The US Military — The Trllion Dollar Welfare Queen: Military Unveils Another Multi-Billion Dollar Killing Machine

The B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber
While the federal deficit expands, cities go bankrupt and folks are forced to drink lead ladened water - The Pentagon Parasites get a new ultra-expensive toy.

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Air Force reveals first image of B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber

By Thom Patterson
It's an image that is being picked apart by military aviation experts around the world. The first official drawing of the U.S. Air Force's B-21 bomber.

Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James unveiled the artist rendering Friday based on the initial design concept.

Black, sleek, with swept-back wings and stealthy design make this aircraft look a lot like another famous bomber — the B-2 Spirit.

James seemed to hint at that during her announcement. "The B-21 has been designed from the beginning based on a set of requirements that allows the use of existing and mature technology," she said at the Air Force Association Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida.

At first glance, the drawing seems basic. But make no mistake, aviation geeks and America's military competitors will be picking it apart for clues to learn more about this very expensive and powerful weapons system. China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and just about anyone in the world involved in developing advanced stealth technology will look at this drawing for any indication of where U.S. design is headed.

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Countdown To Armageddon In Syria: Terror Supporting States of Saudi Arabia and Turkey Prepare to Invade Syria

Illustration by DonkeyHotey

A Dramatic Escalation Appears Imminent in Syria

By The Saker
The situation in Syria has reached a watershed moment and a dramatic escalation of the war appears imminent. Let’s look again at how we reached this point.

During the first phase of the operation, the Syrian armed forces were unable to achieve an immediate strategic success. This is rather unsurprising. It is important to remember here that during the first weeks of the operation the Russian did not provide close air support to the Syrians. Instead, they chose to systematically degrade the entire Daesh (Note: I refer to *all* terrorist in Syria as “Daesh”) infrastructure including command posts, communication nodes, oil dumps, ammo dumps, supply routes, etc. This was important work, but it did not have an immediate impact upon the Syrian military. Then the Russians turned to two important tasks: to push back Daesh in the Latakia province and to hit the illegal oil trade between Daesh and Turkey. The first goal was needed for the protection of the Russian task force and the second one hit the Daesh finances. Then the Russians seriously turned to providing close air support. Not only that, but the Russians got directly involved with the ground operation.

The second phase was introduced gradually, without much fanfare, but it made a big difference on the ground: the Russians and Syrians began to closely work together and they soon honed their collaboration to a quantitatively new level which allowed the Syrian commanders to use Russian firepower with great effectiveness. Furthermore, the Russians began providing modern equipment to the Syrians, including T-90 tanks, modern artillery systems, counter-battery radars, night vision gear, etc. Finally, according to various Russian reports, Russian special operations teams (mostly Chechens) were also engaged in key locations, including deep in the rear of Daesh. As a result, the Syrian military for the first time went from achieving tactical successes to operational victories: for the first time the Syrian began to liberate key towns of strategic importance.

Finally, the Russians unleashed a fantastically intense firepower on Daesh along crucial sectors of the front. In northern Homs, the Russians bombed a sector for 36 hours in a row. According to the latest briefing of the Russian Defense Ministry, just between February 4th and February 11th, the Russian aviation group in the Syrian Arab Republic performed 510 combat sorties and engaged 1,888 terrorists targets. That kind of ferocious pounding did produce the expected effect and the Syrian military began slowly moving along the Turkish-Syrian border while, at the same time, threatening the Daesh forces still deployed inside the northern part of Aleppo. In doing so, the Russians and Syrian threatened to cut off the vital resupply route linking Daesh to Turkey. According to Russian sources, Daesh forces were so demoralized that they forced the local people to flee towards the Turkish border and attempted to hide inside this movement of internally displaced civilians.

This strategic Russian and Syrian victory meant that all the nations supporting Daesh, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the USA were facing a complete collapse of their efforts to overthrow Assad and to break-up Syria and turn part of it into a “Jihadistan”. The Americans could not admit this, of course; as for the Saudis, their threats to invade Syria were rather laughable. Which left the main role to Erdogan who was more than happy to provide the West with yet another maniacal ally willing to act in a completely irresponsible way just to deny the “other side” anything looking like a victory.

Erdogan seems to be contemplating two options. The first one is a ground operation into Syria aimed at restoring the supply lines of Daesh and at preventing the Syrian military from controlling the border. Here is a good illustration (taken from a SouthFront video) of what this would look like:

According to various reports, Erdogan has 18,000 soldiers supported by aircraft, armor and artillery poised along the border to execute such an invasion.

The second plan is even simpler, at least in theory: to create a no-fly zone over all of Syria. Erdogan personally mentioned this option several times, the latest one on Thursday the 11th.

Needless to say, both plans are absolutely illegal under international law and would constitute an act of aggression, the “supreme international crime” according to the Nuremberg Tribunal, because “it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” Not that this would deter a megalomaniac like Erdogan.
[...]

