About Breakthroughs.

About something peaceful, for a change. In the news which will never make front pages of any Western "business" media,  Russian commercial carrier S7 Airlines just signed letter of intent for 75 brand new, shortened 75 seat version, of Sukhoi Superjet (in German). The deliveries for this new modification of Sukhoi passenger jets will start in 2022. For anyone who wonders why it is significant, one has to remember that 10 years ago Russian manufacturers had no competitive jets to offer for internal market, now two major niches of regional jet, such as Sukhoi, and most popular mid-range jet, such as MC-21, are being filled and they are being filled fast.

Considering the fact that Aeroflot (42 SSJs) and Azimuth also use SSJs extensively--the trend towards domestically made aircraft is now well pronounced and, considering Russia's massive market for air travel, one can fairly safely predict that in decade or two these Russian-designed and made commercial jets will begin to dominate domestic market. But that was the idea to start with. For a commercial jet, such as SSJ, for which all Western "analysts" predicted a very grim fate--it is not too shabby to perform as it is performing, with Iran also signing letter of intent for 40 SSJs just a week ago. The issue of Iranian commercial jet market is a whole other story in itself and it is driven, as it supposed to be, by geopolitical, not just business considerations. Iran must know who really is a guarantor of her safety today and that "small" consideration is what I called a geopolitical currency. After all, MC-21 is an outstanding aircraft, if you know what I mean. 

 

ABBA.

I am so sick and tired of this global BS which is being unloaded on all of us daily with the speed of a Bullet Train, that this news were a delight to read:

                         ABBA Has 2 New Songs!

Mark Steyn was somewhat condescending to them when described them, but he did strike a gold with what is highlighted in yellow: 

That's the 1974 Eurovision winner from a four-Swede pop combo called Abba. In the years that followed, they were the country's second highest money earner after Volvo. But, globally speaking, "Waterloo" was their Waterloo – from the Duke of Wellington's perspective, I mean. It put them on the map, winning them the big prize from the protean pan-European institution, and still the least worst functioning. The song represents the high watermark, or the high Waterloo mark, of European unity. Not for nothing did former EU Commissioner Chris Patten, the late Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh and the Deputy French Foreign Minister Charles Josselin perform a ten-minute Abba medley at the 2000 Asia Regional Forum in Bangkok. As an artifact of European identity, the group's first continent-wide hit is strangely emblematic:

Obviously, Steyn, after that goes for the jugular with his grandiose in its falsity statement that:

In 1945, Europe was in ruins, America had won the war, and, if the Continentals weren't exactly promising to love the Yanks forevermore, they knew that their fate was to be with them, and they couldn't escape even if they wanted to. The US security umbrella and the Eurovision Song Contest both date back to the immediate post-war period. The idea was to help build a continent in which you could sing "Waterloo" rather than fight it, and, if in their excessive generosity the Americans accelerated the Europeans' inclination to softness and decadence, well, it's not their problem, and the Euros might have seen it coming.

There is a lot to be discussed here, especially about the "fate" which is directly responsible for contemporary moral and social degeneracy of Europe, which is currently being groomed for American economic consumption with further European decline, but never mind--it is purely West's deal and let Europeans eat their pie. Yet, ABBA, indeed, were a musical and visual delight which was profoundly European, with minimal blues influences, and with enormous references to Scandinavian Folk and, in general, European Classic Musical tradition. That is how they came across everywhere, with their albums and tapes going like crazy in Soviet music stores in 1970s and ABBA's songs blaring from every single Soviet apartment block window in Summer. 

There was a lot to be admired and how many pillows experienced rough teenage sex, because of two Swedish (actually, Frida is Norwegian) dolls who redefined what hot is, may never be known. But ABBA were and still remain those Sirens whose music stood the test of time and continues to charm and delight, especially against the background of contemporary plastic mass-produced talentless "stars", most of whom can not even sing, forget writing a good song. Moreover, forget them writing something which becomes immortal classics, as ABBA did. In the end--it is not a health hazard to become a bit nostalgic to a true gem of a music. After all, today is Friday. 

So, I say thank you for the music!

Oopsie! And What Do We See Here?

Of course, Tor-M2 at Khmeimim Air Base in Syria. And what does it mean? It means that this system, most likely, is already delivered to Syrians.   

Blogger Ecoross delivered a wonderful photo review of the base and its people. 

To remind about those Tors (namely M2KM), here is what was done to them in 2017. Here is the video, again. 

