Russia to develop S-500 air defense system soon: air force commander

Russia to develop S-500 air defense system soon: air force commander

news.xinhuanet.com

Russia's advanced S-500 air defense system could be developed in the near future, the Air Force commander said Wednesday. The S-500 surface-to-air missile system is currently at the blueprint stage and was expected to be ready by 2012. "This work is in progress... I think this system will appear in the near future," RIA Novosti quoted Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin as saying.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.jpost.com

Meanwhile President Obama is abandoning the missile defense shield for Europe, which allies REQUESTED our help to build, the Russian government is announcing that they will upgrade their own missile defense system. After all the rhetoric that if the U.S. helped former Soviet states to build such defense it would mean war, now the Russians are doing the same, despite the U.S. "scrapping part of the missile defense", which would have been built to give some leverage to the Czech Republic and Poland over Russia.

news.xinhuanet.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Forgot to add this article too.

Barack Obama surrenders to Russia on Missile Defence

I blogged a couple of weeks ago that the Obama administration was about to abandon its plans for Third Site missile defence installations in Poland and the Czech Republic. I wrote then that “if enacted, this would represent a huge turnaround in American strategic thinking on a global missile defence system, and a massive betrayal of two key US allies in eastern and central Europe. Such a move would significantly weaken America’s ability to combat the growing threat posed by Iran’s ballistic missile program, and would hand a major propaganda victory to the Russians.”

It now looks as though the president has surrendered to Russian demands to kill off Third Site. Michael Goldfarb at The Weekly Standard is reporting that:

“According to reliable sources, Obama administration officials are on their way to Poland and the Czech Republic to deliver very bad news. The administration intends to cancel completely the missile defense sites that had been promised to these governments by the previous administration.”

blogs.telegraph.co.uk...

It seems we are about to abandon all allies.


[edit on 17-9-2009 by ElectricUniverse]

$10 says India will be buying this for sure
India and Russia have a long history and a very good relationship

Ever heard of the BrahMos


Check it out

The S500 will most likely be a sam system with limited ballistic capability.

Not an offensive weapon.

Tell me again why we NEED to build a missile defense system halfway across the globe? I'm fairly certain that we don't have the money for that kind of stuff, leave it to the EU to figure it out.

The money issue is a BIGGY, we can't just keep operating in the red with all of these pet projects, it's downright stupid.

Originally posted by ElectricUniverse
Meanwhile President Obama is abandoning the missile defense shield for Europe

Obama has stated that US and its allies will instead focus on developing the ship-based Aegis Combat System, which can be just as effective as land-based Anti-missile systems with the added benefit of flexibility of being stationed anywhere in the world on short notice. Somehow people didn't notice this part of the announcement, even though it is very relevant from the military and cost standpoint.

Originally posted by ElectricUniverse
which allies REQUESTED our help to build

Really? Do you have sources that prove that Poland Czech Republic innitiated the request to have these systems based in their countries? Sure they are pissed now because the US's back and forth decisions.

Originally posted by ElectricUniverse
the Russian government is announcing that they will upgrade their own missile defense system. After all the rhetoric that if the U.S. helped former Soviet states to build such defense it would mean war, now the Russians are doing the same

There is one key difference between Russian S-400/500 and US systems in Europe: Russian defense systems are stationed in Russia, while US tries to stick its military assets half way around the world. Nobody is complaining about what US does on its own soil. Now if Russia announced that it is placing S-500 in Cuba, then you could compare the two situations.

Originally posted by ElectricUniverse
which would have been built to give some leverage to the Czech Republic and Poland over Russia.

How would it give them leverage over Russia? They have no leverage, and they will have no leverage - because on the international arena they are very minor player regardless of what toys US places in their land. It is US who would have some leverage over Russia, because it would have been the US who would operate these system.


[edit on 17-9-2009 by maloy]