S-400 Is In Turkey — Andrei Martyanov

How the great game has changed. Turkey is pivotal, and the US, NATO and the EU overplayed its hand. Geopolitically and geostrategic pivot point Turkey is now turning to face East rather than West. Of course, this paints a target on Erdogan's back. The recent coup attempt against him, which he attributes to the CIA, may have failed, but that is the end of the game.

The post is mostly of interest, however, since Andrei Martanov is well-versed in military science and military technology, unlike most commentators writing in English.

Reminiscence of the Future
S-400 Is In Turkey
Andrei Martyanov

See also

Russia has stopped using SWIFT and US dollars in weapon export contracts, Head of Russian Defence Export firm (Rosoboronexport) Aleksandr Mikheev told journalists during Army-2019 forum.

He said that Rosoboronexport is now using national currencies instead of US dollars and emplyos a “closed system” of payments....

SouthFront
Russia Is Not Using Swift And Us Dollars To Implement Weapon Contracts

SouthFront — US Responds to Alleged Riyadh-Moscow S-400 Systems Deal, Approves THAAD Systems Sale to Saudi Arabia

Business is business, after all. Gotta compete.

Best line: "The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region." — US State Department

SouthFront
US Responds to Alleged Riyadh-Moscow S-400 Systems Deal, Approves THAAD Systems Sale to Saudi Arabia

also

Reuters
U.S. approves possible $15 billion sale of THAAD missiles to Saudi Arabi

Sputnik — Top Commodity: Russia Has Its Hands Full With S-400 Orders

Russia is having trouble filling the demand for S-300 and S-400 air defense systems. The S-500 is entering production.

Sputnik
Top Commodity: Russia Has Its Hands Full With S-400 Orders

Russia's "investment" in Syria turns out to be extremely profitable.

Moscow's Syria Op Serves as 'Huge Promo Campaign for Russian Weapons'

When Quality Matters: ‘Russia’s Successes Fuel Interest in Our Weapons’

See also

The new arms race is on full force.

Obama's Decision to Update US Nuclear Arsenal ‘Mutates Into Monstrous Idea'

Strategic Culture Foundation — Russia to supply S-400 to China and S-300 to Iran

Strategic Culture Foundation

The S-400 Triumf is a new generation anti-aircraft weapon system capable of engaging any aerial target, including aircraft, helicopters, drones, as well as cruise and tactical ballistic missiles with a maximum speed of 4,800 meters per second. Currently, there are nine Russian anti-aircraft missile regiment equipped with the S-400 systems, which were put on service in April 2007.

Russia Confirms Arms Deal to Supply China With S-400 Air Defense Systems

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to lift the ban on supplies of S-300 air defense missile systems to Iran.

Russia's contract on S-300 supplies to Iran was suspended after the UN imposed sanctions against Tehran in 2010

Putin lifts ban on S-300 missile system supplies to Iran

See also

[US Defense]Secretary Carter’s comments during his trip to Asia reminds us that when it comes to imagining possible conflicts in Asia, regional trends point toward militaries preparing for hi-tech combat. Precision-guided munitions—ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and missile defense—have proliferated throughout the region and pose distinct challenges to deterrence and crisis management. Added to this is the rapid spread of various types of drones—aerial and undersea variants—the development of next-generation missiles like hypersonic glide vehicles, cyber and electronic warfare capabilities, and a burgeoning arms race in aircraft carriers. These individual developments are familiar to most Asia defense watchers, but collectively they paint a picture of militaries in the region trying to out-modernize each other.

For decades, the U.S. military presence in Asia has helped play a stabilizing role by dint of not simply its commitments to allies, but its military-technical superiority over all potential challengers. What Secretary Carter and his Deputy Bob Work have taken pains to emphasize is that the above trends in military technologies, combined with military concepts that use them to target U.S. and ally vulnerabilities, increasingly challenge U.S. superiority.

Logically, then, a minimally necessary condition for the United States to continue to play a stabilizing role in the region is to find a way to offset the technical advances of any would-be aggressors. The United States is not militarizing the region; the region is militarizing and the United States must find a way to play a stabilizing role as it does. The U.S. rebalance to Asia was intended to send a signal that the United States is committed to continued peace and prosperity in the region, but what that requires of the United States over time may vary.