"Rumor" has it that these systems are capable of shooting targets while moving across complex terrain. They are also honed precisely against all kinds of stand-off  and stand-offish munitions, from TLAMs to all other kinds of HARMs. Rumor has it that Israeli Air Force's recent foray into Syria was against Iranian Tor which was about to go "on-line". 

Here is another Terminatorish (musically)  video of TOR-M2KM:

Grain Of Salt.

All right, I get it--China does grow her naval muscles, it is absolutely obvious. I also liked Chinese response to overly impressionable Aussies: 

News Corp Australia noted the admiral’s statements on Sunday in the context of the news that Australian warships had been “challenged” in the waters. The meeting of the two navies was downplayed by the Australian Navy, but hyped in the media as a sign of China’s growing assertiveness. Chinese state media took offense. "If Australia considers exchanges between countries as interference, it should lock itself up in the dark room,” China’s Global Times quoted the Chinese foreign ministry as saying about what has been described as a “standoff” between the Chinese and Australian ships.

The statement Australia's media are referring to is by, here is excerpt:

If Chinese leaders thought that saying goodbye to their least favorite US military commander, current US Pacific Command chief Admiral Harry Harris, would mean a more amenable replacement is on the way, they had better guess again. The nominee to take the spot when Harris becomes ambassador to Australia is sounding the alarm bells about China’s operations in the South China Sea, calling for the US to maintain a strong presence in the region and step up advanced weapons development. In written testimony to the US Senate Armed Services Committee released last week, the likely pick, Admiral Philip Davidson, said that China has already taken control of the South China Sea. “In short,” he wrote, “China is now capable of controlling the South China Sea in all scenarios short of war with the United States.”

If by control Admiral Davidson means ability to deploy increasingly impressive Chinese surface naval component--absolutely. Moreover, China was investing like crazy into state-of-the-art air superiority component and in developing a genuine A2/AD capability, not least through a variety of anti-shipping missiles. At some point of time it was inevitable that US and allied Navies will encounter China's Fleet-In-Being. There is, however, one field where US Navy is simply in a different league with PLAN--it is nuclear submarine component where US Navy holds for now overwhelming technological and operational advantage over PLAN beyond realistic ranges of PLAN's SSKs and patrol aviation. How long this gap will continue to exist? I don't know. I'll go out on a limb and say 10-12 years. So, if Davidson is concerned with the "security" of Oceania (boy, did those bells ring with Orwellian melody immediately), I would take those concerns with a little grain of salt.

The issue is larger than Oceania--it is global and, apart from significant traditional threat inflation for monetary (budgetary) gain, is about overall naval strategy and doctrine. Davidson was to the point when describing technological approach:

Regarding military technology, Davidson outlined a number of crucial areas in which to invest. “A more effective Joint Force requires sustained investment in the following critical areas: undersea warfare, critical munitions stockpiles, standoff weapons (Air-Air, Air-Surface, Surface-Surface, Anti-Ship), intermediate range cruise missiles, low cost / high capacity cruise missile defense, hypersonic weapons, air and surface lift capacity, cyber capabilities, air-air refueling capacity, and resilient communication and navigation systems.”

See highlighted in yellow? As I encountered last week some stupid (I am sure by one of those "experts" from US tabloids masquerading as "analytical" magazines) parallel: Speed is a New Stealth?  "Is"? Really? And since when "Stealth", much of which is PR, was the "thing"? It was and is always a speed, and these are hyper-sonic weapons and upcoming extremely capable Air-Missile-Defense complexes which already redefined naval warfare and with it the global balance of power. It will be rather fascinating to observe the US Navy's anti-shipping missile development. As recent events in Syria has shown, LRASM (a derivative of JASSM) is obsolete on arrival--it simply doesn't measure up to modern AD and EW capabilities of Russian or Chinese Navies. To have a real punch--one must today get into the Mach=3+ and highly maneuverable salvos' territory and this is not going to be easy. Not at all. US still commands an impressive scientific and engineering competence, but it will be not easy to close the gap in weapon systems which for all intents and purposes were viewed in US Navy as institutional threat to Aircraft Carriers. But it seems we really are nearing the moment of truth. 

Russian General Staff Exhibition.

