Russia is to supply Iran with a new and lethal anti-aircraft system capable of shooting down American or Israeli fighter jets in the event of any strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Iran has confirmed that Russia had agreed to deliver the S-300 air defence system, a move that is likely to irk the Bush administration and gives further proof of Russia and Iran’s deepening strategic partnership…
“It’s purely a defensive system. But it’s very effective. It’s much better than the US system. It has good radar. It can shoot down low-flying cruise missiles, though with some difficulty.”
I hope you didn’t actually believe that our imperial government’s policy of regime change was going to be accepted without a murmur.
Coupled with the Bush version of Star Wars, the good old days of military escalation are back in place. Including larger guaranteed profits for the military money-boys – of course.
Russian Air Defense proved so effective in Iraq ’91. All we have to do is send in the F117.
While not as convenient as sending in just the F18s It will just require a few more days notice.
Ahminejad desperately needs for Iran to be attacked to rally the people around him. So he sounds as provocative as he can without doing anything really dangerous.
Bush desperately needs for the American public to rally around him due to an external attack. So he acts & sounds as provocative as he can without being belligerent.
Anyone can trigger a full scale war by doing something against either party anonymously.
Uh, #1 – the Iraqis never had S300s.
Anyone who thinks Russia is now our friend because the Iron Curtain fell is fooling themselves. Just wait until Russia finally gets control of the oil & gas fields in Europe. That big Russian bear will come roaring back with a vengence.
It all makes the powerderkeg situation that lead to World War I like small potatoes
The Cold War will get hot again… thanks to GLOBAL WARMING. Gee, we may have to annihilate them from outer space. Let them waste their petrodollars on Russian arms.. It only proves that there is the same old poop and it’s another day. Invest in the ‘military industrial complex I don’t think it’s worth one US life to fuse their asses to the desert.
RE: a new arms race. Good, all weapons reasearch is cool and important.
The Soviets, I mean Russians, have once again proven that they will sell any weapon to any country no matter the sanity of the ruler. If you have the money, we have the weapons.
I think Comrade Putin and his dreams of reconstituting the Soviet Union will end up being a greater threat to this country then Bin Laden ever was.
damn, thats not going to sit well with our little-man concept president
It can deploy and launch without preparation in under 5 minutes and has a 70% chance of intercept of a ballistic or guided missile up to 100 miles or at altitudes of up to 90,000 feet. It uses a phased array antenna target guidance system, for rapid target acquisition. That pretty much puts anything, including so-called stealth aircraft, on the menu.
I see you read the marketing brochure, #11. I’m sure it was written by the same guys that sold Saddam his Migs and T72’s in the ’80s.
“. . . in the event of any strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.”
Are these “nuclear facilities” the ones that 16 US intelligence agencies said were shut down five years ago?
Are we still to believe that Iran is on the threshold of having atomic bombs?
I remember a time when we in the US were not afraid of anything. When we did not see a threat behind every tree and under every bush. When reason prevailed.
Has the world gone crazy?
On top of that several sides trying to hasten Armageddon ( in our time)
They actually speak of “How exciting it is to be in the end times”
And on the muslim side trying to speed up their Armageddon on the Maji in the well.
If things start to fly – watch the Iranian and Saudi oil fields go up in a flash
Talk about selling a rope to a guy who will hang your family as well as his
Fear sells.
#16, Jag,
Well put. I was going to say something like “If brains were made of dynamite, these people collectively couldn’t blow a nose.”
But damn, your’s is better. 🙂
#1 GigG
The Air Force will retire the F-117 in April 2008.
You aren’t keeping up.
Putting aside the relative merits or detractions of what the weapon system might be, Russia thinks it’s ok for Iran, the same country with an avowed aim of killing Americans and wiping Israel off the map, with an anti-missle/aircraft system, but Europe and any other country doesn’t need one????
