia had completed what he called a “non-nuclear deterrence system” based on the Iskander-M, Kalibr and X-101 missiles. According to General Gerasimov, the Russian armed forces now have enough high-precision weapon systems to strike at any target within a 4000km range. Furthermore, Gerasimov declared that the number of platforms capable of launching such missiles has increased twelve times while the number of high precision cruise missiles has increased by a factor 30. General Gerasimov also explained that the combined capabilities of the Kalibr cruise missile, the Bastion mobile coastal defense missile system and the S-400 air defense system made it possible for Russia to fully control the airspace and surface of the Baltic, Barents, Black and Mediterranean seas (talk about A2AD!). Gerasimov concluded his briefing by saying “the development of high-precision weapons has made it possible to place the main burden of strategic deterrence from nuclear to non-nuclear forces”.

To fully evaluate the implications of what Gerasimov said please consider this: deterrence is, by definition, the action of discouraging an action or event through instilling doubt or fear of the consequences. So what Gerasimov is really saying is that Russia has enough conventional, non-nuclear, capabilities to inflict unacceptable consequences upon the USA. This is something absolutely new, a fundamental game changer. Most importantly, that is the official declaration by a senior Russian official that the USA does not have any technological superiority and that the USA is vulnerable to a devastating counter-attack, even a conventional one. In one short sentence General Gerasimov has put to rest the two most important myths of US geostrategic theory.

Keep in mind that, unlike their US counterparts, the Russians typically like to under-evaluate Russian military capabilities. You will find the Russia media bragging about how “totally awesome and best in the world” Russian weapons systems are, but military personnel in Russia still has a corporate culture of secrecy and under-reporting your real capabilities to the enemy. Furthermore, while junior officers can say pretty much anything they want, senior officers are held to very strict rules and they have to carefully weigh every word they say, especially acting officers. So when the Chief of Staff officially declares that Russia now has a conventional strategic deterrence capability – you can take that to the bank. It’s real.

Alas, the western media is still stuck in the “full idiot” mode we saw during the transit of the Russian aircraft carrier from the North Atlantic to the Mediterranean: on one hand, the Admiral Kuznetsov was presented as a rusty old bucket while on the other NATO forces constantly shadowed it as if it was about to strike London. Likewise, US politicians present Russia as a “gas station” while, at the same time, stating that this “gas station” has the capability to decide who lives in the White House. This kind of reporting is not only unhelpful but outright dangerous. One one hand the “the Russians are backward brutes” fosters an arrogant and cocky attitude. On the other hand, constantly speaking about fake Russian threats results in a very dangerous case of “cry wolf” in which all possible Russian threats (including very real ones) are dismissed as pure propaganda. The reality is, of course, very different and simple in a binary way: Russia represents absolutely no threat to the United States or anybody else (including the three Baltic statelets). But if some western politician decides that he is smarter and stronger than Napoleon or Hitler and that he will finally bring the Russians to their knees, then he and his country will be destroyed. It is really that simple.

The Saker

Appleyard, Zoharariel, Scully95, Underground, Capip120, Seunny4lif,



Debunking two American myths

17575 Views
November 10, 2017
118 Comments
This article was written for the Unz Review

There are two myths which are deeply imprinted in the minds of most US Americans which are extremely dangerous and which can result in a war with Russia.

The first myth is the myth of the US military superiority.
The second myth is the myth about the US invulnerability.
I believe that it is therefore crucial to debunk these myths before they end up costing us millions of lives and untold suffering.

In my latest piece for the Unz Review I discussed the reasons why the US armed forces are nowhere nearly as advanced as the US propaganda machine would have us believe. And even though the article was a discussion of Russian military technologies I only gave one example, in passing, of Russian military technologies by comparing the T-50 PAKFA to the US F-35 (if you want to truly get a feel for the F-35 disaster, please read this and this). First, I am generally reluctant to focus on weapons systems because I strongly believe that, in the vast majority of real-world wars, tactics are far more important than technologies. Second, Andrei Martyanov, an expert on Russian military issues and naval warfare, has recently written two excellent pieces on Russian military technologies (see here and here) which gave many more examples (check out Martyanov’s blog). Having read some of the comments posted under Martyanov’s and my articles, I think that it is important, crucial, in fact, to drive home the message to those who still are thoroughly trained by the propaganda machine to instantly dismiss any notion of US vulnerability or, even more so, technological inferiority. I am under no illusion about the capability of those who still watch the idiot box to be woken out of their lethargic stupor by the warnings of Paul Craig Roberts, William Engdal, Dmitrii Orlov, Andrei Martyanov or myself. But I also think that we have to keep trying, because the war party (the Neocon Uniparty) is apparently trying really hard to trigger a conflict with Russia. So what I propose to do today is to connect the notions of “war with Russia” and “immediate and personal suffering” by showing that if Russia is attacked two of the most sacred symbols of the USA, aircraft carriers and the US mainland itself, would be immediately attacked and destroyed.

