Dave Majumdar — Could America Stop a Cruise Missile or Hypersonic Weapons Attack by Russia or China?

Arms race on. Defense industry, a euphemism for the military industrial complex, salivates.

As DefSec Mattis admits, the US cannot stop an ICBM attack by capabilities that already exists, so new technology doesn't increase the threat. The US strategy is not to counter an attack directly with through deterrence based on the the nuclear triad, or "trident."

No matter, huge increases in defense spending are already on the way.

The National Interest
Could America Stop a Cruise Missile or Hypersonic Weapons Attack by Russia or China?

Dave Majumdar | Defense Editor

See also

The RS-28 [Sarmat] is far more than a follow-on to the aging R-36 [Satan] missile —it is, fundamentally, an entirely new weapon the likes of which the United States has never before seen. The “Sarmat” retains its impressive throw-weight while reducing its overall weight by nearly 50 percent by using advanced composite materials for the missile airframe and employing a new type of liquid-fuel propulsion system—the PDY-99 “pulse detonation” engine—that hyper-accelerates the RS-28 into orbit, reducing the infrared signature of the launch as well as the time available to American early-warning satellites to detect such a launch. The RS-28 is designed to either be armed with 10 750-kiloton independently targeted maneuvering warheads, each of which can destroy an American ICBM silo or launch control facility, or between 16 and 24 new hypersonic glide vehicles, each tipped with a 150-kiloton nuclear warhead, and likewise capable of taking out any hardened site on American soil. Either configuration provides Russia with the means to avoid launch detection, evade all missile defense systems, and destroy America’s land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) nuclear force. In short, with the RS-28, Russia possesses a genuine first-strike capability that nullifies one third of America’s nuclear triad.

Contrary to Secretary Mattis’s dismissive commentary, the RS-28 does, in fact, fundamentally alter the strategic balance between Russia and the United States. Moreover, Mike Pompeo knows full well that the Russians are not bluffing. Both Mattis and Pompeo had been laboring under the false impression that Russia could not afford to field a follow-on to the R-36 missile, especially considering that that missile had been built in the Ukraine during Soviet times, and as such those capabilities were lost to Russian defense industry. The RS-28, however, is a reality—the Russians simply reconfigured their own indigenous missile production capability and will have at least 50 of the new missiles operational by 2020. It’s a reality that America’s leadership might want to factor into any future policy toward Moscow....

The American Conservative

No, Putin Isn’t Bluffing on Nukes

Scott Ritter

Also

Exposé of John Bolton lying the US into war.

The American Conservative
The Untold Story of John Bolton’s Campaign for War With Iran

Gareth Porter

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Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab reportedly busted a major US military asset when it exposed a sophisticated cyber-espionage operation that targeted computer networks in the Middle East.

On March 9, the leading Russia-based cybersecurity company reported their research on a program it called Slingshot, which used a highly sophisticated approach to infect computers with malware through infected routers. The operation had targeted computers throughout the Middle East and some parts of Africa since at least 2012, and required a lot of money and expertise from its creators. A report by an industry news publication, CyberScoop, claims Slingshot was run by the Special Operations Command (SOCOM)....

RT
‘Pentagon cyber-espionage op’: US reportedly behind Slingshot malware targeting Mid East & Africa

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Any claims that a specific piece of U.S. malware—in this case, Slingshot—was targeting only al-Qaeda or ISIS bad guys is disingenuous as well. The exploit on routers is hitting an entire region, infecting an untold number of innocent people. Internet cafés are said to have been hit in this, meaning everyone going into the cafes is at risk.

Probing aka fishing rather than targeting suspects.

The American Conservative
Was Destructive ‘Slingshot’ Malware Deployed by the Pentagon?

Jason Ditz


Also

Former Aerospace Forces Commander and Russian Senate Defense Committee Chairman Viktor Bondarev says it would take at least 500 American anti-missile missiles to intercept a single Sarmat ICBM....

Sputnik International

Russian Military Reveals How US Could Intercept New Sarmat Missile

See also

Sic Semper Tyrannis

Harper: West Broke Promise To Yeltsin Of No Nato Expansion