Of "smart" missiles which took part in illegal strike on Syria on April 13. It is obvious that this is not the whole harvest, with declared one Tomahawk and one JASSM accurately "landed" and being now in possession of Russian military, but, in general--this is rather telling proof of an excellent performance by the Syria's AD armed mostly with old Soviet tech. As Ria reports:

In this place were Russian MoD photos. Somehow they are gone. I didn't take them down. I wonder what made them disappear. It is truly bizarre. Well, let's try this then:

By far more important news, however, was this today's statement from General Staff:

MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. Syria will receive new missile defense systems in the near future and Russian experts will teach Syrians to use them, Head of the Main Operations Department at Russia’s General Staff Colonel General Sergei Rudskoi said at a briefing on Wednesday.

General Staff in Russia doesn't set policies--Kremlin does, so Rudskoy's statement is the statement of policy sanctioned on the highest political level. As I always repeat some of the more profound truisms--all actions have consequences. It was clear that April 13 attack will not be left without response. It seems response is "pouring in" now in full force. What would Israel do? I suggest her to call Kremlin. As per exhibition of those "all" missiles which struck Syria's chemical facilities and "none" of which was shot down--I guess this small exhibition speaks volumes. But then again, there will be many "experts" who would state that these are merely remnants of missiles which struck targets. Of course they are, of course they are. In related news--I am Mickey Mouse. 

As Colonel Lang stated today: 

So what happened? I am told by several foreign sources with access to the information needed to make a valid judgment that the Russians are correct. These people are friendly to the United States as are their governments. Over two thirds of the US coalition missiles failed to reach their targets. Why? All the reasons cited above must have played a role in this aerial defeat. Obsolescent weapons, a fully integrated air defense and skill brought to the fight.

"Russian experts will continue to train Syrian military servicemen, particularly teaching them to use the new missile defense systems that are planned to be delivered to Syria in the near future," he said.


More:
http://tass.com/defense/1001702

No amount of PR can hide the fact that both sides of the conflict know the score and it is not in favor of NATO and Israel. I will omit for now elaboration on possible "improvement" of TLAMs which is coming--to understand why it will not matter that much... well, my book should be out fairly soon. 

A Non-Event In US.

Yet, in Russia it matters, still--and will continue to matter, no matter what. The memory is always there. Victory Day is coming and there will be, of course, parade and other events but it will be the march of Immortal Regiment which will again number in hundreds of thousands or even millions in Moscow and Leningrad (it is Leningrad on this day) and in millions all over Russia. These news, however, are not going to make front pages of US newspapers nor are going to be reported in prime-time on TV.

WASHINGTON, April 24. /TASS/. The Russian Ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, diplomats from the Russian embassy, World War II veterans who fought on the Soviet Front, and representatives of CIS member-states took part in a flower-laying ceremony on Tuesday at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington. They laid flowers at the Spirit of the Elbe memorial marker. The annual ceremony commemorates the historic meeting of Soviet and American soldiers on the River Elbe on April 25, 1945. Staff members of the embassies of Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Belarus, as well as former Soviet veterans and veterans of the US Armed Forces brought flowers to the marker, too. US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Thomas Shannon, attended the ceremony at the head of a delegation of the US Department of State. A separate flower was laid by members of the joint US-Russian commission for prisoners of war and missing in action. The memorial slab at Arlington National Cemetery was unveiled in April 1995 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Linkup on the Elbe. An inscription on the slab reads, "In recognition of the cooperation by American, Soviet and Allied armed forces during World War II. This marker symbolizes the link up of Soviet and American elements at the Elbe River on 15 April 1945. In tribute to the partnership in the battle against tyranny."

Yet, today all this reminiscence means very little in the US, which to a large degree owes its dominance to the most destructive war in human history. It is a very complex issue, of course. It is also a very sensitive one but no matter what, it is always on 25 April that Russians mark what they call Meeting on Elbe, which in many important respects then, in 1945, was viewed almost as a sign, anticipation of better things to come in the wake of a horrendous price Soviet Union payed. It was not meant to be, but for a moment it seemed possible. In the end Marshal Konev presented Omar Bradley with beautiful stallion and Omar Bradley presented Konev with his own personal Jeep filled to the top with cartons of loved by every Red Army servicemen, from enlisted to Marshal, Camel cigarettes, known to Red Army as "tropheinye" (trophy) because of those being available through captured Wehrmacht's stores at the Eastern Front.

That moment of Allied amity ended really fast, but the photo of 2^nd Lieutenant William Robertson and Lieutenant Alexander Sylvashko remains ingrained in Russian memory forever. Those were People, from the capital P. And the only thing we can do for future generations, without unnecessary pathos or sappy sentimentalism, is to keep those memories alive. We may yet get the ultimate need for those memories. 