The aircraft carriers myth

I have to confess that even during the Cold War I always saw US aircraft carriers as sitting ducks which the Soviets would have rather easily destroyed. I formed that opinion on the basis of my study of Soviet anti-carrier tactics and on the basis of conversations with friends (fellow students) who actually served on US aircraft carriers.

I wish I had the time and space to go into a detailed description of what a Cold War era Soviet attack on a US aircraft carrier battle group would typically look like, but all I will say is that it would involved swarms of heavy air and sea launched missiles coming from different directions, some skimming the waves, others dropping down from very high altitude, all at tremendous speeds, combined with more underwater-launched missiles and even torpedoes. All of these missiles would be “intelligent” and networked with each other: they would be sharing sensor data, allocating targets (to avoid duplication), using countermeasures, receiving course corrections, etc. These missiles would be launched at standoff distances by supersonic bombers or by submerged submarines. The targeting would involve space-based satellites and advanced naval reconnaissance technologies. My USN friends were acutely aware of all this and they were laughing at their own official US propaganda (Reagan was in power then) which claimed that the USN would “bring the war to the Russians” by forward deploying carriers. In direct contrast, my friends all told me that the first thing the USN would do is immediately flush all the carriers away from the North Atlantic and into the much safer waters south of the so-called GUIK gap. So here is the ugly truth: carriers are designed to enforce the rule of the AngloZionist Empire on small and basically defenseless nations (like Saddam Hussein’s Iraq). Nobody in the USN, at least not in the late 1980s, seriously considered forward deploying aircraft carrier battlegroups near the Kola Peninsula to “bring the war to the Russians”. That was pure propaganda. The public did not know that, but USN personnel all knew the truth.

[Sidebar: if the topic of carrier survivability is of interest to you, please check out this Russian article translated by a member of our community which is a pretty typical example of how the Russian don’t believe for one second that US carriers are such hard targets to destroy]

What was true then is even more true today and I can’t imagine anybody at the Pentagon seriously making plans to attack Russia with carrier based aviation. But even if the USN has no intention of using its carriers against Russia, that does not mean that the Russians cannot actively seek out US carriers and destroy them, even very far from Russia. After all, even if they are completely outdated for a war between superpowers, carriers still represent fantastically expensive targets whose symbolic value remains immense. The truth is that US carriers are the most lucrative target any enemy could hope for: (relatively) small, (relatively) easy to destroy, distributed in many locations around the globe – US carriers are almost “pieces of the USA, only much closer”.

Introducing the Zircon 3M22 hypersonic missile

First, some basic data about this missile (from English and Russian Wikipedia):

Low level range: 135 to 270 nautical miles (155 to 311mi; 250 to 500km).
High level range: 400nmi (460mi; 740km) in a semi-ballistic trajectory.
Max range: 540nmi (620mi; 1,000km)
Max altitude: 40km (130’000 feet)
Average range is around 400km (250mi; 220nmi)/450 km.
Speed: Mach 5–Mach 6 (3,806–4,567mph; 6,125–7,350km/h; 1.7015–2.0417km/s).
Max speed: Mach 8 (6,090mph; 9,800km/h; 2.7223km/s) during a test.
Warhead: 300-400kg (high explosive or nuclear)
Shape: low-RCS with radar absorbing coating.
Cost per missile: 1-2 million dollars (depending on configuration)
All this is already very impressive, but here comes the single most important fact about this missile: it can be launched from pretty much *any* platform: cruisers, of course, but also frigates and even small corvettes. It can be launched by nuclear and diesel-electric attack submarines. It can also be launched from long range bombers (Tu-160), medium-range bombers (Tu-22m3), medium-range fighter-bomber/strike aircraft (SU-34) and even, according to some reports, from multi-role air superiority fighter (SU-35). Finally, this missile can also be shore-based. In fact, this missile can be launched from any platform capable of launching the now famous Kalibr cruise missile and that means that even a merchant marine or fishing ship could carry a container with the Zircon missile hidden inside. In plain English what this means is the following:

Russia has a missile which cannot be stopped or spoofed by any of the current and foreseeable USN anti-missile weapons systems.
This missile can be deployed *anywhere* in the world on *any* platform.
Let me repeat this again: pretty much any Russian ship and pretty much any Russian aircraft from now on will have the potential capability of sinking a US aircraft carrier. In the past, such capabilities were limited to specific ships (Slava class), submarines (Oscar class) or aircraft (Backfires). The Soviets had a large but limited supply of such platforms and they were limited on where they could deploy them. This era is now over. From now on a swarm of Zircon 3M22 could appear anywhere on the planet at any moment and with no warning time (5000 miles per hour incoming speed does not leave the target anything remotely comparable to even a short reaction time). In fact, the attack could be so rapid that it might not even leave the target the time needed to indicate that it is under attack.