In purely military terms, Russia has taken a number of crucial steps: she declared a large scale “verification” of the “combat readiness” of the Southern and Central military districts. In practical terms, this means that all the Russian forces are on high alert, especially the AeroSpace forces, the Airborne Forces, the Military Transportation Aviation forces and, of course, all the Russian forces in Crimea and the Black Sea Fleet. The first practical effect of such “exercises” is not only to make a lot of forces immediately available, but it is also to make them very difficult to track. This not only protects the mobilized forces, but also makes it very hard for the enemy to figure out what exactly they are doing. There are also report that Russian Airborne Warning and Control (AWACS) aircraft – A-50M – are now regularly flying over Syria. In other words, Russia has taken the preparations needed to go to war with Turkey.

Needless to say, the Turks and the Saudis have also announced joint military exercises. They have even announced that Saudi aircraft will conduct airstrikes from the Incirlik air base in support of an invasion of Syria.

At the same time, the Russians have also launched a peace initiative centered around a general ceasefire starting on March 1st or even, according to the latest leaks, on February 15th. The goal is is transparent: to break the Turkish momentum towards an invasion of Syria. It is obvious that Russian diplomats are doing everything they can to avert a war with Turkey.

Here again I have to repeat what I have said already a million times in the past: the small Russian contingent in Syria is in a very precarious position: far away from Russia and very close (45km) to Turkey. Not only that, but the Turks have over 200 combat aircraft ready to attack, whereas the Russians probably has less than 20 SU-30/35/34s in total. Yes, these are very advanced aircraft, of the 4++ generation, and they will be supported by S-400 systems, but the force ratio remains a terrible 1:10.

Russia does, however, have one big advantage over Turkey: Russia has plenty of long-range bombers, armed with gravity bombs and cruise missiles, capable of striking the Turks anywhere, in Syria and in Turkey proper. In fact, Russia even has the capability to strike at Turkish airfields, something which the Turks cannot prevent and something which they cannot retaliate in kind for. The big risk for Russia, at this point, would be that NATO would interpret this as a Russian “aggression” against a member-state, especially if the (in)famous Incirlik air base is hit.

Erdogan also has to consider another real risk: that, while undoubtedly proficient, the Turkish forces might not be a match for the battle-hardened Kurds and Syrians, especially if the latter are supported by Iranian and Hezbollah forces. The Turks have a checkered record against the Kurds whom they typically do overwhelm with firepower and numbers, but whom they never succeeded in neutralizing, subduing or eliminating. Finally, there is the possibility that Russians might have to use their ground forces, especially if the task force in Khmeimim is really threatened.

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The Pacific - The Warriors That HBO Forgot

Wilfred Jackson: United States Navy - SEABEES
World War II - "The Pacific"

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The Warriors That HBO Forgot

It took me less than 5 minutes to find these photographs and
accompanying information online. So why were blacks almost
(if not completely) absent from HBO's World War II series "The Pacific"
(produced by Steven Spielberg & Tom Hanks)
and almost every other Hollywood movie
about WW II in "The Pacific?"

This video is dedicated to the black men and women
who served and died in The Pacific during WW II.

Cluster Munitions: A Year of Contradictions — Support for Ban Grows, But Still Used in Syria and Yemen (Video)

Remnants of Uragan cluster munition rockets collected by rebel fighters after attacks on Starobesheve, Ukraine on
February 6 and 7. © 2015 Human Rights Watch

Growing Support for Ban Despite New Use in Syria, Yemen

By Human Rights Watch
Repeated use of cluster munitions in Syria and Yemen during 2015 has been met by growing international support for the treaty banning the deadly weapons, Human Rights Watch said today. The cluster munition attacks have caused numerous civilian casualties.

Attacks in Syria using air-dropped and ground-launched cluster munitions have increased significantly since Russia began its military operation there on September 30, 2015. In Yemen, a Saudi Arabia-led coalition has used at least four types of cluster munitions in 2015. Yet Russia and Zimbabwe were the only countries to vote against a December 7 United Nations General Assembly resolution in support of the international treaty banning cluster munitions.

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Cluster Munitions Launched from the Air and Ground in Syria

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“Instead of defending cluster munitions, Russia should join the ever-expanding community of nations that reject these indiscriminate weapons,” said Mary Wareham, arms advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The UN resolution, supported even by nearly half the countries that have yet to join the treaty, shows the growing sentiment against cluster munitions.”

In Syria, government forces have used cluster munitions across the country since mid-2012, while Islamic State (also known as ISIS) forces used cluster munition rockets in northern Syria in the second half of 2014. Both Russian-backed rebel forces and Ukrainian government forces have used cluster munition rockets in attacks in eastern Ukraine, but not since a February ceasefire.

On October 1, the international Cluster Munition Coalition, which Human Rights Watch chairs, warned Russia against using any cluster munitions in Syria due to the “foreseeable and preventable” danger posed to civilians. Russia should stop using cluster munitions and start supporting the international prohibition on their use, Human Rights Watch said.

