'Alarming' Russian Arms Buildup Said To Have Closed Gap With U.S.

[bananas]

Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

The commander of U.S. air forces in Europe has said that the Russian Air Force's buildup and modernization in recent years has been both "alarming" and effective at achieving near parity with the West.

"The alarming thing," General Frank Gorenc said on September 14, is that the Russians are catching up. "They've closed the gap."

Speaking at an annual Air Force Association conference, Gorenc said he was concerned about Russia's moves to increase the quantity and quality of its aircraft and field unmanned aircraft.

<snip>

To meet the new threat, Gorenc said, "it's pretty clear we're going to have go back and start exercising some of the same stuff we used to do in the Cold War."

<snip>

Read more: http://www.rferl.org/content/alarming-russian-arms-buildup-closed-gap-with-us-general-gorenc/27248718.html

[villager]

1. A "double-win" for the MIC! We have the Cold War back, *and* we still have the "War on Terror"

...which we used to replace it, to begin with!

[jalan48]

3. You are correct-lot's of money to be made in war fear.

[villager]

5. Presumably, the Russian people aren't "eating well" off this, either

Except for the oligarchs.

Wonder how long they can maintain these same fictions over there?

[jalan48]

10. 1984-be afraid.

It just takes a few strategic attacks to get the sheep running in the right direction. I think the oligarchs undoing will be climate change. At some point people will say fuck this fear stuff, we need to eat.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

16. Mission Accomplished

The MIC only took, what, 20 years or so to turn the clock back to the "good old days" of the Cold War. Let the Good Times roll!

[GeorgeGist]

2. Cha ching, cha ching

[malthaussen]

4. We must not allow a mine-shaft gap!

-- Mal

[HassleCat]

9. Thank you. One of my very favorite movies.

It taught me to stop worrying and learn to love the bomb.

[bananas]

6. Impasse Over U.S.-Russia Nuclear Treaty Hardens As Washington Threatens 'Countermeasures'

This article disappeared from the site, but is still in google's cache:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rferl.org%2Fcontent%2Frussia-nuclear-treaty-us-threatens-countermeasures%2F27250064.html

Impasse Over U.S.-Russia Nuclear Treaty Hardens As Washington Threatens 'Countermeasures'


"We don't make determinations on arms-control violations lightly," U.S. Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller said.

By Mike Eckel
September 15, 2015

WASHINGTON -- Russia risks provoking "military and economic countermeasures" if it continues to stonewall over a U.S. accusation that it violated a bedrock of nuclear arms control, the United States' lead arms-control negotiator says.

The comments by Rose Gottemoeller, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, highlight the seriousness that the U.S. administration has attached to the alleged violations of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Last year Washington formally accused Moscow of being "in violation of its obligations."

Gottemoeller told RFE/RL in an interview that Russia had been engaged in a "fishing expedition" to learn "what precisely we know and how we obtained that information" instead of trying to resolve the dispute.

"We don't make determinations on arms-control violations lightly," Gottemoeller said. "So I want to make clear that this violation is not a technicality or a mistake as some have suggested. We are talking about a missile that has been flight-tested as a ground-launched cruise-missile system to these ranges that are banned under this treaty."

<snip>

[bananas]

7. That's a fairly long article, wonder why it was pulled? nt

[HassleCat]

8. Same as the missile gap

Back in the early 1960s, the US and USSR had a few nukes, enough to seriously screw up your day, but not enough to destroy the planet. Then there was a "missile gap," with the Russkies building nukes so fast it would make your head spin. I forgot how far ahead of us they were reported to be, but it meant we had to build nukes at a spitfire pace. I think President Kennedy even went on TV and told us about the missile gap, and why we had to accelerate our acquisitions to keep pace with the USSR. Later we learned there was no missile gap. It was invented by a bunch of hawks, particularly from the Air Force, since they benefited the most from the buildup.

The is the same thing, "top Pentagon officials" calling for more and more expensive junk. If you know the military, you know this is their retirement system. Senior officers retire, usually with a "disability," and go to work for a company that builds missiles, airplanes, torpedoes, tanks, you name it. What do you think they do for those companies? Design and build weapons? Hahahahah. Most of them wouldn't know a nut from a bolt. They use their military connections to influence congress to spend more money on the military. They drop in on Congressman Grafttaker to remind him how important to his district the new tank building plant will be. Well, as we all know, tanks are not built in one place anymore. Pieces and parts of them are made in as many congressional districts as possible, making weapons system nearly immune to cancellation.

But I digress. Bottom line here: Beeeeee Essssss!

[deacon_sephiroth]

12. A tank factory

"The primary aim of modern warfare... is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living." - 1984 George Orwell

Because a tank or a bomb or a jet just goes and burns oil and makes the oil barrons happy and explodes somewhere doing no good for anyone.

If you invested the same time and money into building a school or hospital you might inadvertently raise the standard of living and that's dangerous to the oligarchs.

[Roland99]

11. How much debt are they racking up to pay for all this??

[MattSh]

13. Debt...

Russia's debt is < 12% of GDP
USA's debt is > 80% of GDP

Average of CIA and IMF data, both as of 2012.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_debt

[november3rd]

15. They still only spend

about one tenth of what we spend on "defense"

[november3rd]

14. They Always Exaggerate

Those NATO guys in Europe are under orders to exaggerate by a factor of ten every perceived threat by our non-allies whenever they talk to the media.

[PSPS]

17. So says Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (i.e., the CIA.)

[bemildred]

18. So all that money we spent was wasted?

And how did Russia do this when its economy and society are falling apart and they are going to collapse any day now?

[Xolodno]

19. Well...lets see...Cold War days...

The Soviet Union's posture and military was predominately defensive as they believed the West would be the ones to fire the first shots. Which, interestingly enough, allowed nations to buy said military items from the USSR as they were for defensive purposes and suspected the US might attack (i.e. Cuba, Nicaragua, etc.).

You know what, he might be right in that respect, with Russia selling and delivering the S-300 anti air system to Iran. Curse Iran for wanting to shoot down military planes that invade their airspace with the intention to bomb them.

The USSR back in the day, projected power usually on its immediate borders...much like Russia does today. So he's right in that respect. I mean, hey, look how long its taking Russia to set up shop in Syria...the US could do that in no time...since we have a military designed to project power. Tsk Tsk, so inefficient at preparing to invade.

So yeah, maybe they are closing the gap on the ability to defend themselves. Can't have that!

[hedgehog]

20. This report is soooo 1959!