Russia Seeks to Match THAAD, GMD US Missile Defense Systems
- The state-owned Russian TASS agency quotes Pavel Sozinov, an armament designer at Almaz-Antey:
“Russia is working on an equivalent of the THAAD missile defense complex, which is capable of intercepting ballistic intermediate range missiles and, to a certain extent, warheads of inter-continental ballistic missiles. It will undergo testing soon.”
US Doctrine & Practice
- USAF Maj. Gen. Jay Silveria tells Defense News that the F-35 brings data fusion magic to Close Air Support missions, thus saving time during target acquisition. But he doesn’t address the question of friendly fire risks brought by dropping Small Diameter Bombs from F-35s vs. using a gun from a slower aircraft such as the A-10.
- US Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein [D-CA] released the unclassified version of a damning report [PDF] on the CIA’s detention and interrogation techniques. It was discussed on the Senate floor this morning (video).
Europe
- Airbus announced that it has signed a buyback agreement with Patria to divest its entire 26.8% stake in the Finnish firm. They expect to close the transaction by the end of the year. Airbus recently started to divest its stake in Dassault Aviation.
- Final bids were submitted to Denmark in a competition to replace the country’s M113 APCs. How many vehicles they will order still appears uncertain.
- Canada signed yesterday a Declaration of Intent with Ukraine “to explore opportunities to conduct joint military training and capacity building in response to Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine.”
Asia
- The Economist, on Xi Jinping’s recent diplomatic spree:
“[O]n some issues, it is impossible for both sides to win. China’s territorial disputes, for example, with the possible exception of the one with India, which is big enough to allow room for a conceivable compromise, are zero-sum. Most fundamentally, China’s aspiration for regional leadership challenges American naval supremacy in the western Pacific. And little so far suggests that any American leader would be willing to lose enough to let Mr Xi’s China feel it had won.”
- AVIC president Lin Zuoming is less subtle [Strait Times]: he is certain the J-31 “can definitely take [the F-35] down.”
- The annual B.C. Lee lecture hosted by the Heritage Foundation conservative think tank was dedicated to U.S. national security and rising China. Video below:
Categories: Airbus, Canada, China, Daily Rapid Fire, Europe - Other, Russia, Tanks & Mechanized, USA