Cluster munitions pose an immediate threat to civilians by scattering submunitions or bomblets over a wide area. Their remnants pose a long-term danger, particularly submunitions that fail to explode upon impact, becoming de facto landmines. Russia is not a party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, signed by 118 countries and ratified by 98. The treaty also requires the clearance of remnants from attacks and assistance to victims of the weapons.

The December 7 UN General Assembly resolution was its first on the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The non-binding resolution passed 139 to 2, with 40 abstentions. Three dozen countries that have not banned cluster munitions nonetheless voted for the resolution, while non-signatories China, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United States were among those abstaining.

Russia acknowledged humanitarian concern about cluster munitions but said it objects to the way the treaty was negotiated by like-minded states outside UN auspices.

On September 9, at the First Review Conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions since the treaty went into effect on August 1, 2010, more than 100 countries adopted a declaration condemning any use of cluster munitions by any actor.

To date, 28 countries have finished destruction of their stockpiles in accordance with the Convention on Cluster Munitions, destroying more than 1.3 million cluster munitions containing more than 160 million submunitions. As 2015 comes to a close, two more countries have completed the destruction of their stockpiled cluster munitions under the treaty requirements, in both cases well in advance of the treaty’s eight-year stockpile destruction deadline.

Germany once held 573,700 cluster munitions containing 60 million submunitions, the highest number stockpiled by any member of the treaty. It announced the completion of the destruction of the stockpile on November 25, while Italy destroyed the last of its stockpile of 5,113 cluster munitions containing 2.8 million submunitions on October 31.

“By destroying their stockpiled cluster munitions years in advance of the deadline, nations such as Germany and Italy are leading the way in implementation of the ban,” said Wareham, who is also editor of the annual Cluster Munition Monitor report by the international coalition of organizations working to eradicate the weapons. “We expect similar commitment from others that have banned cluster munitions, as the best way to discourage new use of cluster munitions is to destroy them.”

Reprinted with permission from Human Rights Watch.

Crazed Jihadis Get Their 'Fighting Spirit' From Drugs — Supplied By the Saudis

The crazed jihadis (left) are getting their 'fighting spirit' from drugs supplied by the likes of Saudi 'royals' like Saudi Prince Majed Abdulaziz Al-Saud (right)  he was recently arrested at an airport in Lebanon with two tons of Captagon pills.

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Drug Crazed Soldiers Complicate Syrian War, As Drug Sales Bring Cash to Combatants

By Phillip Smith
The private jet at the Beirut airport wasn't just carrying a Saudi prince one night in October—it was loaded with two tons of Captagon, the Middle Eastern amphetamine that not only fuels the nightlife in Saudi Arabia, it's also a favorite of combatants in Syria's brutal civil war.

RELATED STORY: Drug Smuggling, Rape and Torture - These 5 Saudi Royals All Did Things Commoners Would be Executed For

The prince's bust by Lebanese customs officials opened a media window on a Mideast amphetamine habit that is, by all accounts, huge. Manufactured in clandestine labs in Lebanon, and increasingly, in war-torn Syria, the drug is flooding the region, with the UNODC World Drug Report estimating that half a billion Captagon pills flood into Saudi Arabia alone each year.

Captagon has been around for a long time, but it's getting renewed attention for its role in the Syrian conflict. Manufactured since the 1960s, the stuff was banned regionally in the 1980s because of its addictive and anti-social properties. Now, Captagon is little more than a generic name for mixtures of amphetamine and caffeine or amphetamine and ephedrine, but it's still the kind of stimulant drug beloved by fighters who desire the energy, alertness and sense of well-being it brings.

It's "the drug fueling the conflict in Syria," the BBC reported, while the Washington Post called it, with just a touch of hyperbole, "the tiny pill fueling Syria's war and turning fighters into superhuman soldiers."

The Post notwithstanding, Captagon will not turn fighters into the Hulk, but as a stimulant, it can reduce hunger, sharpen focus and allow fighters to keep going for days on end. The problem is, doing speed for days on end tends to make people jumpy and paranoid—not the kind of person you necessarily want holding heavy weapons.

Still, numerous media reports have detailed Captagon use by fighters all on sides in Syria, from government troops to ISIS jihadis.

"So the brigade leader came and told us, 'This pill gives you energy. Try it,'" one ex-fighter told the BBC. "So we took it the first time. You feel physically fit. And if there were 10 people in front of you, you could catch them and kill them. You're awake all the time. You don't have any problems. You don't even think about sleeping. You don't think to leave the checkpoint. It gives you great courage and power. If the leader told you to go break into a military barracks, I will break in with a brave heart and without any feeling of fear at all — you're not even tired."