U.S. commitments need to be credible, and credibility requires sufficient capability. As the region’s militaries modernize, the United States must adapt. Welcome to the next phase of the rebalance.

The Diplomat
Get Ready: America’s Pivot is Going Hi-Tech

Van Jackson

Arms race on as the US seeks to contain Russia and China.

F. William Engdahl — Putin and Iran Do a ‘Game Changer’

On January 20 in Teheran, Russia and Iran signed an agreement on military cooperation. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Iranian Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Minister Hossein Dehghan signed the new agreement. Remarking on its significance, Shoigu stated, “A theoretic base of cooperation in the military sphere has been created.” He added that the two countries have agreed on “bilateral cooperation in practical regards and to promote an increase in the military capabilities of the armed forces of our countries.” The two also agreed on “the importance of the need to develop Russia and Iran’s cooperation in the joint struggle against meddling in the affairs of the region by external forces that are not part of it was framed,” Iranian Defense Minister Dehghan declared. To make sure no one mistook who he meant, he added that the reason for aggravation in the situation of the region was a US policy that “meddles in the domestic affairs of other countries.”

The coming closer of the two Eurasian countries, both bordering the strategic Caspian Sea, has enormous implications for global geopolitics. The Obama Administration has tried to woo Iran in a stick (economic sanctions) and carrot (promise of lifting same) manner over the past eighteen months to get Teheran to agree major concessions on her nuclear program. Until recently, despite US sanctions over Ukraine, Russia was willing to show “good faith” to Washington by participating in the 5-1 nuclear negotiations with Iran to persuade Teheran to make major concessions on its nuclear program, one where Russia built the just-completed Bushehr nuclear power plant, the first in the Middle East. That phase is clearly over and Iran’s hand in the negotiations with the US, France, Germany, UK has just got stronger, sanctions or not.…

To date the S-300 issue had been a major bone of contention between Teheran and Moscow. Now, according to a report in DebkaFile.com, a website reportedly linked to Israeli intelligence, Russia has agreed not only to deliver the S-300 SAM missile systems Iran bought back in 2007. Russia will also deliver S-400 advanced missile systems to Iran. They quote the Iranian defense ministry, “The two countries have decided to settle the S-300s problem.” Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov, a former Russian Defense Ministry official, added: “A step was taken in the direction of cooperation on the economy and arms technology, at least for such defensive systems as the S-300 and S-400.” 

Military specialists say the S-400 is vastly superior to the US PAC-3 Patriot missile. It’s believed to be the first system in the world that can selectively use several types of missiles, both previously developed SAMs and the new, unique SAMs. It is mobile, making detection difficult. It can target Strategic bombers such as the B-1, FB-111 and B-52H; Electronic warfare airplanes such as the EF-111A and EA-6; Reconnaissance airplanes such as the TR-1; Early-warning radar airplanes such as the E-3A and E-2C; Fighter airplanes such as the F-15, F-16; Stealth airplanes such as the B-2 and F-117A; Strategic cruise missiles such as the Tomahawk; Ballistic missiles in a range up to 3,500 km. 

Furthermore, the Pentagon’s most colossal weapon boondoggle to date, the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, was not designed to penetrate the coverage of the S-300P/S-400 systems. Oops….

If the DebkaFile report about S-400 missile system to Iran is true, and it certainly seems to be, then the geopolitics of the entire battle between the Obama Administration and Russia and Iran and Syria, and soon China, is indeed very stupid. 

The battle is being led by tunnel-vision warhawks around President Obama such as NSC Adviser Susan Rice. They seem incapable of grasping connections between events, and are, thus, by definition, not intelligent people. It is being led by the US military industrial complex, prominently by Lockheed Martin, main contractor of the disastrous F-35. It is being led by a very rich, power-addicted Oligarchy that somehow thinks they own the world. In fact, as recent events testify, they are losing the world they thought they controlled by their stupidity. Some call it the law of unintended consequences.

New Eastern Outlook
Putin and Iran Do a ‘Game Changer’

F. William Engdahl