Free Republic

Russia's Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau (member of United Shipbuilding Corporation OCK) unveiled the new Project 23420 small anti submarine warfare (ASW) ship. The vessel features a futuristic design with very sleek lines. Project 23420 small anti submarine warfare (ASW) ship. Picture: Almaz According to Almaz, the small ASW ship is designed for conducting combat operations against underwater, surface and air adversaries, for guarding naval bases, for engaging enemy shore installations with artillery fire, for patrolling the state sea border and EEZ. The Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau, founded in 1949, is a leading design and engineering organization in the...

A major fire broke out Wednesday in Moscow at a building belonging to Russian missile manufacturer Almaz, the maker of air defence weapons including the S-300 missile system, officials said. The fire at the company's design bureau had spread over an area measuring 800 square metres (8,500 square feet) and dozens of firefighters had been sent to the scene, a spokesman for the Emergency Ministry, Yevgeny Bobylev said. State television pictures showed a huge cloud of grey smoke rising into the sky from the area affected in the north of Moscow. Its cause was not immediately clear

It sounds like something from a James Bond movie: a massive satellite, the largest ever launched, equipped with a powerful laser to take out the American anti-missile shield in advance of a Soviet first strike. It was real, though—or at least the plan was. In fact, when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev walked out of the October 1986 summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, because President Ronald Reagan wouldn't abandon his Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI, the Soviets were closer to fielding a space-based weapon than the United States was. Less than a year later, as the world continued to criticize Reagan for...

It sounds like something from a James Bond movie: a massive satellite, the largest ever launched, equipped with a powerful laser to take out the American anti-missile shield in advance of a Soviet first strike. It was real, though—or at least the plan was. In fact, when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev walked out of the October 1986 summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, because President Ronald Reagan wouldn't abandon his Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI, the Soviets were closer to fielding a space-based weapon than the United States was. Less than a year later, as the world continued to criticize Reagan for...

The Australian think-tank, Air Power Australia (APA), has released another in their series of techno-strategy papers, this time analysing the advancements in Russian-built Integrated Air Defense Systems (IADS) (http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-2009-02.html), and what it means in global strategic terms for the Americans. The APA report is direct and unequivocal – Russian radar and missiles have improved to the point where the US fleet of F-15s, F-16s and F/A-18s, as well as the planned Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), are not capable of surviving against these systems and unless the Americans build another four hundred-plus F-22s, they will lose the strategic advantage they have...