But Captagon's role in the region's wars is not limited to keeping fighters jacked up. It's also a money maker for the combatants, and it's big business. Lebanese authorities seized more than $200 million worth in one month, the country's top drug enforcement official told Time. Much of it is coming out of Syria, the official said.

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US Sneakily Expanding Drone Bases in Africa

Satellite Photos show the rapid expansion of a US drone base in Chabelley, Djbouti.

By Nick Turse
VIEWED FROM HIGH ABOVE, Chabelley Airfield is little more than a gray smudge in a tan wasteland. Drop lower and its incongruous features start coming into focus. In the sun-bleached badlands of the tiny impoverished nation of Djibouti — where unemployment hovers at a staggering 60 percent and the per capita gross domestic product is about $3,100 — sits a hive of high-priced, high-tech American hardware.

Satellite imagery tells part of the story. A few years ago, this isolated spot resembled little more than an orphaned strip of tarmac sitting in the middle of this desolate desert. Look closely today, however, and you’ll notice what seems to be a collection of tan clamshell hangars, satellite dishes, and distinctive, thin, gunmetal gray forms — robot planes with wide wingspans.

Unbeknownst to most Americans and without any apparent public announcement, the U.S. has recently taken steps to transform this tiny, out-of-the-way outpost into an “enduring” base, a key hub for its secret war, run by the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), in Africa and the Middle East. The military is tight-lipped about Chabelley, failing to mention its existence in its public list of overseas bases and refusing even to acknowledge questions about it — let alone offer answers. Official documents, satellite imagery, and expert opinion indicate, however, that Chabelley is now essential to secret drone operations throughout the region.

Tim Brown, a senior fellow at GlobalSecurity.org and expert on analyzing satellite imagery, notes that Chabelley Airfield allows U.S. drones to cover Yemen, southwest Saudi Arabia, a large swath of Somalia, and parts of Ethiopia and southern Egypt.

“This base is now very important because it’s a major hub for most drone operations in northwest Africa,” he said. “It’s vital. … We can’t afford to lose it.”


The startling transformation of this little-known garrison in this little-known country is in line with U.S. military activity in Africa where, largely under the radar, the number of missions, special operations deployments, and outposts has grown rapidly and with little outside scrutiny.

The expansion of Chabelley and its consequent rise in importance to the U.S. military began in 2013, when the Pentagon moved its fleet of remotely piloted aircraft from its lone acknowledged “major military facility” in Africa — Camp Lemonnier, in Djibouti’s capital, which shares the country’s name — to this lower-profile airstrip about 10 kilometers away.

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How the US Drone Campaign Went Frankenstein

Photo Debra Sweet.

“Deep within every one of us lies a natural understanding of good and evil. That is why one man can tell the truth convincingly, but it takes the entire apparatus of the state to peddle a lie, and propagate that lie to new generations.” – Gandhi

By Jim Dean
An old story becomes a new one this week with the addition of one key ingredient, a brave new whistleblower source that wants to stop an out of control monster that became a terrorist to fight terrorists, with the same callous attitude toward collateral damage. Unlike many, I am not against the use of drones, but only their misuse. And therein lies the main problem… how do you determine misuse and eliminate it?

That may seem a silly question, but it isn’t, because it has a lot of layers to it. Sure, you can have guidelines, and even rules, but in the real world, that is like a child writing out his Christmas list about what he wants. How will the rules be interpreted, and then even more problematic, the guidelines, which can be interpreted as needed to cover what you want to do?

And then how do you handle enforcement? Is it all after the fact, when the killing is done, or can the process be challenged, not only on a per case but in general? Who makes the final decision on what is correct? The answer to most of these questions has usually been “whoever is running the program”, and therein lays the age old problem.

Self-policing generally does not work. It is a recipe for abuse, and we see the results of it over and over. The current new leaker has put us in the box seats to watch the real drone show. I am not going to cover all of his disclosure details here, as a hundred other writers are doing that now. Let’s move on to why these unwarranted drone killings kept happening, and how we can stop these Frankenstein creations, born from a mother called Expedience.

There were two major revelations in the new leaker story… sort of. Yes, he confirmed that up to 90% of the drone “kills” were not the “targets”. That is not news, as we have been getting these reports for years now; the most memorable ones being the weddings blown up as mistaken terrorist gatherings. The Saudis, or I should say their US and Israeli hirelings running their targeting operations, just wiped out a huge wedding party in Yemen last week with 135 claimed dead. We have no leakers coming forward on that one yet.

But with the new story from The Intercept, their new leaker takes us deeper into the drone program’s targeting procedures and the many problems encountered. If you will all put your memory hats on and think back over the last five years, you might remember the commonly used response by Pentagon spokesmen regarding civilian drone kills, which generally would run, “We have no information confirming civilian casualties”. We heard this over and over, the same script.

Silly me, I got to thinking they might be lying. After all, they have to make mistakes, sometimes. Refusing to admit them makes one appear to be a serial liar, and a serial murderer at the same time. And there never seemed to be any outrage by the public that they were being off-handedly lied to, like children being told the tooth fairy story. As the years passed, the public grew numb to the numbers.

