Russian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

The bitter war in Georgia, fought between the Russian-supported separatists in Abkhasia and Georgians, was actually never finished, but rather stopped when the Russians found themselves confronted with a similar situation in Chechnya. In fact, this conflict eventually resulted in providing anti-Russian elements with a safe heaven inside Georgia!

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THE EMERGING RUSSIAN GIANT, Part 1
Moscow plays its cards strategically
In the face of the increasingly obvious Washington policy of encircling and weakening Russia, President Vladimir Putin began a series of defensive moves. Subsequent US blunders made the job a bit easier. Now, with the stakes rising, Putin has moved beyond simple defense to a new dynamic offensive to secure a more viable geopolitical position, using energy as the lever. - F William Engdahl

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This Collective Will Not Fly
By Alexander Golts

During his recent televised question-and-answer session, President Vladimir Putin was clearly irritated with the pace of work on a February presidential decree to form a national holding company for aircraft construction. "They are sorting out whose assets are worth more and whose less as at some oriental bazaar," Putin said. "We need to finish discussions and move on to constructive decisions."

It is hardly surprising that after this outburst the wheels of the state machine began to move faster. A few days later, the government commission to integrate the enterprises called for the creation of the Unified Aircraft-Construction Corporation, which brings together most of Russia's aircraft companies, including Tupolev, Ilyushin, Sukhoi, Irkut, the Sokol factory in Nizhny Novgorod and others. The state will have a 75 percent stake in the holding.

To all appearances, Putin sincerely believes the industry can be resurrected through mass collectivization, by herding surviving companies and those that have long been in a coma into a giant aircraft-production communal farm. The last time the government tried something similar, at the end of the 1990s, it couldn't overcome opposition from companies that could not understand why they should send their profits to Moscow in the name of a higher cause.


Now that Putin is behind it, there is no escape. But it remains to be seen if the move will give the aircraft industry much of a boost. Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko recently told the State Duma that the aircraft industry was in a slump and entirely dependent on foreign sales of military aircraft. The bulk of profits come from sales of the Su-30 fighter to China, India and Vietnam (and next year planes will likely be sold to Venezuela). Some profits also come from sales of Su-34 Fullback fighter-bombers to the Russian armed forces.

But no cooperation is necessary here. The factories are producing planes that were developed in the Soviet era. The companies managed to set up independent production and supply chains for components, but are now being asked to had over their assets in the name of dubious future production projects.

The problem with the Russian aircraft industry is that it has not created a single new aviation technology in 15 years. Given current development rates in aviation, this means that the country's air industry is simply not competitive. "Virtually no work has been done on new aircraft engines for more than 20 years," said Vladimir Skibin, general director of the Central Institute for Aviation Engine Building. "This stretch of time means the loss of a design culture."

The planned holding company does not include electrical engineering or engine-design institutes. Moreover, the plans only include "horizontal integration," so the current management at both efficient and inefficient companies will remain. This is unlikely to help improve efficiency.

Finally, the new holding company will not help to solve the biggest problem facing the aviation industry: the almost total absence of a commercial component. Khristenko said just 85 civilian aircraft, mostly light planes, were produced from 2003 to 2005. For the industry to survive, analysts say, Russia should be producing at least 500 civilian planes per year. It is clear that the aviation industry will be unable to reach the production levels necessary for profitability in the near future.

It is clear that the aircraft industry can only be revitalized through cooperation with the world's leading aircraft builders. The only new civilian aircraft project to reach the pre-production stage -- the Sukhoi Superjet-100 airliner -- is made largely of foreign components. The engines are a Russian-French joint effort. The vibration-control system is Swiss. The fuel system, avionics and chassis are French. The air conditioning system comes from Germany. The pilots' seats are from Britain. The auxiliary power unit, electrical, braking and wheel systems, the interior and the emergency equipment are all from the United States. Yet the government is presently doing everything it can to build a "ring-fence" to prevent foreign involvement in strategic branches of industry.

It is blindingly obvious that the creation of this corporation won't solve the aviation industry's problems. Tying inefficient producers together mechanically will only increase the losses for the country. The officials who promise Putin a mythical "fifth-generation fighter" and "short- and medium-range" civilian airliners will take control of the export incomes of a number of companies. Russia will not get any new planes, but London and Nice are likely to be seeing some newly minted Russian millionaires.