None of the above is a big secret, by the way. Just place “zircon missile” in your favorite search engine and you will get a lot of hits (131’000 on Google; 190’000 on Bing). In fact, a lot of specialists have declared that the Zircon marks the end of the aircraft carrier as a platform of modern warfare. These claims are widely exaggerated. As I have written above, aircraft carriers are ideal tools to terrify, threaten, bully and otherwise attack small, defenseless countries. Even medium-sized countries would have a very hard time dealing with an attack coming from US aircraft carriers. So I personally think that as long as the world continues to use the US dollar and, therefore, as long as the US economy continues to reply on creating money out of thin air and spending it like there is no tomorrow, aircraft carriers still have a bright, if morally repulsive, future ahead of them. And, of course, the USN will not use carriers to threaten Russia. Again, the US press has been rather open about the carrier-killing potential of the Zircon, but what it rarely (never?) mentions are the political and strategic consequence from the deployment of the Zircon: from now on Russia will have an easy and very high value US target she can destroy anytime she wants. You can think of the US carrier fleet like 10 US hostages which the Russians can shoot at any time. And what is crucial is this: an attack on a US carrier would not be an attack on the US homeland, nor would it be a nuclear attack, but the psychological shock resulting from such an attack could well be comparable to a (limited) nuclear strike on the US homeland.

This, on one hand, will greatly inhibit the Russian willingness to strike at US carriers as this would expose Russia to very severe retaliatory measures (possibly including nuclear strikes). On the other hand, however, in terms of “escalation dominance” this state of affairs gives a major advantage to Russia as the US does not have any Russian targets with an actual and symbolic value similar to the one of a US carrier.

There is another aspect of this issue which is often ignored. Western analysts often speak of a Russian strategy of “deterrence by denial” and “Anti-Access Area Denial” (A2AD). Mostly this is the kind of language which gets you a promotion and a pay raise in US and NATO think tanks. Still, there is a grain of truth to the fact that advanced Russian missiles are now providing Russia with a very cheap way to threaten even fantastically expensive US assets. Worse, Russia is willing (eager, in fact) to export these (relatively cheap) missiles to other countries. I find it amusing to see how US politicians are in a state of constant hysteria about the risk of nuclear proliferation, but fail to realize that conventional anti-ship missiles are a formidable, and much more likely, threat. Sure, there are missile export limiting treaties, such as the MTCR, but they only apply to missile with a range of over 300km. With modern ballistic and cruise missiles becoming smaller, deadlier and easier to conceal and with ranges which are (relatively) easy to extend, treaties such as the MTCR are becoming increasingly outdated.

The bottom line is this: as long as deterrences holds, attacking US carriers makes no sense whatsoever for Russia; however, as soon as deterrence fails, attacking US carriers, anywhere on the planet, gives Russia an extremely flexible and powerful escalation dominance capability which the US cannot counter in kind.

Striking at the Holy of Holies – the US “homeland”

If you thought that discussing striking US carriers was bad, here we are going to enter full “Dr Strangelove” territory and discuss something which US Americans find absolutely unthinkable: attacks on the US homeland. True, for the rest of mankind, any war by definition includes the very real possibility of attacks on your own towns, cities and people. But for US Americans who are used to mete out violence and death far away from their own peaceful towns and cities, the notion of a devastating strike against the US homeland is pretty much unthinkable. On 9/11 the loss of 3000 innocent people placed the vast majority of US Americans into a total state of shock which resulted in a massive over-reaction at all levels (which was, of course, exactly the purpose of this false flag operation by the US and Israeli deep states). Just as with carriers, the dangers of a US over-reaction should serve as a deterrent to any attacks on the US homeland. But, just as with the carriers, that is only true as long as deterrence holds. If the Russian territory becomes the object of a US attack this would clearly indicate that deterrence has failed and that the Russian armed forces should now switch from a deterrence mode to a war-fighting mode. At this point, the US American over-reaction to begin attacked or taking casualties could, paradoxically, result in a last-minute wake-up call indicating to everybody that what will come next will be truly devastating.

Introducing the RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)

Though officially very little is know about the Sarmat and the Yu-71, the reality is that the Internet has been full of educated guesses which give us a pretty clear idea of what kind of systems we are dealing here.

You can think of the RS-28 Sarmat as a successor of the already formidable RS-36 Voevoda (SS-18 Satan in US classification) missile: it is a heavy, very powerful, intercontinental ballistic missile with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (warheads):

Weight: 100 tons
Payload: 10 tons
Warheads: 10 to 15
Hypersonic glide vehicles: 3-24 (that’s the Yu-71 we will discuss below)
Range: 10’000km
Guidance: Inertial , satellite, astrocelestial
Trajectory: FOBS-capable
That last line, about being FOBS-capable, is crucial as it means that, unlike most Soviet/Russian ICMBs, the Sarmat does not have to fly over the North Pole to strike at the United States. In fact, the Sarmat could fly over the South Pole or, for that matter, in any direction and still reach any target in the USA. Right there this capability is, by itself, is more than enough to defeat any current and foreseeable US anti-ballistic missile technology. But it gets better, or worse, depending on your perspective: the Sarmat’s reentry vehicles/warhards are capable of flying in low orbit, maneuver, and then suddenly plunge towards their targets. The only way to defeat such an attack would be to protect the USA by a 3600 coverage capable ABM system, something which the USA is decades away from deploying. And just to add to these already formidable characteristics, each Sarmat can carry up to 3-24 (depending on who you ask) Yu-71 hypersonic glide vehicles.