So we thank our new leaker for taking us into the belly of the beast to show us EXACTLY what happened — what the bastards really did, and I use that term for the first time at NEO for a good reason. To eliminate any future exposure for civilian killings, the drone teams simply converted the innocent dead to enemy combatant KIAs… and pouf… no civilian dead anymore. They can honestly say their records do not show any evidence of civilian deaths. Our leaker has brought us this silver bullet. Now what will we do with it?

What I have just described to you is a version of what is referred to in Special Ops black humor as a “double pop”. You not only murder an innocent person because he is “probably” a terrorist and it was convenient to do so, but you do even worse.

To hide your crime, you pull a version of the old street cop crime of leaving a planted weapon at the scene of an unarmed suspect you have just filled with bullet holes. You restage the murder scene to protect yourself from being charged. Welcome to the dark side of serving your country folks, or as Gordon Duff would say, “Welcome to the real world.”

The higher ups involved make it a “triple pop”, as they use the civilian innocents converted into enemy KIAs to make the program statistics look more successful to assure the funding keeps coming. There is a special place in Hell for people like this.

Why would so many people so casually go along with this horrendous continuing atrocity, not only upon the victims but on their oaths, their branch of service, their religion, and their country?

The answer is a simple and sad one… because they could. The system was set up so these dead could just be swept under the rug and that would be the end of it, which it has… up until now. Now the system has a problem. It has been exposed. It has two choices, reform and fix the problem, or hunt down and prosecute the leaker.

Our Nobel Peace Prize president has disgraced that award by prosecuting more leakers than his predecessors, including Bush (43), which is saying something. Once people get into high office, they impose on those below them an unacknowledged oath of offices which simply says that, “I will do all I can do within my power to protect my superiors from any adverse consequences, so help me God, and this oath supersedes all other previously taken (like to serve my country and defend the Constitution).”

No one admits to taking this other oath, and you know why. It’s an admission of conspiracy to obstruct justice, which is a serious federal felony, and worse, when you add up all the multiple counts. Do these people engaged in this live in fear? Not really, as I think they all have immunity due to the President signing off on each drone assassination. The lawyers knew that was the magic stay-out-of-jail card.

The fix for all of this… saving the innocent lives, stopping the conversion of normal people into cold-blooded mass killers on the public payroll, and prosecuting those brave enough to stand up to it, requires acknowledging what has to be done. My Jim Dean fix is an obvious one, but it would be fought tooth-and-nail by every institution to which it would apply.

End all internal investigations, and make outside “monitors” statutory for any program known to be prone to abuse. Any old timer in public service will tell you there is no “internal investigation” worth spit. They are a built in obstruction of justice tool, with taxpayer-funded lawyers to make sure it will fly.

Whether it is CIA, FBI, the Justice Dept. or the military, during anything but routine low end cases, they all have to be investigated by completely outside entities, insulated from the chain of command. Government can never be allowed to investigate itself. And we all know why. The little guys get burned and the big guys walk away, most all of the time.

For situations like the drone program, Gitmo, renditions, and any new rushed-through programs like the Patriot Act, War of Terror, (oh excuse me, that is supposed to be War ON Terror), etc., outside legal monitors must be present INSIDE all of these operations to ensure they are in compliance every step of the way.

This new drone leak case is a perfect vehicle for bringing this up now, with its tales of out-of-control procedures, people getting on watch lists based on “evidence” that would never be allowed anywhere under public review. The main problem reported was over-reliance on intercept Intel with no other confirmation. The Ethernet God ruled.

One example was tracking a “terror suspect” for a year, only to find out it was just his mother’s phone. A simple name misspelling or even a similarity could get you on a watch list, and then moving up the line to your appointment with death and maybe your family, too. And worst of all is a president having to make the drone kill call, not even knowing himself how many arbitrary decisions went into the process.

I get feedback that my idea is an “unrealistic approach”. And my reply is always the same… “compared to what?”… “the ongoing nightmare we have now”? That certainly is real. The body count numbers, the destroyed families, the relatives joining jihadi groups for revenge on the infidels, we know that all is real.

Or is it that we don’t have the courage to do what needs to be done? That is the challenge that this new leaker has put to us. He took the risk to give us this information to strip us of our “I never knew” defense. He is leading by example, and I hope to meet him one day to thank him personally. A strong public response is needed to protect him from those hunting him now. You know what to do.

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Jim W. Dean, managing editor for Veterans Today, producer/host of Heritage TV Atlanta, specially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

Reprinted with permission from New Eastern Outlook

The Russian Army Asserts its Superiority in Conventional Warfare

Russian-made Sukhoi Su-34. (Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Moscow’s military intervention in Syria has not simply overturned the fortunes of war and spread panic throughout the ranks of the jihadist groups. It has also shown the rest of the world the current capacities of the Russian army in situations of real warfare. To everyone’s astonishment, it has proved to possess a system of signal jamming capable of rendering the Atlantic Alliance deaf and blind. Despite a far superior budget, the United States have just lost their military domination.

