Four, Three, Two, One--"Experts"!

OK, I am being facetious but truth is--expect the wave of Western and Russian "military experts" in full blown damage control mode trying to undo President Putin's address to Russia's Federal Assembly. I didn't have the chance to review it yet in full but I am sure many people will do it for all of us shortly. Having said all that, I couldn't have missed this:

Путин уточнил, что эта ракета способна развивать скорость полета около девяти махов, а дальность ее полета может составить более 1 тыс. км. При этом она способна поражать как морские, так и наземные цели.

Translation:  Putin specified that this missile (Zircon) is capable of speeds around M=9 and its range could be in excess of 1,000 kilometers. It is capable of hitting both sea surface and ground targets.

Well, what can I say: 3.14 x 1000^2=3.14 million square kilometers of potential search area for a single submarine carrying Zircons. For comparison, 3+ million square kilometers is the area of India. Good luck coming up with the location probability density mapping for this one. Putin went further and simply confirmed that any carrier of Kalibr family missiles is capable of carrying Zircons. OK, the picture of a modernized (that is Kalibrized) pr. 949A (Oscar II-class) SSGN carrying  somewhere between 20 to 50 Zircons is kinda the stuff of nightmares for any surface combatants, but it is what it is. 

Then Putin went even further and stated that recent tests in adverse weather conditions with already deployed Kinzhal demonstrated its ability to hit a passenger sedan size target from 1,000+ km away. The fact that Zircon comes along nicely was circumstantially confirmed by India, whose representatives today confirmed that hyper-sonic Brahmos-2 will be ready by 2024. Putin concluded about the United States: 

"there are a lot of those in the ruling class of the United States, who are obsessed with the idea of their exclusiveness and superiority over the rest of the world. This is certainly their right to think this way. But can they make the calculations? Undoubtedly they can," Putin said. "So let them calculate the range and speed of our advanced weapon systems."

More:
http://tass.com/defense/1045587

there are a lot of those in the ruling class of the United States, who are obsessed with the idea of their exclusiveness and superiority over the rest of the world."

Read also

Putin says Russia is stronger than any aggressor 'but no time to relax'

"This is certainly their right to think this way. But can they make the calculations? Undoubtedly they can," Putin said. "So let them calculate the range and speed of our advanced weapon systems.


More:
http://tass.com/defense/1045587

Obviously Vladimir Vladimirovich should know that political "scientists", lawyers, ethics "specialists", philosophers and other financiers and sociologists constituting this very ruling class have their calculating abilities limited to calculating stock options and debit with credit but not what constitutes serious and complex values defining modern highly technological warfare. As General Latiff (himself a Ph.D in Physics) formerly of DARPA and other advanced Pentagon's R&D programs noted in his latest book:      

Make no mistake: the willful ignorance of the American public and its leaders will have dangerous consequences. Most Americans, including many of our political leaders, pay scant attention to military issues until a situation arises concerning our armed forces. Then they act based on emotion and political expedience rather than on facts, and that rarely ends well....Much of what the public knows or thinks about the military derives from entertainment

http://tass.com/defense/1045587

In other words, and that is my position for decades, really--one must be seriously educated and trained in modern military to even have a remotely competent point. This education and training is absent in US ruling class of good ol' boys and girls most of who see the war and military on the TV screen at best and didn't serve a day in uniform, forget operational zones. Those people also have issues with understanding what real American military professionals tell them due to this ruling class a rather grossly exaggerated intellectual and cognitive capabilities. As per Poseidon thingy, I don't even want to go there--it is still covered with a complete shroud of mystery and let fanboys deal with it. 

In related news, a popular military doom-porn expert, Captain First Rank Konstantin Sivkov suddenly (finally) came to the conclusion while  describing hypothetical NATO's attack on Russia and here, this former General Staff officer makes this proverbial face-palm mistake:

Опыт прошедших локальных войн свидетельствует, что для их ведения США и их союзники создавали весьма мощные группировки ВВС.

Translation: The experience of local wars of the past testifies that to fight them US and her allies were creating fairly powerful Air Force groupings.  

I have news for Sivkov from Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments 2010, and I quote:

Unquestionably the U.S. military has come a long way in embracing non-nuclear guided munitions since 1991. But like the German campaign in Poland in September 1939, the conflicts the U.S. military has fought in Afghanistan and Iraq have not been against major adversaries with comparable military capabilities. Against the Taliban, the Iraqi army, al Qaeda terrorists, Sunni and Shia insurgents, and various jihadist fighters from Iran and elsewhere in the Arab world, the increasing use of guided munitions by American forces has been less about new ways of fighting than about improving the efficiency and effectiveness of longstanding ways of fighting by traditional U.S. military organizations. U.S. progress in embracing the revolution in military affairs centered on precision-strike has to be assessed relative to capable adversaries with their own precision-strike capabilities, not relative to opponents with third-rate military capabilities. 

But I am sure Sivkov knows all that when writes about "experience" of local wars (wink, wink). At least Sivkov figured out that if Russia stops NATO's first air operation the rest will not follow. The hell you say, thanks for the revelation, Captain Obvious.  Other than that, it seems to be an interesting day.