Introducing The Yu-71 (aka “Object 4202) hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV)

Yet again, this is hardly a topic not covered in the media and you can find numerous articles describing what a hypersonic glide vehicle is and how it can be used. (the best article I could find in English was by Global Security, it is entitled “Objekt 4202 / Yu-71 / Yu-74”).

Here is a summary of what we think we know about this HGV:

Max Speed: from Mach 5, according to Scott Ritter, to Mach 9, according to a quasi official Russian source, to Mach 15, acccording to Sputnik, to Mach 20 (that’s 7 kilometer per second, or 25’200kh/h, or 15’000mph), according to Global Security. Whatever the true speed, it will be fantastic and far, far beyond the kind of speeds current or foreseeable US anti-missile systems could hope to engage.
Hypermaneuverability: Russian sources describe the Yu-71 as “сверхманевренная боеголовка” or “hypermaneuverable warhead”. What that exactly means in turns of sustained Gs does not really matter as this is not about air-to-air combat, but about the ability to perform sudden course changes making it close to impossible for anti-missile systems to calculate an engagement solution.
Warhead: nuclear and conventional/kinetic.
That last line is very interesting. What it means is that considering the speeds attained by the Yu-71 HGV it is not necessary to equip it with a conventional (high explosive) or nuclear warheard. The kinetic energy generated by its high speed is sufficient to create an explosion similar to what a large conventional or small nuclear warhead could generate.

Bringing it all together now

Did you notice the similarities between the Zircon missile and the Sarmat+Yu-71 combo?

In both cases we have:

an attack which can come from any direction
speed of attack and maneuver capabilities which make interception impossible
the capability for Russia to destroy a very high value US target in a very short time
It is amazing to see that while US decision makers were talking about their Prompt Global Strike program, the Russians actually developed their own version of this capability, much faster than the USA and at a fraction of the cost.

These are all ideal ways to “bring the war home” and to encourage a country which enjoyed total impunity for its policies to being seriously thinking about the consequences of messing around with the wrong people.

To make things even more potentially dangerous for the USA, the very same geography which protected the USA for so long is now becoming a major vulnerability. Currently 39% of the US population lives in counties directly on the shoreline. In fact, the population density of coastal shoreline counties is over six times greater than the corresponding inland counties (source). In 2010 the US Census Bureau produced a fascinating report entitled “Coastline Population Trends in the United States: 1960 to 2008” which shows that the coastal counties provide an “intense concentration of economic and social activity”. In fact, a very large number of US cities, industrial centers and economic hugs are located near the USA coastline making them all *ideal* targets for Russian conventional cruise missile strikes which could be launched from very long distances (including over open water). And we are not talking about some future, hypothetical, cruise missile, we are talking about the very same Kalibr cruise missiles the Russians have been using against the Takfiris in Syria. Check out this very well made video which explains how Kalibr cruise missiles can be hidden pretty much anywhere and used with devastating effect on military and/or civilian targets:

The OP of this post shared this way back in 2013 and in light of the events in Niger, the article has become even more prescient. Read the two articles below and you'll notice a trend - from Afghanistan to Syria to Iraq, etc - developing. "Freedom" is coming to Afrika!

https://theintercept.com/2017/10/22/the-u-s-will-invade-west-africa-in-2023-after-an-attack-in-new-york-according-to-pentagon-war-game/



THE U.S. WILL INVADE WEST AFRICA IN 2023 AFTER AN ATTACK IN NEW YORK — ACCORDING TO PENTAGON WAR GAME
Nick Turse
October 22 2017, 4:16 p.m.

WHEN THE PENTAGON peers into its crystal ball, the images reflected back are bleak.

On May 23, 2023, in one imagining from the U.S. military, terrorists detonate massive truck-bombs at both the New York and New Jersey ends of the Lincoln Tunnel. The twin explosions occur in the southern-most of the three underground tubes at 7:10 a.m., the beginning of rush hour when the subterranean roadway is packed with commuters making their way to work.

The attack kills 435 people and injures another 618. Eventually, we’ll come to know that it could have been much worse. The plan was to drive the trucks to “high profile targets” elsewhere in Manhattan. Somehow, though, the bombs detonated early.

This spectacular attack, which would result in the highest casualties on U.S. soil since 9/11, isn’t the hackneyed work of a Hollywood screenwriter — it is actually one of the key plot points from a recent Pentagon war game played by some of the military’s most promising strategic thinkers. This attack, and the war it sparks, provide insights into the future as envisioned by some of the U.S. military’s most important imagineers and the training of those who will be running America’s wars in the years ahead.

The “5/23” terror attack was a small but pivotal part of a simulated exercise conducted last year by students and faculty from the U.S. military’s war colleges, which are the training grounds for prospective generals and admirals. Sprawling and intricate, the 33rd annual Joint Land, Air and Sea Strategic Special Program (JLASS-SP) brought together 148 students from the U.S. Air Force’s Air War College, the Army War College, the Marine Corps War College, the Naval War College, the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, the National War College, and the National Defense University’s Information Resources Management College. They collaborated for several weeks of remote war-gaming conducted via “cyberspace tools, telephones and video teleconferencing,” according to Pentagon documents obtained by The Intercept. It culminated in a five-day on-site exercise at the Air Force Wargaming Institute at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.