By Thierry Meyssan, Translated by Pete Kimberley
The Russian military intervention in Syria, which was at first considered a risky bet by Moscow against the jihadists, has transformed itself into a demonstration of power which upsets the strategic balance of the world [1]. Originally conceived to isolate and then destroy the armed groups equipped by states who support the jihadists in violation of the pertinent resolutions of the Security Council, the operation has now blinded all the Western actors and their allies.

The Pentagon is now divided between those who tend to minimise the facts while attempting to find a weakness in the Russian system, and those who, on the contrary, consider that the United States have lost their superiority in terms of conventional wafare, and that it will take long years before they are able to recover it [2].

We remember that in 2008, during the war in South Ossetia, although the Russian forces had managed to repel the Georgian attack, they had above all shown the world the deplorable state of their equipment. And only ten days ago, ex-Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and ex-National Security advisor Condoleezza Rice were describing the Russian army as a « second-rate » force. [3].

So how has the Russian Federation managed to rebuild its defence industry, and to design and produce very high-technology weapons without the Pentagon measuring the importance of the phenomenon, and allowing itself to be over-taken ? Have the Russians used all their new weapons in Syria, or do they have other surprises in reserve ? [4]

The confusion in Washington is so great that the White House has cancelled the official visit by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and a delegation of the Russian Chief of Staff. This decision was taken after an identical visit to Turkey by a Russian military delegation. There is little point in discussing the operations in Syria, because the Pentagon does not know what is happening there. Furious, the « liberal hawks » and the neo-conservatives are demanding a relaunch of the military budget, and have succeeded in stopping the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

In the most bizarre fashion, the Atlantist commentators who are witnessing the out-distancing of US military power are now denouncing the dangers of Russian imperialism [5]. And yet Russia is only acting to save the Syrian People, and proposing that other states work in collaboration with them, while the United States, when they enjoyed military pre-eminence, imposed their economic system and destroyed a number of states.

We are obliged to note that the hesitant declarations by Washington, published during the Russian deployment before the offensive, should not be interpreted as a slow political adaptation of official rhetoric, but should be understood for what they actually reveal – the fact that the Pentagon did not know the terrain. It had become deaf and blind.

A system of generalised jamming

We know, since the incident of the USS Donald Cook in the Black Sea on the 12th April 2014, that the Russian Air Force has at its disposition a weapon which enables it to jam all radars, all control circuits, all systems for the transmission of information, etc. [6]. Since the beginning of its military deployment, Russia had installed a jamming centre at Hmeymim, to the North of Latakia. Then, suddenly, the USS Donald Cook incident occurred, but this time within a perimeter of 300 kilometres – which includes the NATO base at Incirlik (Turkey). And this is still going on. Because the event happened during a sand-storm of historical proportions, the Pentagon first thought its measuring equipment had malfunctioned, but then discovered that it had been jammed. Completely.

Modern conventional warfare is based on what is known as « C4i » - an acronym which corresponds to the English terms « Command », « Control », « Communications », « Computer » and « intelligence ». The satellites, planes and drones, ships and submarines, tanks and now even the combatants themselves, are all connected to one another by a system of permanent communication, which enables the Chiefs of Staff to oversee and command the fighting more efficiently. It is this entire system - NATO’s nervous system – which is presently jammed in Syria and part of Turkey.

According to the Romanian expert Valentin Vasilescu, Russia has installed several Krasukha-4, equipped its planes with SAP-518/ SPS-171 jamming equipment (like the plane that overflew the USS Donald Cook), and its helicopters with the Richag-AV system. Besides this, it is using the spy-ship Priazovye (Project 864 Vishnya class, to use NATO terminology), in the Mediterranean [7].

It seems that Russia has agreed not to interfere with Israëli communications – a US preserve – which means that it will not deploy its jamming system in South Syria.

Russian planes have enjoyed the privilege of violating Turkish air space many times. Their purpose was not to measure the reaction time of the Turkish Air Force, but to verify the efficiency of their jamming capabililies in the area concerned, and also to keep an eye the installations which are at the disposition of the jihadists in Turkey.

High-performance Cruise missiles

Russia has used several new weapons, like the 26 stealth (or LO technology) cruise missiles (3M-14T Kaliber-NK), equivalent to the American RGM/UGM-109E Tomahawk [8]. Fired by its fleet in the Caspian Sea – with no military necessity – they reached and destroyed 11 targets situated at 1,500 kilometres distance, in the non-jammed area – so that NATO could appreciate their performance.

