A Russian Riddle: Procurement Policies Explained

RFS Steregushchy

Our reader survey is in your email box, and we really want to hear from you because we have great readers. Back on Sept 18/14, Daily Rapid Fire said:

“Russian Prime Minister Medvedev gave government backing [Moscow Times] to loans meant to finance the fulfillment of government orders by defense contractors such as MiG. We wrote that sentence and can’t make sense of it either. Do they mean that until that announcement the Russian government may not have paid for what it had ordered?”

Enter DID subscriber Iouri Synogatch to say yes, it does mean what we thought it said. But there’s also more to the story…

China Building More Big Ships for Coast Guard, Navy

• Back in January Global Times wrote about work reportedly underway in China to build destroyer-sized patrol ships. Back then Chuck Hill speculated [CIMSEC] that such big ships could be used for more offensive purposes. China Defense Blog has purported pictures of the ship under construction.

• China also plans to get more Type 052D destroyers according to Kanwa Defense Review via Want China Times. They commissioned the 1st ship in class back in March.