The materials used in JLASS-SP — obtained via the Freedom of Information Act — detail the chaotic tenure of an imaginary 46th president, Karl Maxwell McGraw, and offer a unique window into the training of the Armed Forces’ future leaders. The documents consist of hundreds of pages of summary materials, faux intelligence estimates, fictional situation reports, and updates issued while the exercise was in progress — The Intercept is publishing one of these fictional situation updates here. They are highly detailed and, at a time when the press and lawmakers are increasingly asking questions about U.S. military involvement in Africa, offer a stark assessment of the potential perils of armed action there. While it is explicitly not a national intelligence estimate, the war game, which covers the future through early 2026, is “intended to reflect a plausible depiction of major trends and influences in the world regions,” according to the files.



MCGRAW, A FORMER independent Arizona senator who rode his populist “America on the Move” campaign to victory in the 2020 election, ushers in a wave of equally independent congressional candidates and the promise of “TRUE change” in Washington. His presidency is, instead, buffeted by a seemingly endless string of crises.

Just after entering office, in February 2021, a cyberattack shuts down the control system of the Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Berwick, Pennsylvania, “shaking the confidence of the American people in the government’s ability to protect critical infrastructure.” For the next two years, while dealing with the fallout from an Asian economic crisis, state-sponsored cybercrime, and the rise of new anti-globalism and right-wing extremist groups, the McGraw administration claims success in thwarting numerous overseas terror attacks, including a plot to bomb a number of U.S. embassies and consulates throughout Europe. But in West Africa, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is expanding its presence and building on long-running failures of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts in the region, including U.S. support for French and African military operations that began in 2013 and now appear more or less permanent.

By 2021, according to the war game’s scenario, AQIM boasts an estimated 38,000 members spread throughout Algeria, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger, and a network of training camps in Mauritania, as well as outright bases in Western Sahara. At the same time, AQIM strengthens its ties with the terror groups al Shabaab in Somalia and Boko Haram in Central Africa’s Lake Chad Basin to create a “network of synchronization across the African continent and beyond,” including shared funding, training methods, and IED-making materials. As this pan-African Islamist terror cartel grows, so does AQIM’s global reach, eventually allowing it to carry out the devastating attack on the Lincoln Tunnel and another, that same day, on the Canadian Embassy in Nouakchott, Mauritania’s capital, killing 135 people including the Canadian Ambassador and his staff.

With near-complete congressional backing and the assent of the government of Mauritania, President McGraw joins forces with Canada to launch Operation Desert Strike. A major U.S. and Canadian ground force, backed by air and sea power, lands in Mauritania on June 15, 2023 with McGraw promising the American people a “well-planned, rapid, and efficient operation that would conclude in three years.” As with so many other American wars and interventions since 1945, however, U.S. military operations do not go as planned and instead seem to follow the well-worn path of America’s many other forever wars.



“WE ARE FACING a tough and adaptive enemy,” Major General Roger Evans, the commander of Operation Desert Strike, tells the press in January 2026. “But this coalition is tougher and more adaptive.” Even in wargames, however, there’s a credibility gap between what imaginary generals say about fictitious wars and the (made up) facts on the ground. Exercise documents offer a more pessimistic assessment of the three-and-a-half-year-old war. “A steady increase in violence in northern Mauritania and Mali continues to frustrate Operation Desert Strike commanders as they struggle to counter a stubborn enemy,” reads a report. According to the fictional files, during December 2025 attacks are up a staggering 90% over November’s numbers.

Mounting terrorist strikes — like the Christmas Eve bombing outside a Canadian base in eastern Mauritania that kills eight coalition troops and wounds another 15, an assault on a U.S. military convoy that claims the lives of seven American soldiers, and an ambush that kills one Green Beret and sees another reportedly captured by al Qaeda-allied militants – are just one indicator of the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Maghreb. As the conflict enters its fourth year, weapons and militants continue to freely pour into the war zone. “We’re doing our best to work with the nations in the region to control the flow of enemy fighters and weapons into Mali, Mauritania, and Algeria, but there are not enough forces to be everywhere,” coalition spokesman Colonel Byron Scales admits.

That coalition, too, is frequently a problem in and of itself. In November 2025, the United States is slated to begin transferring responsibility for the war to the African Union and decrease its military footprint. But that deadline comes and goes as the AU demands more money and fails to adequately scale up its efforts. That, coupled with Canadian Prime Minister Richard Baker beginning to withdraw his forces on April 1, 2026 and NATO rebuffing President McGraw’s request for additional support, makes it clear that the war would become ever more American and grind on far beyond McGraw’s own withdrawal deadline of December 2026.

