In most of the world’s freely elected governments, officials explain their defense budgets almost apologetically. There is a media inclination to frame spending on military needs as an unwanted diversion of funds from civilian programs.
It is startling, therefore, when one reads the pronouncements from Russia and China that boast with considerable pride of their new weapons programs. Much of that language and the related facts are given little air or print space in western news coverage, since it contradicts the political inclinations of broadcast, internet, and print media.
As the United States, under the Obama Administration, limited its defense spending, Moscow and Beijing moved vigorously and rapidly ahead. That fact alone disproved the oft-stated argument by isolationists and opponents to adequate defense budgets that Russian and Chinese military moves are a response to American actions.
A National Interest article by Dan Goure notes: “Since the end of the Cold War, chronic under-funding resulted in a [American] military that today is relatively unready, particularly for high-end conflict, and increasingly obsolescent. It also forced many companies to make the painful decision to reduce their research and development (R&D). During this same period…competitors were investing in both traditional defense products and advanced technologies designed to achieve superiority vis-a-vis the U.S. military. Russia, for example, has been engaged in a decade-long, comprehensive program to modernize its conventional force structure. Now it poses a credible threat to NATO. According to the Chief of Staff of the Army, General Mark Milley, ‘U.S. ground forces are out-ranged by Russian tanks and artillery… we are technically outranged and outgunned.’ Much attention focuses on Russian and Chinese investments in next-generation platforms and weapons designed to give them decisive superiority over the U.S. and its allies.”
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Many of Russia’s technological advances are startling. A Spacewar report revealed that Russian military expert Viktor Baranets specifically touted the unprecedented damage range of Russia’s next-generation S-500 Prometey missile system, “which is currently undergoing state tests.… Pavel Sozinov, chief engineer of the Russian defense corporation Almaz-Antey, said that Russia’s next-generation S-500 surface-to-air missile system would be able to engage targets in the upper layer of the atmosphere, 100 kilometers [62 miles] above the Earth’s surface.… The system can simultaneously intercept up to ten ballistic and hypersonic missiles traveling at a speed of up to 7 kilometers per second. Speaking to Sputnik, Viktor Baranets pointed, in particular, to the unique performance characteristics of the new Russian missile system.According to him, among other things the S-500 system is also designed to destroy combat blocks of hypersonic missiles. He noted that in terms of its characteristics, the S-500 will significantly exceed Russia’s S-400 missile system and its American competitor, the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile system.”
The Russian news source RT proudly states that “Russia has floated its new state-of-the-art nuclear-powered multipurpose submarine called Kazan as its fleet returned to Soviet-era operational levels in terms of sea patrols, according to the Russian Navy chief. ‘The Yasen-M class nuclear-powered submarine cruisers are some of the most advanced battleships that amassed all cutting-edge submarine shipbuilding technologies,’Admiral Vladimir Korolev, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, said as the most advanced Russian nuclear attack submarine, Kazan – the second submarine of the Yasen-M class – was launched in the northern Russian port of Severodvinsk…Korolev also said that Russian submarines have reached Soviet Union-era levels in terms of the combat patrols as the vessels had spent some 3,000 days at sea in 2016, adding that ‘it is an excellent level…Last year, we returned to the level we had before the post-Soviet era in terms of the days at sea. Russia’s submarine fleet has spent 3,000 days at sea,’ the admiral said.
The Report Continues Tomorrow
Illustration: Sukhoi-35 (Russian Ministry of Defense)