Monday, June 29, 2020

Bad S-400, Bad!

And when you thought that the world couldn't get any stranger, it does get stranger, way-way stranger. Frankly, I do not even know how to define this, it is so bizarre that I am lost:
WASHINGTON ― The U.S. would be able to buy Turkey’s Russian-made S-400 air defense system under legislation proposed in the Senate last week. The proposal is one powerful lawmaker’s attempt to alleviate the impasse between Washington and Ankara over the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., has proposed an amendment to the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act that would allow the purchase to be made using the U.S. Army’s missile procurement account. The move comes a year after the U.S. expelled NATO ally Turkey from the multinational F-35 program because it received the S-400 in a $2.5 billion deal. However, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, has introduced an amendment that would take a tougher stance, mandating the Trump administration implement CAATSA sanctions on Turkey within 30 days of passage of the NDAA. Risch has been critical of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and accused him of bad faith in dealings with the U.S. over the S-400.
It is so "out there" that one has to ask--do they think Russians are that stupid? But the arrogance is oozing from those guys:
The U.S. routinely buys foreign technology and could both exploit the S-400′s technology and test U.S. tactics, said Jim Townsend, a former Pentagon official for European and NATO policy. If Turkey doesn’t go for the idea, he said, the two countries are still stuck. “I think the US buying the S-400s from Turkey is a clever way of getting Erdogan out of the jam he put himself in,” Townsend said. “We just want to get the system out of Turkey ... and if it enables the Turks to take part in the F-35 then all the better.”
As I stated not for once, F-35 for S-400, or, for that matter, any recent modification of S-300+ or Buk, when integrated properly, is just another aerial target. All those statements originating both in Senate and from all kinds of "experts" are a direct testimony to a bankruptcy of the whole "Stealth" based air warfare doctrine. While at it, why don't those people ask Russia to sell them 3M22 Zircon, P-800 Oniks, A-100 AWACS, S-500 and Yasen-calss submarine. And why not--that will be a bonanza for US trying to close a gap in generation or two in those funky weapons. To be honest, though, Putin once did offer (as a joke) to sell Russian weapons to the United States. And I am sure Russians are writing a letter to Erdogan allowing him to sell Turkish S-400 to US this very moment as I type this. The permission should arrive any minute now. This whole thing is so surreal, that it is totally legitimate to convincingly state that they all completely went off the rails in D.C. And lost the touch with the reality. 

In conclusion: Russia offers today to clients way more than state-of-the-art weaponry. As I repeat ad nauseam, attached to this weaponry come those elements of political stability which the US simply cannot provide and, in fact, acts as highly destabilizing force on most occasions. As they say, who needs an enemy when one has an ally such as the US. In the end, US simply has nothing comparable, not even close, in terms of air-defense complexes, not to mention the fact that, remember, Erdogan wants his hands on toys US simply cannot offer. And if he behaves, in the end, he may get even juicer ones, such as S-500 at some point of time. That will be a wowser, granted NATO will still exist then. 

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