Despite – or perhaps, increasingly, because of – the presence of 70,000 U.S. forces and their Canadian allies, civilians in the region continue to suffer mightily. In 2025, the terror group Boko Haram, reinvigorated by the war, carries out 12 suicide bombings in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, alone. That December, the group rampages through the Nigerian town of Damaturu, killing more than 100 people in a series of coordinated bombings and gun attacks. Days later, AQIM’s Christmas Eve bombing of the Canadian military base in Mauritania claims the lives of 83 civilians shopping in the nearby marketplace.

“WE WILL CONTINUE to work with our partners to root out and destroy al Qaeda. We are making progress, but it will take time,” Major General Evans tells the public in early 2026. Just how much time and how much progress, however, is only offered in a private assessment sent to the head of U.S. Africa Command on March 8, 2026. In that communique, Evans catalogues the many setbacks plaguing Operation Desert Strike: the resilience of AQIM, the upcoming loss of Canadian forces, the weakness of Malian and Mauritanian troops, and the African Union’s reluctance to provide soldiers, among them. Even a decade into a fictional future, however, the recommendations for another failing, forever war-in-the-making sound far less like futuristic thinking and far more like the predictable solutions to America’s present-day military adventures:

I recommend that we delay our pullout from Mauritania and Mali for a minimum of 12 months. Additionally, given the loss of the Canadian forces, and the desire not to “give-back” the gains we have made in their sector, I recommend a surge of three additional Army [brigade combat teams], or [U.S. Marine Corps] Regiments, for a period of 12 months. While this is a difficult scenario given the competing global demand for forces, the mission will fail if some adjustment is not made to keep forces on the ground here in Northwestern Africa.

Evans’ message is the last issued for the Operation Desert Strike segment of the war game, so we don’t know the AFRICOM commander’s response or what President McGraw eventually decides when presented with the options to either double down on the war to avenge the deaths of a devastating terror attack, or to “fail.” Given the range of responses over the last decade-plus to setbacks in Afghanistan and Iraq, Syria and Somalia, Yemen and Libya, you don’t need a crystal ball, or to attend a U.S. military war college, to have a pretty good idea of President McGraw’s decision. It seems safe to assume that America’s fictitious war in West Africa will continue into the 2030s, just as its wars of the 2000s have staggered into the late 2010s. One can almost imagine the fictional military officers of President McGraw’s fantasy world conducting their own wargames, charting out their own fictitious forever wars that grind on without end into distant fictional futures.

Lucasbalo:
HAC member. I was not going to get involved in the military superiority of one country over another until you get me involved in your stupid arguments. Your hatred of America is a badge of honor to us that love America not withstanding the turmoil that's going on now due to our clueless president. Tell me one thing that you have achieved from your America's hatred. Your rantings about America doesn't go beyond Nairaland because you and your ilks don't count in the scheme of things Mr Povertyminted.

So even though I didn't mention your name, you knew immediately that you spend your entire time curiously inquiring and challenging to see how people live? Well I'm at least glad that you are keenly aware of this issue that bedevils you. For that I am happy cos that's a step towards rehabilitation .

Meanwhile in other news, see what the country of endless war has got in store for us:

The US Will Invade West Afrika in 2023 After An Attack on New York - According To Pentagon War Game


The US Will Invade West Afrika in 2023 After An Attack on New York - According To Pentagon War Game

Keep up the excellent work as always komrades
Appleyard, Zoharariel, Scully95, Bonechamberlain, Seunny4lif etc,
You may proceed with your good, God ordained duties

.

Appleyard:


Worse than a paper tiger. See the types of soldiers they send to war. No thanks to Iran.

Didn't one or two of these soldiers cry while in detention? I'm not imagining that am I? I certainly hope not

Appleyard:


Russian propaganda or US propaganda? The vehicle that drives the American foreign policy and MIC is based on pure proganda.

Did I hear you say US Sub or Defense system? Don't make me laf.. while you can give them the nod on subs, most of their defense system is built around hype and pure propaganda.

Folks still can't tell Hollywood and the real world apart. Perhaps we should ask them if indeed these Amerikan weapons are superior, why several countries -including the biggest NATO member outside of Amerika, Turkey - are buying these Russian weapons and hailing them as the weapons of choice.
On even on the simplest level of weaponry: why is the AK the most fearsome, manufactured and respected firearm on the planet, to the point that at least two countries have got them on their national flags?

I give kudos to Hollywood though, they have done one hell of a fine job with the brainwash

Appleyard:
Where are the f35 fan boys, huh? Can a bird cause the world most expensive multipurpose fighter "unserviceable" or is only a missile that can do that? I need answers oooo dear missy89.

Prey tell, does it add up at all? A plane that passed the bird certification test with alleged breathtaking results suddenly became unserviceable after an alleged bird collision which allegedly happened two weeks ago but was being reported now after a Syrian S-200 SAM launched at Israeli fighter planes.

Can anybody see the connection here? What a babel... ... .

Fineguy11, Bonechamberlain, zoharariel, nairaminted, report to base, cyprus000, marvelous000... .. . I need answers oooo.

