Merry Christmas.

To everyone and let there be peace and calm. Of course, we know that this is impossible with neocons in charge in D.C. but for good people of this planet--let your wishes come true and stay healthy and prosper. Just to remind how Putin now weeps in his Main Kremlin Palace because he is denied shopping in Paris by Germany's Defense Minister and how he gazes across the Red Square at GUM.

To find solace there, I guess))) Moscow is magical at Christmas(es) (both Catholic and Orthodox) and New Year. 

But still sticking to my business, Bernhard of MoA published an interesting piece on, and you may have guessed it, hypersonic weapons and the paper from Naval Post Graduate School. Worthy of reading, believe me.

   U.S. Navy Acknowledges Russian Weapon Superiority

I will gladly elaborate more on this issue, including within the larger framework of European (in)security and will explain why things maybe changing faster than we may expect. In fact I was already preparing this explanation for video too. The gap is growing and the US is trying desperately to do something about it but there is very little what could be done. Now that Putin admits that Russia and China work on joint projects in developing advanced weaponry I doubt that the combined West can do anything about it. As I am on record--the gap is not years, it is generational, weapons and CONOPS of the 20th century against the warfare of the 21st. 

Scott Ritter is pretty straight-forward in his predictions. 

Russia is operating on its own timeline, one that seeks a rapid resolution to these issues. While Russia has agreed to direct talks with the U.S., and multilateral talks with NATO and the OSCE, these talks will not be allowed to drag on. Should the U.S. not agree to the Russian demands outright (never going to happen) or a reasonable counterproposal (highly unlikely), and should the U.S. go forward with its plans to deploy the Dark Eagle hypersonic missile system to Europe (prompting a Russian response to deploy weapons systems of its own that place the totality of Europe under the immediate threat of annihilation), then the outcome is a foregone conclusion—Russia will destroy Ukraine militarily.

But I have my doubts about timetable for Dark Eagle to start with and, once and if deployed, about its real capabilities, especially against Russia's anti-missile systems which are already in place. As Scott notes further:

Moreover, Russia may very well deploy hypersonic weapons into the Caribbean, either in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, or a combination thereof, to counter the threat to Moscow posed by U.S. systems in Europe.  

True, but (K-329) Belgorod is already in IOC and Khabarovsk is getting ready, that is 12 Poseidons. But even 6 of them is enough to... well, I don't want to go there. 

This is K-329 in June. So, there are options... many of them.