On S-300 For Syria.

There is a lot of talk about Russia supplying Syrian Air Defense with S-300 complexes ever since  the United States (and its lapdogs of UK and France) launched missile attack on Syria on April 13. It was then that Chief of GOU (Main Operational Directorate) of General Staff General Rudskoy in no uncertain terms stated that S-300 will be delivered to Syria. Since then this topic became hot-hot-hot and not least because of Israel having her own view on that. Indeed, if to follow open sources, as TASS noted today, the delivery can happen as early as the next month or two. And here is the conundrum for both Israel and US, which is an extension of the Israel in the Middle East.  

As is the case with Russophrenia, that is a condition where the sufferer believes Russia is both about to collapse, and take over the world. Since 2013, instances of this ailment have reached epidemic-like proportions in certain parts of Washington, London and Brussels.  Israel and the US must run a tight routine to present famed S-300s as a over-hyped and not really good AD complex while simultaneously show its deadliness to both Israeli and US Air Forces. It is not an easy task, it takes, as with any schizophrenia, an immense task to combine two mutually exclusive opposites in one entity--this is the task for Orwellian world only. And the attempts on doing this never ceased since April 13. Obviously, the actuality on "the ground", so to speak, after missile strikes on April 13 was such that it shook very many both in Israel and US--Syrian aged AD turned out to be on the order of magnitude more effective than was expected and that brings forth immediately this very issue of S-300s which are generation or two newer than Syria's Osa, S-125s and S-200s. 

In fact, those Russian S-300s are so "not dangerous" and so "not effective" and so represent "no danger" to vaunted IAF that Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman promised today to destroy them before they will become operational.  

"What's important to us is that the defensive weapons the Russians are giving Syria won't be used against us," Lieberman told the news website Ynet. "If they're used against us, we'll act against them."

At this stage I have to ask a question--are they really that dumb in Israel? Israel long ago crossed the actual red line which was drawn for her by Putin in his meetings with BiBi that at some point of time Israel will have to stop bombing Syria, which, if they forgot both in Jerusalem and Washington, is an independent state and has all rights which come with this independence, including defense of own borders and airspace. Russia was more than accommodating with Israel when delayed for years delivery of S-300s to Syria, as was settled by the contract. In the end, Russia even dragged her feet until recently with delivery of same S-300s to Iran--all under both requests and pressure by Israel and combined West. Finally, the patience ran out and Tehran got itself long awaited S-300s and Syria, it seems now, is about to get her own--those "over-hyped" and "lacking in capability" S-300s.

The question, however, remains--if those S-300s are junk, as many claim, why so much hysteria? Come on, let Russia deliver those measly incapable outdated S-300s and then attack them again once they are operational and show the whole world how inefficient they are, right? Well, not quite. At issue here is the history, also well known to Israel, of Soviet/Russian produced Air Defense Complexes which have a combat history and reputation simply unmatched in the world. From Vietnam to Middle East wars, to recent events--even old Soviet complexes, when properly integrated, provided excellent targeting and ECCM "coverage", performed admirably. How will new systems perform? Let's put it this way--Israel is getting increasingly bellicose and threatening precisely for the reasons of knowing that S-300 will be able, in a well trained hands, to close Syria's airspace for both Israeli Air Force and its stand-off weapons. Well, the US will also feel even more restricted in Syria. But even larger issue looms behind all this Israeli rhetoric--who gave Israel the right to attack neighboring country, often under lame excuses and threat inflation? That is the main issue, the rest is a derivative of Israel's habit, until recently, to do what she wants in Syria's skies. As it seems now, this MO is coming to an end. In the end, Russia may provide an umbrella until Syrian S-300s are being deployed and then go fully operational--let the Israeli Air Force deal with even "less capable", "junky" and "inefficient" S-400. Those complexes are all hype, right?    

In related news, Donald Trump wants to leave Syria, again. Sure, so one may expect new false flags and orders by the impressionable POTUS to launch other attacks at Syria's non-existent "chemical weapons" and other imaginary facilities which "produce" them. So, I think getting Syrian AD their very own S-300s is a good idea. And who would believe any word Trump gives. After all, it is Israel who runs US foreign policy. Remember the Speech?

We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first. We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example. We will shine for everyone to follow. We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth.

It took only 15 months. Make your own conclusions.