Komrade Appleyard, I'll leave it to the "Amerika Is Great Fanboys" to provide an explanation while I sip on vodka here. There's one of them in particular that is always ranting about his hatred for Trump and labeling us, Putin admirers, HAC. Is he still on here asking about how people in opposition to his viewe live and all that?

Appleyard:


Very sensible. You got the info right ! Besides, no country will spend billions of dollar acquiring a high-tech weapon only to allow a fellow ally to to take it, dismantle it and steal the secrets behind it. It just doesn't make sense.

And like you rightly mentioned, the export variants of the S-400 are different from those operated by the Russian army. Again, this is a great strategic play here, the best of geopolitics which the Russians are known for.

So, if they are selling such a priced weapon, it's because they must have weigh the calculus and envisioned all possible outcomes. At the end, a sale is more favorable and which is not just good for the Russian weapon industry, but strategically hurting American interest while causing a steady but decisive shift in the cross-border politics of the Middle East.

One thing a lot of people are missing in this whole unfolding drama is the monkey dance of NATO and the certification of Russian weapons as "working". While NATO boast of having the best military assets (with more than half of that made up of US overhyped systems,) Russian simply authenticate its by allowing events to unmasked the reality. Turkey is hell bent on buying the S-400 systems because they were aware of all that was happening across the Syrian airspace. When the US DoD bitterly complained that "all" of its planes were being "painted" by Russian Air defense systems, it means the F-22 raptor is just another flying coffin. Erdogan military experts knew all this, hence the rush to acquire the weapon at all cost.

If anybody think it was just to get back at NATO for the failed Visa deal with the EU or some kind of payback to American for refusing to extradite Fetulla Guland, that would have been a excuse as the house of Saud is now poise to buy the same weapon.

So why? To appease Russia? And for what? Nay!

It is simple! It's because they knew that Russian weapons are made to work, and work they do! And this has even become more of a truism following the Russian intervention in Syria. The sale of Russian weapons have since grown remarkably across the globe, to the extent that traditional allies of NATO and the US can't help but grab some for themselves.

Welcome to the reality of REALPOLITICS where the facts speaks for themselves.

So take a seat comrade Zoharariel, Nairaminted etc al. Moscow is on the right track.

Quite right dear komrade. From Iraq to Turkey to Syria to Satan Arabia to Phillipines, etc Russian weapons are the weapons systems of choice.

By the way did y'all seen the reports about an Israeli F-35 that was allegedly hit by a Syrian S-200 missile battery? What a flying coffin that scrap of metal is turning out to be.

scully95:


Initially, i was also worried about it until i finally come to the conclusion that anyone comparing today's Russia to the Soviet Era would be making a big mistake. On a political level, it's a big victory for Russia and a big blow to the Saudis Wahhabi pawns' master, the Anglozionist.

First, it shows U.S power is no longer the sole seller of weapons to its puppets and that its power is decreasing to a new low in the middle east. (See how they quickly authorize the sales of THAAD and others batteries to Saudi after the king went to Russia.
Why didn't U.S authorize the sales to Saudi long ago? Meanwhile, they nearly gave South Koreans free of charge this over-hyped THAAD.

I have a feeling U.S is scared that Billions spent on the over-hyped THAAD would be rendered useless when Houthis decided to fire their Rockets, that would mean the dead end for U.S. But in the scenario that Saudi king for the first time went to Russia, to buy S-400. U.S immediately authorize selling of THAAD. Now that is how a fair system should work. No one should try to monopolize the market.

2nd this is a great news for Russia because Saudi has worked against Russia in its entire history and each time it has loss starting Afghan to Chechen war and today'ss Syria.

3rd - what is happening now is very similar to the Germans. Germany wants more trade with Russia and the U.S is blocking it. They finally managed to block the Ukraine gas pipelines. Remember the nazi worked against Russia. WHat is happening to Germany today is different totally from what happened during the 2nd world war..

4th - It's always good to have more friends even though you may not trust this kind of friends.. Take for example Turkey. Turkey has fought in over 10 wars with Russia and has lost each time except one that Turkey formed a coalition with Britain and France to take Crimea from Russia, See what is happening now?
Turkey has finally realized that being closer to Russia is 100% better than the U.S/zionist who was very close to shooting down the president 's jet during the Coup in Turkey recently.

5th.. I was worried about the Zionist trying to find a countermeasure to the S-400. Since selling it to the Saudis would mean direct access to the zionist.. Then, i stopped worrying, cos Russia is always one step ahead of the game. S-500 is either close to finish the stage or already completed.



Again since Russia sold S-300 to Greece(NATO), Ukraine too has it. The west could not get any countermeasure to it yet was still very scared of Russia selling S-300 to Iran. You remember the pressure Iran went through before Russia could finally sell S-300?
Even check S-200 Syrian army fired to hit isreali jets and it downed it.. But as usual they denied. S-200 oh.. Built since soviet days.

Last but not the least.

Don't forget that, this is the highly defensive machine if Iran has S-300 and Saudi decided to buy S-400. Iran may also upgrade to -400. This is highly defensive move on both sides. Since Iran is not planning to invade Saudi. The opposite is the case here which the Saudis don't have a real army. All things being Equal. I have S-400, you have S-400. Turkey too will have. The main loser here is America cos this will make them think twice whenever they want to try a regime change. Cos that is always in their foreign policy.

