Who wants to fight with us now?
Last Sunday, referring to its own source in the British military, the London Daily Star Sunday reported that NATO pilots and British pilots flying multi-purpose Tornado fighters were entitled to attack military planes in Iraqi airspace Russia. If such a statement were made personally by the head of the British Ministry of Defense, Michael Fallon, then he probably could have been taken at face value. But since the information came from a "own source", it immediately became clear that this is most likely a propaganda fake or a primitive newspaper provocation. Moreover, it appeared at the very moment when, in the occupied Baghdad occupied by NATO members, it would be nice if Russian planes “processed” the positions of the “Islamic state” in their territory.
As far as is known, Moscow is not going to expand the air operation in the Middle East. But if such a decision were made, someone from the Daily Star Sunday would ask British military aviators if they were ready to fight with our Su-30CM on their Tornado?
Back in 2006, during the British-Indian exercise Indra Dhanush, Su-30МКИ (similar to Su-30СМ) conducted a series of training battles with the Tornado F. interceptor fighter. Mk. 3, in service with the Royal Air Force. According to the confessions of the British pilots themselves, who were given the opportunity to practice in piloting, the "drying" is significantly superior to the machines on which they had to fly. And although since that time Tornado has been modernized, Su-30CM is also far from Su-30MKI, but its more modern version, significantly improved and improved. A worthy opponent for him can be unless the American F-22 Raptor. And not in all cases, because, for example, the F-22 airborne radar, as it became known (see “NVO” from 21.08.15), is very far from perfect.
However, the “air battle for the Middle East,” so famously declared by the Daily Star Sunday, was never to be. The very next day, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense officially announced that the information spread by the tabloid was completely untrue. Who would doubt that?..
Moreover. Now the Pentagon, without whose command not only an airplane, but not a single NATO field kitchen will budge, seems to agree to coordinate with the Russian Ministry of Defense regarding security in the Middle East. Although at first the Americans also wandered and hinted at some "retaliatory measures." Everything changed on October 7, when the ships of the Caspian flotilla from a distance of 1,5 thousand km, 26 launches of the Caliber-NK sea-based cruise missiles were launched at the facilities of the Islamic State group (prohibited by Russian law) in Syria.
OTHER "SHOCK AND TABLE"
Americans love to give pathetic names to their guidance documents. Exactly so - “Shock and Awe” - the US military doctrine was first called for in Iraq. For Saddam Hussein, everything ended badly, but now the Americans themselves are in some perplexity. The fact is that high-precision strikes of the Russian aviation the positions of the Islamic State and the particularly integrated Caliber-NK missile system made an indelible impression on Washington.
So strong that the head of the Pentagon, Ashton Carter, moved from the language of international communication to a language that was not accepted in diplomacy, and the US Congress began to find out how it happened that their “world's best intelligence” overlooked everything. Moreover, she overlooked not only the concentration of forces and means of the Russian VKS (Aerospace Forces) in Syria, but also did not know that Russia had cruise missiles with a long range, although talks about the fact that Russian rocket science does not stand still. from time to time appeared in the western press.
What can I say? Firstly, as Vladimir Putin said in a recent interview with Vesti, foreign intelligence doesn’t have to know everything. Secondly, the Americans, as far as can be judged, have been driven by arrogance, brought to the point of exclusivity, as well as political engagement. It was beneficial for Washington to support the view that Russia, no matter how hard it resisted, lagged behind the civilized world forever and no longer has the means or the ability to claim a significant role in the world order, and its defense industrial complex is not capable of anything . Even the appearance at the Victory Parade in Moscow "Armata", which was made at Uralvagonzavod in just two years from scratch, even though it alarmed our foreign colleagues, but by and large didn’t affect well-established opinion.
The Caliber missile system, which is exported under the symbol Club, has a curious fate. For the first time, the 3М-14Е rocket (export version) developed for this complex was shown at the Russian Expo Arms in Nizhny Tagil back in the 2004 year. But then among her more famous sister missiles, she somehow got lost and did not make a big impression.
In the same year, 3М-14Э was shown at Defexpo India, and two years later the Indian Navy purchased 28 missiles for their surface ships and submarines. As the Club-S behaved in operation (submarine version, launch is done through a torpedo tube), there is no information. But the frigates of the Indian Navy shot out with complexes that seemed to be very bad. And as usually happens in such cases, reproaches were sent to the country of origin. But now it is clear that the matter is not in “Calibre”, it’s the Club, namely in the hands - after the 7 of October 2015, the integrated Caliber-NK missile system no longer needs advertising. And if the first number in the family of cruise missiles of this class was considered to be American Tomahawk, now its star, if not rolled, has dimmed in many ways.
Here it is necessary to clarify. If the export version of 3М-14 beats on 300 km, then adopted in Russia - on 2600 km. In normal equipment - this is 450 kg of explosive. With a nuclear warhead that is obviously lighter, the 3M-14 flies significantly further. Someone calls the order of numbers in 4 thousand. Km, others - in 5 thousand. Km. But there is no exact information, as for obvious reasons they are classified. And God forbid to promulgate them in a practical way! ..
