What Was Always Warranted...

 ... and finally comes to surface on Russians' part. For intro, one has to understand what measuring of anything is. Measuring anything is a process of COMPARISON to a standard. E.g. when you measure length you compare it to a standard which is your measuring device, be it a simple ruler or laser device, produced at the factory which itself uses very precise standards. In the US it is Weights and Measures Division of government, which oversees the proper comparisons by providing highest level of measures standardization.  In the everyday life, however, when comparing something, we all use rather widely different standards of food habits, cleanness (hygiene) or of beauty. But even here, there are SOME standards which one cannot ignore. 

Here is comparison of today's Moscow and London. 

It doesn't require additional comments because we all, at least people who visit and read this blog, have some basic standards. This is the measure of things. That is why I am on record, some New Yorker who never visited anything beyond NYC, could have a serious cognitive dissonance if not cultural shock when being placed in the middle of Moscow or St. Petersburg, because he (she) never saw anything like this. Same goes for the most Londoners depicted in this video. 

Now to other standard, which underscores the difference. A simple fact. 

С.-ПЕТЕРБУРГ, 15 окт — РИА Новости. Председатель Следственного комитета Александр Бастрыкин поручил проверить видео с избиением людей в Петербурге выходцами из Азербайджана, сообщила пресс-служба СК России.  "Председатель СК России поручил исполняющему обязанности руководителя ГСУ СК России по Санкт-Петербургу Бобкову О. В. возбудить уголовное дело и представить доклад", — говорится в публикации. По данным Telegram-канала Baza, компания избивает прохожих в Северной столице и выкладывает соответствующие ролики в социальные сети. На опубликованных кадрах видно, как группа молодых людей нападает на людей, избивает и оскорбляет их. Это происходит в различных местах Санкт-Петербурга, в основном возле метро и в торговых центрах. Портал "МВД Медиа" сообщил, что полиция также проводит проверку видео из Петербурга. "По данному факту сотрудниками полиции проводится проверка, приняты меры к установлению и задержанию лиц, фигурирующих на видеозаписи", — сообщает пресс-центр МВД России.

Translation: St. PETERSBURG, October 15 – RIA Novosti. Chairman of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin ordered to check the video of the beating of people in St. Petersburg by immigrants from Azerbaijan, the press service of the Russian Investigative Committee reported. “The Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia instructed the acting head of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia for St. Petersburg O.V. Bobkov to initiate a criminal case and submit a report,” the publication says. According to the Baza Telegram channel, the company beats passers-by in the Northern capital and posts relevant videos on social networks. The published footage shows a group of young people attacking people, beating and insulting them. This happens in various places in St. Petersburg, mainly near the metro and in shopping centers. The MVD Media portal reported that the police are also checking the video from St. Petersburg. “Police officers are conducting an investigation into this fact, and measures have been taken to identify and detain the persons appearing in the video,” reports the press center of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

 

Now let me decipher for you what it means. That means, that the Russian equivalent of Director of FBI (in fact, more powerful) gets personally involved into this case. Now, all proper assets of MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs) get involved in looking for these sons of bitches, who, no doubt, now will try to escape to Azerbaijan, but here is the trick--somebody already is calling leaders of Azeri diaspora and informs them that this looks really bad on diaspora's record, because now information about this event is reported in all major Russian media. Once those ass-holes will be captured, they will have a book thrown at them, not before they will tearfully start begging forgiveness on video, of course. 

 

There is another way of dealing with that. Ramzan Kadyrov has even more effective method--Chechen community living in Russia proper know it damn well, that if any law is broken, those are usually immediately sent back to Grozny where they begin to beg for forgiveness and apologize and then are given jobs such as sweeping Grozny's streets or doing other sanitation jobs--utter humiliation for Chechen man. You see? That is why Russian cities are clean, safe and orderly and compare extremely favorably to anything in the combined West. BLM's analogue is simply impossible in Russia and nobody gives a shit about "human rights" if the law is broken. Of course, Russia has Gypsy issues, but that requires a separate approach. Here is Vladimir Putin reminds one of the leaders of Gypsy diaspora "human rights" how she somehow "omitted" the crime which emanates from Gypsy tabors. 

In Russian. So, I hope you get my message. This is also why the West is over. Plus, Russians, when they had enough, get to it themselves. Maybe because they still have some standards?

Something Of Import...

 ... in terms of aerospace industry. I am on record: I do not pretend to be a commercial aircraft industry analyst, albeit for a number of years I was certainly an insider. Once in a while I do make some reviews of the state of commercial aircraft industry and since Russia is fully "isolated", it makes sense to again point out the real dynamics in Russian and... Chinese commercial aircraft industries. I stumbled on an interesting video about Chinese C-919 and Russian MC-21. 