These missiles crossed Iranian and Iraqi air space at an altitude varying between 50 and 100 metres, depending on the terrain, and flying just four kilometres away from a US drone. None of them were lost, compared to US missiles, which have a margin of error beteen 5 % and 10 %, depending on the models [9]. At the same time, this salvo demonstrated the waste of the incredible sums of money spent on the useless « anti-missile shield » built by the Pentagon around Russia –even though it was officially intended for protection against Iranian launch sites.

Taking into account that these missiles can be fired from submarines situated anywhere in the oceans, and that they can transport nuclear warheads, the Russians have clearly made up for their delay as far as launchers are concerned.

Finally, in the case of a nuclear confrontation, the Russian Federation would be destroyed by the United States – and vice versa – but would win in the case of a conventional war.

Only the Russians and the Syrians are capable of evaluating the situation on the ground. All the other military information from other sources, including the jihadists, are without foundation, since only Russia and Syria have an overall picture of the terrain. Moscow and Damascus intend to profit as far as possible from their advantage, and are therefore keeping their operations secret.

From the official communiqués and the confidences of certain officers, we may conclude that at least 5,000 jihadists have been killed, including several leaders of Ahrar el-Sham, al-Qaïda and the Islamic Emirate. At least 10,000 mercenaries have fled to Turkey, Iraq and Jordan. The Syrian Arab Army and Hezbollah have re-captured the area without waiting for the promised Iranian reinforcements.

The bombing campaign should end by the Orthodox Christmas. The question which will then have to be answered is whether or not Russia will be authorised to finish its job by pursuing the jihadists who have found refuge in Turkey, Iraq and Jordan. Failing this, Syria will have been saved, but the problem will still not have been resolved. The Muslim Brotherhood will not fail to seek revenge, and the United States will not fail to use them again against other targets.

Keep in mind:

The Russian operation in Syria was designed to deprive the jihadist groups of the support they receive from various states under the cover of aid for the « democratic opposition ».
The operation demanded the use of new weaponry, and transformed itself into a demonstration of Russian force.
Russia now has the capacity for jamming all NATO communications. It has now become the primary power in terms of conventional warfare
This performance has stoked discord in Washington. It is still too soon to say whether this will favour President Obama, or whether it will be used by the « liberal hawks » to justify an increase in the military budget.

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[1] “Russian Military Uses Syria as Proving Ground, and West Takes Notice”, Steven Lee Myers & Eric Schmitt, The New York Times, October 14, 2015.

[2] “Top NATO general: Russians starting to build air defense bubble over Syria”, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, The Washington Post, September 29, 2015.

[3] “How America can counter Putin’s moves in Syria”, by Condoleezza Rice, Robert M. Gates, Washington Post (United States), Voltaire Network, 8 October 2015.

[4] The only available study is well below reality : Russia’s quiet military revolution and what it means for Europe, Gustav Gressel, European Council on Foreign Relations, October 2015.

[5] «Russisches Syrien-Abenteuer: Das Ende der alten Weltordnung», Matthias Schepp, Der Spiegel, 10. Oktober 2015.

[6] “What frightened the USS Donald Cook so much in the Black Sea?”, Voltaire Network, 8 November 2014.

[7] «Cu ce arme ultrasecrete a cîstigat Putin suprematia în razboiul radioelectronic din Siria ?», Valentin Vasilescu, Ziarul de gardã, 12 octobre 2015. Version française : «L’arme ultrasecrète qui permet à Poutine d’assoir sa suprématie dans la guerre radio électronique en Syrie ?», Traduction Avic, Réseau international.

[8] “KALIBRating the foe: strategic implications of the Russian cruise missiles’ launch”, by Vladimir Kozin, Oriental Review (Russia), Voltaire Network, 14 October 2015.

[9] After having announced the opposite, the United States were obliged to admit the facts : “First on CNN: U.S. officials say Russian missiles heading for Syria landed in Iran”, Barbara Starr & Jeremy Diamond, CNN, October 8, 2015. “Moscow rejects CNN’s report on Russian missile landing in Iran”, IRNA, October 8, 2015. “Daily Press Briefing”, John Kirby, US State Department, October 8, 2015. “Пентагон не комментирует сообщения о якобы упавших в Иране ракетах РФ”, RIA-Novosti, October 8, 2015.

Reprinted with permission from Voltairenet

'Invisibility Cloak' On Verge of Becoming Reality — You Should Assume The US Military Already Has One

The US military-industrial complex is assumed to be from 25 to 50 years ahead of civilian science. With their virtually unlimited budget, it would be wise to assume the US military already has classified "invisibility" technology.—Ronald David Jackson

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Light reflects off the cloak (red arrows) as if it were reflecting off a flat mirror in this 3D illustration of a
metasurfaceskin cloak made from an ultrathin layer of nanoantennas (gold blocks) covering an arbitrarily
shaped object is shown in this handout image courtesy Reuters/Xiang Zhang group/Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory

 

Now You See It, Now You Don't: Invisibility Cloak Nears Reality

 

By Will Dunham
A cloak of invisibility may be common in science fiction but it is not so easy in the real world. New research suggests such a device may be moving closer to reality.