Nevertheless, Caliber-NK has already had a noticeable impact on the geopolitical situation - in general, and in particular in the Mediterranean. In fact, it has been proved that Russia, even without fully restoring its Mediterranean squadron, is now able to provide effective resistance to the US 6 fleet, which for a quarter of a century considered these waters to be something of a resort zone.
Judge for yourself. In the Caspian, three small rocket ships of the 21 631 “Buyan-M” project (Sviyazhsk, Uglich, Velikiy Ustyug) and the patrol ship of the 11 661 “Dagestan” project are equipped with the Caliber-NK complex. In the Black Sea, such IRCs have so far two - Serpukhov and Zeleny Dol, plus a diesel submarine of the 636.3 Novorossiysk project, also armed with Caliber. Comments are probably superfluous, suffice it to note: if the 3М-14 is equipped with a special warhead, then you can work directly from the berthing wall of Sevastopol at the targets located at the Pillars of Hercules.
But who said that the current launch range of the Caliber-NK is the limit? Today, our military-industrial complex is not as miserable as it was yesterday, and the technical thought does not stand still. If you can improve the performance of the engine and fuel, reduce the weight parameters of the "electronic brains", who knows how far the 3M-14 will fly ...
In general, today the Americans led by Barack Obama were about the same situation as the Hitler generals in 1941, for whom the T-34 tank, the Katusha MLRS, the Soviet artillery, etc., were a big surprise.
UNDER AMERICAN UMBRELLA
[i] [center] The ships of the Caspian Flotilla attacked the positions of the Islamists in Syria 26 with cruise missiles. Shot from the official video of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
As already noted, “Caliber-NK” struck not only the objects of the Islamists in Syria, but also touched upon the tangential ambitions of the White House, accustomed to the role of managing director of the entire globe. The world literally froze in anticipation of a response from Washington. And after the scandalous statement by the head of the Pentagon, Ashton Carter, in which it sounded that Russia, they say, "continues to wrap itself in an insulating shroud" from Kamchatka to the Baltic, many have the feeling that the matter is taking a serious turn. It is clear that, referring to the "shroud", the main American commander had in mind not only economic sanctions.
However, very soon, Washington slowed down to the statement of its intention to supply "its children" in Syria and Iraq with air defense weapons and other weapons. No wonder: with the enemy, who has the ability to give a decent answer, the Americans have always preferred to fight with someone else's hands. Even North Korea, which either has a carrier capable of delivering a warhead to American territory, or not, is a bluff from Comrade Kim Jong-un, trying to get round.
The only exception when the Americans are faced with a standing enemy, and then as part of a coalition - World War II. Moreover, it remains to be seen how the battle in the Ardennes would end for them if Stalin, at the request of Churchill, did not hasten the start of the East Prussian offensive operation. In addition, Werner von Braun didn’t manage to bring the V-1945 to 2 to such a state that she was able to fly over the ocean. Today, the situation is completely different, and it’s not at all a fact that the Americans are not expecting the same “surprise” with our strategic missiles as with the Caliber-NK missile system. But they were warned: the response to the expansion of NATO to the east and the deployment of a global missile defense system at our borders will be symmetrical!
And here's another noteworthy. Until the last moment the Americans behaved quite decently (after all, a great country!), Then their allies in the Atlantic bloc, especially the newly minted, often acted as instigators. Then defiantly they will begin to dig anti-tank ditches around the perimeter of their borders, then with barbed wire and Bruno's spirals to fence themselves, hinting that, they say, Russia will attack America from day to day and it would be nice for America to strike a preemptive strike ... But in recent days they have also silenced something. Even the commander-in-chief of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, Dalia Grybauskaite, who, while the American military umbrella was considered infinitely reliable, repeatedly called for Drang nach Osten to repeat, she keeps her mouth shut. Probably, he understands: no matter how much you place your allied troops on your territory, how many shrouds your shroud from NATO bases around Russia, there are no guarantees against a crushing response.
It must be assumed that he seriously thought about the real benefits of American military patronage and the rest of the Old World. And it’s not that in the capitals of Europe they didn’t understand before that, by deploying American military bases, including those with a nuclear arsenal, they automatically become targets themselves. Of course, understood. But this awareness was somehow virtual, or something, devoid of material and technical content. Now, after demonstrating the capabilities of the Caliber-NK missile system, it is not difficult to make up ideas about what one of the possible asymmetric answers of the Russian side can be. Let's face it: depressing!
So draw conclusions, gentlemen! There are only two options: either continue in the same vein and arrange an arms race with an obvious ending, or sit at a round table and agree, for example, on lowering the threshold of opposition, on withdrawing the American and NATO structures from our borders and generally on international relations. Moreover, not so long ago we managed to find a common language.
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