This review is very important against the background of an ongoing tectonic shift in global economy with combined West not only losing it positions but being forced by the US to commit suicide by means of de-industrialization. We all can understand basic ramifications of all that and the fact that the US cannot fight Russia directly inevitably pushes the US towards much more aggressive posture against China. And here is some info on COMAC C-919. 

As you can see yourself this aircraft will never be allowed to appear on the global market because it will be immediately "sanctioned" by the United States which is a supplier of C-919's US-French CFM Leap power-plant and pretty much most of avionics and other systems. And here is this strategic difference between COMAC and MC-21. Despite non-stop sabotage and sanctions from the US, MC-21 is increasingly Russified aircraft--even ever confused Wiki gives a good account on the Russian systems in MC-21, as well as other Russian aircraft. 

MC-21 already has critical components, from engine PD-14 to APU by Aerosila, to avionics (KRET), to composites, to landing gear, to on-board systems. All Russian-made, making MC-21 invulnerable to sanctions due to proprietary issues which will be and already are making, as an example, C-919 a subject of sanctions. In other words, if ever C-919 will try to compete with single isle mid-range aircraft globally, it can easily be removed from competition on the same grounds as was the case with both MC-21 and SSJ-100. Naturally, full Russification of both is on track and the impact of that is much greater than mere invulnerability to proprietary claims from the combined West. It is strategic in terms of national security across the board, with independence from the West being a big prize. While PD-14 is already in serial production, the other crucial piece is also in the game:

The Russian Aviadvigatel PD-8 engine is being prepared to power Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional jets soon, but until then it must undergo a series of tests, including flight tests. As part of that stage, a power unit has been installed on a model Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft, which serves as a laboratory aircraft. As reported by our partner site Aeroin, in recent weeks, Russia has accelerated this project, which has become even more urgent due to Western sanctions imposed on Russian aviation following the invasion of Ukraine. These embargoes prevent the Russian aircraft industry from receiving components from Europe and North America. It must therefore accelerate import substitution.

And acceleration it did.  I am on record for years, ad nauseam--if you do not have your own engines, APU, avionics and other systems, you do not really have own commercial (or any other) aerospace industry, period. No matter how one tries to spin it but any aircraft is primarily a platform for the engines and everything related to them and that is the most complex and most advanced part. 

This is the set of avionics KRET developed already in 2015 (in Russian) and this is one of the suites which is used today, as an example, at newest IL-76MD-90A models. Here is how cockpits of new IL-76MD-90As look like.

There are some variations of that for TU-214s and naturally MC-21 cockpit looks like that. 

Generally, most commercial aircraft avionics suites look similar. 

And that is why I am constantly on record, COMAC C-919 is not going to compete with A-320 newest iterations, because it is in effect a Chinese version of A-320. Russian aircraft are a completely different game and that is why from the inception, once it became clear that both SSJ-100 turned out to be a very competitive plane and MC-21 started to emerge as a viable competitor to both A-320 family, not to speak of a grossly damaged B-737 line, all hell broke loose and both aircraft have been sanctioned non-stop. Well, guess what, it made Russian commercial aerospace stronger. And that is a very bad news for both Airbus and Boeing. Not to mention the fact that they lost voluminous Russian market. Stupid is as stupid does(c), remember this?  

I Respect Douglas MacGregor, But...

... here is where I disagree with him dramatically.  

Not only I disagree with him, but many people in comments also disagree. The assertion that Russia's SPRN (missile attack early warning system) is somehow "nowhere near" the American one is dead wrong. I know where this assertion originated, professor Postol stated this a couple of years ago. And it is a complete malarkey. 

It is exactly the other way around, not to speak of the fact that the US was lagging in advanced early warning radar systems behind not just Russia, but Soviet Union already in 1970s and 1980s. The proof is in the pudding. American nominally "strategic" system GMD (I will omit here a dubious effectiveness of it) is "run" by the BMEWS and its "derivatives" detection and targeting contour, aka Solid State Phased Array Radar, including its latest AN/FPS-132 Upgraded Early Warning Radar, plus some launch detecting space based assets (satellites). Here is one of those, spread by the US across the world from UK to Qatar. 

The only claim that the US could use up to mid decade of 2000s was in allegedly "processing" power, but that is not the case anymore. And while most radar have the range of 3000 miles, roughly 5000 kilometers, here is Russia's modern SPRN. 

Here is Russia's older but still well designed Don phased array 360 degrees radar and some intro to Russia's ABM system. 