Is the Soviet Union that hard up for currency or do they think that the Muslims are going to go easy on them? Whoever is in charge over there has their head up their discharge system. If you don’t like Bush fine, I don’t either not Hillary or Dumbo Obama or any of the other Globalist candidates, I’d rather have a nationalist. As for a weapons race, you haven’t been paying attention to China or Soviet developments, they have both been improving their weapons systems since the Cold-War was supposed to have ended.
We on the other hand have been playing policeman to a lot of Muslims that would sooner take off our heads as look at us. Either occupy the country and put an end to the rebellion or leave and let Iran take over and kill the other half, at least that way we’d get more dead Muslims, in the end we don’t have the fortitude to play policeman or peacemaker which is what the Demoncrats always say the believe in, and what Bush is supposedly trying to do, see wide spread support from the Demoncrats.
I believe the whole thing is to just further Globalism, whatever 🙁
This is the same old war it has always been.
What would be really cool is if we all did not let them drag us all into it again. The really twisted part is there are more of us than there are war mongers, go figure…
Russia thinks it’s ok for Iran, the same country with an avowed aim of killing Americans and wiping Israel off the map, with an anti-missile/aircraft system
They did the same thing in the cold war. Despite the show Putin puts on, he stills considers the US to be the enemy of Russia.
Is the Soviet Union that hard up for currency
Yup!
As for a weapons race, you haven’t been paying attention to China or Soviet developments, they have both been improving their weapons systems since the Cold-War was supposed to have ended
A fact, I bet few Americans know about and many Democrats are trying to ignore.
Re: Post 11.
“It can deploy and launch without preparation in under 5 minutes … ”
LOL
Just the mechanics of moving into the site will take longer than 5 minutes. And if the battery is already there, it’s not “without preparation”.
As for the electronics:
It takes time to load tactical software into the computers.
You can “cheat” and run vehicle power to the ovens for the high stability quartz crystal oscillators to eliminate the 5 to 10 minute warmup time. What you CANNOT do, however, is simply turn on a high powered radar transmitter from a cold start and be ready to go.
“It uses a phased array antenna target guidance system, for rapid target acquisition. That pretty much puts anything, including so-called stealth aircraft, on the menu.”
Phased array antennas do provide some interesting enhancements to an air defense missile battery, but they are not a magic bullet against stealth aircraft. And they have one huge disadvantage: they cannot cover a full 360 degree circle.
Low flying aircraft can sneak in with cluster bombs and destroy the site with one pass. So you need to emplace short range air defense equipment around it to try to force attacking aircraft up into what we call the missile envelope.
And that leads to the big strategic disadvantage. If you see one, you know there’s a high value target somewhere close.
Re: Post #20
“The really twisted part is there are more of us than there are war mongers, go figure…”
The problem here is that Arab and Persian Muslims are not rational by Western standards.
The fact of the matter is the US wants geopolitical/military domination of the entire middle/near east, as well as Iran’s oil.
And Russia (along with China) simply isn’t going to allow it. Russia is growing steadily and rapidly stronger financially, economically and in technological/military sophistication, while the US is already bankrupt(it’s only the hundreds of billion of $$$$ that the Federal Reserve keeps creating out of thin air and pumping into the US financial system that keeps the US afloat.
America, like Ancient Rome is dying, with military adventures around the globe and a bankrupt system that will implode and collapse before too long.
Russia is in the catbird seat, and they know it!
“…irk the Bush administration and gives further proof of Russia and Iran’s deepening strategic partnership…”
Russia is selling the missiles for the money. If George Bush said he wanted some, they would sell them to him too. The whole inference of a strategic alliance is baloney.
These days Russia is about the cash.
Dan
Every nation has a right to self-defense.
The Bush Regime gripes about the wierdest things! Rumsfeld complained that Venezuela was buying rifles….RIFLES! Whats next, bayonets??!?!?
Who is scared of Iran, nobody really, but when the war drums sound, the aggressor always has to think up an excuse, like when Hitler said Poland was planning an invasion of germany….and conveniently left out the fact that Poland only had biplanes and horse cavalry.