And last thing. The move the Saudi made has just put Saudi in the hit list of the zionist. Go and write it down, Saudi may turn to another Iraq tomorrow.

Let's hope you are right above the strategy at play here. One thing I do agree with you though is that the end is nigh for Saudi Arabia.

Vlad

Hysteria. The North Koreans don't quite have an ICBM yet - as the Russain MOD has always maintained.

Figure 3 shows photographs extracted from North Korean videos of the launches of the Hwasong-14 missile during the morning of July 4 (in North Korea; the evening of July 3 in the United States) and during the night-launch on July 28. Careful examination shows that the first stage of the Hwasong-14 is powered by a large single rocket motor supported by 4 small “vernier” motors that are used to change the direction of the rocket during powered flight and to maintain its vertical stability during its initial lift-off and vertical acceleration. North Korea has also released videos of tests of the Hwasong-14 rocket motor (shown firing on a test stand in Figure 4).



Figure 3.

We have identified this rocket motor as a being derived from a family of Russian rocket motors known as the RD-250 or RD-251. The original motors used six thrust chambers fed by three turbo pumps to together generate roughly about 240 tons (about 530,000 pounds) of lift.

The North Koreans probably obtained this motor and many others as part of a vast shipment of rocket components to North Korea that occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s during the simultaneous disintegration of the national economy and political system of the Soviet Union. Until recently, almost all of the liquid-propellant motors seen in North Korea’s rockets could be traced back to the Makayev Institute, a vast and highly capable organization that was responsible for the design of all types of Soviet ballistic missiles. Because of the prominent role of Makayev in Soviet ballistic missile production, this institute would have had large numbers of rocket motors in storage that were used to build various models of SCUDs and the SS-N-6 submarine-launched ballistic missile (aka R-27) used on Russian Yankee class submarines.
The newest Russian rocket motor we have identified in the North Korean arsenal, derived from the RD-250/251 and used in the Hwasong-14, is not from the Makayev Institute, but from an entirely different major rocket motor manufacturer, NPO Energomash, which supported the OKB-456 Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. This rocket motor was associated with rocket and space launch vehicles produced in Ukraine. The presence of RD-250/251 rocket components in a new North Korean rocket raises new and potentially ominous questions about the variety and extent to which Soviet rocket motors might have been obtained by North Korea during the collapse of the Soviet Union.

[img]http://thebulletin.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Bulletin-Hwasong-Article-Figure-4_0.jpg?itok=Hm-XuQ5q[/img]

Figure 4.

The adaptation that North Korean engineers have worked, using components from the powerful RD 250/251 rocket motor, can be appreciated by examining Figure 5. The original RD 250/251 was a rocket motor that consisted of six thrust chambers, driven by three powerful turbo pumps. This rocket engine can be seen in the image on the left in figure 5.

Each of the three turbo pumps in the original rocket engine was nested between two thrust chambers, at a height below the combustion chamber and above the gas exhaust nozzle of each thrust chamber. This clever design made it possible to shorten the length of the rocket motor compartment and to reduce the overall length of the first stage of a rocket.

The image on the right in figure 5 is an enlargement taken from Figure 4, a photo of the Hwasong-14 rocket motor firing on a test stand. The outline of the motor’s thrust chamber is shown in a silhouette overlay and the location of the turbopump next to the single thrust chamber is shown to be exactly at the height of the turbopump in the RD 250/251 motor complex. It is clear that the final rocket motor mounted in the Hwasong-14 has this single powerful turbopump feeding propellant to both the main rocket motor and the four smaller vernier motors used to control the direction of the missile.

The design indicates a well-thought-out approach to a completely new missile that was not seen in public until the launch of the Hwasong-12, which was essentially a test aimed at proving the functionality of the first stage of the two-stage Hwasong-14. It is a remarkable achievement in itself that North Korea has been able to master the use of these components well enough to be able to adapt them to their special purposes.

We have determined that the approximate properties of the Hwasong-14 missile, with a second stage upgraded with more capable vernier motors from the Russian R-27 missile, will be as follows:




Figure 5.

General conclusions—for now. Our general conclusions from intensive study of a wide variety of data relating to the two rockets that North Korea launched in July:

**The Hwasong-14 does not currently constitute a nuclear threat to the lower 48 states of the United States.

**The flight tests on July 4 and 28 were a carefully choreographed deception by North Korea to create a false impression that the Hwasong-14 is a near-ICBM that poses a nuclear threat to the continental US.

**The Hwasong-14 tested on July 4 and 28 may not even be able to deliver a North Korean atomic bomb to Anchorage, Alaska.

**Although it is clear that North Korea is not capable of manufacturing sophisticated rocket components, their skill and ingenuity in using Soviet rocket motor components has grown very substantially. This is not good news for the long run.

It is time for the United States to get serious about diplomacy and appropriate defensive preparations (see sidebar, “Comments on the developing situation with North Korea”) to constructively support those diplomatic efforts.