Here are some fresh (2021) explanations about venerable Don. 

Russia has modernized its unique Don-2N radar station located in the Moscow region, Yuri Anoshko, general director of the RTI Systems (Radio Technical and Information Systems) told RIA Novosti. “Now it is being tested. As a result of these works, the functionality has changed,” he said at the Army-2021 forum. He said that both quantitative and qualitative characteristics have changed but did not get into the specifics. The Don-2N station is part of the missile attack warning system and provides information to the anti-missile defense (ABM) of Moscow. The construction of the radar began in 1978, and in 1989 it was put into service. The antennas are installed in a concrete truncated pyramid, the height of an 11-storey building and with a base width of almost 150 meters. This is the only example of the radar system. The Don-2N radar is capable of detecting small-size ballistic missile warheads at long ranges, determining their trajectories, classify warheads and respond with heavy and light decoys, dipole reflectors, and active jamming.

But, of course, since 2010s Russia deploys an astounding variety of "BMEWS" radar such as Voronezh and here is 2018 "coverage":

With a very respectable overlaps and 100% (360 degrees) coverage of the threatening directions. Of course, Voronezh radar is just one of many other types which provide both early warning and targeting. And here is Russian TV network Rossiya 1 gives a comparison to, and you have guessed it, US latest AN/FPS-132.

 

You don't need to know Russian to see that Voronezh beats the best the US ever produced in "BMEWS" technology hands down. See especially the comparison with the error in targeting (developing target's coordinates). Voronezh--11 meters, AN/FPS-132--well, 120 meters. You know, the order of the magnitude less accurate, not to mention the fact of its inferior range. Of course, I am not even talking about a variety of radars Russia deploys for both ballistic and hypersonic targets such as Container radar which is full blown OTH (Over-the-horizon) system which sees everything on the ground and in the air at the range of 3000 kilometers. The United States literally looks like a backwater compared to those capabilities, not to mention the fact that, of course, the US has nothing (even considering its GBI) comparable to A-235 Nudol, not to speak of full anti-hypersonic defense capability which the US simply doesn't have and who knows when, or if, it will develop it.

This charade about Russia's ABM system in the US media is becoming really nauseating, especially against the background of S-500 beginning to be fully combat deployed and its radar is fully networked with both Voronezh and Don systems, as well as any other early warning radar system capable to allow S-500 radar to monitor the air and space to the depth of 3000 kilometers. With A-235 Nudol having its mobile version developed, and with S-550 getting ready to deploy--these are capabilities the US simply doesn't have. All listed above Russian systems are designed not only to intercept ICBMs but are fully capable of defeating hypersonic maneuverable blocks. I like this condescending tone in this article:

The unveiling by the Russian President Vladimir Putin of the new S-550 air defense system was a surprise because nobody to date knew the existence of this new anti-aircraft defense missile system. According information released by Russian military sources, the S-550 could be based on the S-500 Prometheus that was recently tested by the Russian armed forces. The missile system has been designed as an anti-missile and anti-space defense system. The S-550 will be able to intercept ballistic missiles at greater distance and altitude than missiles S-400 and S-500. It could counter the American THAAD and Aegis missile defense systems with SM-3Block llB missiles. At this time, there is no information about the characteristics and capabilities of the S-550. The S-550 could be fitted with new engine and using new fuel and can be equipped with an advanced computer systems able to analyze the trajectories of enemy missiles.

Obviously, comparing THAAD to S-500 with its 600 kilometer range and full low-orbit anti-satellite capability is a an exercise in arrogance because it is akin to comparing a VW Beetle to a 18-wheeler  truck. With S-550 (alleged) range in excess of 1,000 kilometers and who knows what other capabilities and all of those systems fully integrated into the netcentric ABM and AD defense capability--the US has NOTHING comparable to that. But in the end, with first RS-28 Sarmat ICBMs arriving to full combat duty by the end of this year and first Avangard regiment (soon, full division of RVSN) being already in full combat readiness near Orenburg, the US ABM system simply ceases to matter in case, God forbids, serious war. 

So, this silly talk of comparing Russia and US  early warning systems and what they provide should stop because those desperate attempts to grasp the last straw of the myth of the US military "superiority" is a waste of time and, in the end, doesn't serve well the reputation, in this case, of a very solid and important American military thinker such as very respected by me Colonel Douglas MacGregor. He is a good man and serious professional, but I am on record, and am ready to repeat it again: the United States lost the arms race to Russia, especially in matters of truly high-end systems in the foundation of a nuclear deterrents and early warning. Note: I didn't even address Russia's space based assets.