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.. Russia seems to be well aware that China would like to obtain its most sophisticated military technology, which, in case of deteriorating relations, Beijing might use against Russia. For that reason, Russia is reluctant to provide China with its state-of-the-art products. Moreover, there are indications that China is steadily acquiring enough knowledge to have a solid military industry of its own. Subsequently, in the coming years China will buy fewer arms from Russia, which will diminish the value of this cornerstone of their bilateral relationship.

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Russia's new intercontinental ballistic missile system put on combat alert duty

18.12.2006 Source: URL:

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Russian Strategic Rocket Force unveiled the long-awaited “missile of the 21st century” to President Putin on Thursday. Commander in Chief gave his personal blessing to a maiden combat alert duty of the Topol-M missile complex, an advanced version of the silo-based and mobile Topol intercontinental ballistic missile. The first Topol-M mobile missile systems were put on combat duty on a location in the dense forests of Ivanono region, northeast of Moscow. The new Topol-M is officially designed a land-based mobile missile system i.e. the missile can be accommodated both on self-propelled launchers as well in silos.

High survivability of the mobile complex is achieved by the capability of off-road movement, comprising of continuous change in location and of a missile launch from any point along the movement route. There is no ICBM system similar to the Russian Topol-M in the West at the moment. Unlike a number of other Russian silo-based ICBMs, which must be an open secret to Russia’s potential enemies in terms of location, the new missile is considered virtually undetectable. President Putin was apparently impressed as he watched the crews expertly placing the missile systems in operational readiness. From a distance, three Topol-M missile systems looked like haystacks sitting near the edge of a forest. In actuality, the haystacks comprised 120-ton mobile launchers with full crews and a command post hidden under the camouflage net.

According to Lieutenant General Nikolai Solovtsev, Commander of Russia’s Strategic Rocket Force, it takes just a few minutes to put the new missile complex on alert. Reporters accompanying the Russian president could see the proof in a combat readiness exercise that followed. President Putin liked what he saw during the exercise. He was particularly pleased to point out that the missile troops had kept their promise. “Back in 2004 the military promised to put the Topol-M on an alert footing in 2007. I’d like to take the opportunity and compliment you on being as good as your word,” said President Putin. In his turn, Lieutenant General Solovtsev boasted that all components of the new missile were Russian-made. Speaking to Komsomolskaya Pravda, a source with the Russian Strategic Force, said that a number of important parts for the older Topol missiles had been previously manufactured by Ukraine. The country has been politically unpredictable over the last several years, to put it mildly. Now that the independence of the Russian missile shield has been restored, the new Russian missile system Topol-M should effectively remind of Russia’s nuclear capability to all of the nation’s ill-wishers.

On the outside, the Topol-M looks like its predecessor, the Topol ICBM system. In fact, both versions of the missile system look like identical twins. The devil is in the “stuffing” of the new missile. Although deployed with a single warhead, the Topol-M could easily be converted into a multiple-warhead missile depending on operational objectives. The new Topol-M reportedly takes several days to beat the enemy’s new antimissile defense system. Needless to say, the technique is a top military secret. It is rumored that the missile has a maneuverable warhead, to deceive antimissile defense system.

The missile’s warhead is also reportedly equipped with active deception jamming systems. The missile carries a single warhead but has a high throw weight: about 1,200 kg. This enables the new Topol-M missile to be tranformed in 24-hour period into a missile with multiple reentry vehicles carrying up to 7 warheads. The Topol-M has three stages, with the first stage having three solid-rocket motors, which were modernized to enable the missile to have a much higher acceleration and decrease ist transit time. Morever, the Russian Strategic Rocket Force already carried out several test flights of the Topol-M missile using hypersonic ramjet engines. Presently no Western ICBM system has anything similar to that type of an rocket engine.

Some specs for the Russian Topol-M ICBM system

Maximum range: 10,000 kilometers
Number of stages: 3
Weight: 47.1 tons
Throw weight: 1.2 tons
Length with fitted warhead: 22.7 meters
Warhead explosive force: 1 megaton
The missile system can be based on self-propelled launchers and in silos.

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