Scientists said on Thursday they have successfully tested an ultra-thin invisibility cloak made of microscopic rectangular gold blocks that, like skin, conform to the shape of an object and can render it undetectable with visible light.

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The researchers said while their experiments involved cloaking a miniscule object they believe the technology could be made to conceal larger objects, with military and other possible applications.

The cloak, 80 nanometers in thickness, was wrapped around a three-dimensional object shaped with bumps and dents. The cloak's surface rerouted light waves scattered from the object to make it invisible to optical detection.

It may take five to 10 years to make the technology practical to use, according to Xiang Zhang, director of the Materials Sciences Division of the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

"We do not see fundamental roadblocks. But much more work needs to be done," said Zhang, whose research was published in the journal Science.

The technology involves so-called metamaterials, which possess properties not present in nature. Their surfaces bear features much smaller than the size of a wavelength of light. They redirect incoming light waves, shifting them away from the object being cloaked.

The cloaking "skin" boasts microscopic light-scattering antennae that make light bouncing off an object look as if it were reflected by a flat mirror, rendering the object invisible.

Read More

They're Telling You It's 'Just A Game' - For Now: Giant Robots Set To Battle - US vs Japan

Don't kid yourself about this just being a game. The money to design and build this nightmare doesn't just fall out of the sky. You're looking at the future of military combat.
—Ronald David Jackson

Combat robot design ideas produced by geeks for damn near free. It's a military industrialist's dream:

"We're excited to announce that MegaBots and Autodesk have teamed up to host a design and mechanical engineering competition. You'll be able to win cash and see your designs come to life as parts of our robots! "—The MegaBot "Challenge"

The Mk. II Mech, created by MegaBots Inc., is shown in a YouTube video that
challenges Suidobashi Heavy Industry to a robot fight. (YouTube / MegaBots
Inc.)

"The giant robots from science fiction are coming."
—Quote from the MegaBot website.

By Michael Shulman

Challenge accepted.

In video posted to YouTube, Japanese robot-maker Suidobashi Heavy Industry accepted U.S. rival MegaBots' duel, paving the way for a future "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots"-style matchup.

MegaBots co-founders Matt Oehrlein and Gui Cavalcant threw down the robotic gauntlet in their own all-caps American video on June 30. The two men were draped in the red, white and blue flags of their homeland and dark "Top Gun"-style aviator sunglasses as they issued the challenge.

"We have a giant robot, you have a giant robot -- you know what needs to happen. We challenge you to a duel," Oehrlein says in the clip.

Read More


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Self-Assembling 'Autonomous' Robots Build Self and Walk Away 'Without Human Intervention' — Are You Nervous Yet? (Video)

New Generation of Drones Won't Look Like Jets & Helicopters - They'll Pass for Insects & Birds, Operate Autonomously

The Islamic State: Created by the CIA's 'Strategy of Tension'

By Wayne MADSEN
It is becoming more and more apparent that the Islamic State for Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or «Daesh» as it is known in Arabic, or ISIS – the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham -- preferred by Israel supporters because of the uncomforting similarity between «Israel» and «ISIL» – is part of another Central Intelligence Agency operation to artificially create a new «strategy of tensions» for the Eurasian and African land masses.

Yet another example of ISIL’s non-Islamic nature has been witnessed in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra – the blowing up of the tomb of Mohammad Bin Ali, a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed's cousin Imam Ali, by the brigands and mercenaries of ISIL. ISIL’s true goal is to eradicate the Arab and pre-Arab history of the Middle East with one major exception. There have been virtually no reports of important antiquities sacred to the Zionists having been destroyed by ISIL in either Syria or Iraq. The major targets for the ISIL demolition teams have been Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Roman, Assyrian, Persian, Alawite, Druze, Turkmen, Yazidi, Parthian, Christian, Shi’a, and Sufi (the other major tomb destroyed in Palmyra was the tomb of Nizar Abu Bahaa Eddine, a Sufi scholar who lived 500 years ago). ISIL destroyed the Tomb of Yunus (Jonah) Mosque in Iraq not because it honored the Jewish patriarch Jonah but because it was a mosque.

RELATED STORY: GLADIO  The Documented History of Terrorism As Currently Practiced by CIA and British Intel

The alleged tomb of the Jewish prophet Daniel destroyed by ISIL in Mosul is but one of six Daniel tombs located in Iraq, Iran, and Uzbekistan. The Talmud, the Jewish book from which the Zionists obtain most of their geo-political inspiration, strictly prohibits any images of faces, but permits owning images of faces created by non-Jews. Although ISIL and Talmudists are on the same page on destroying sculptures, tiles, and paintings depicting people, the Talmud’s exception that allows Jews to own images created by non-Jews has resulted in a lucrative black market for antiquities stolen by ISIL and sold through brokers in Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, and Geneva.

It is becoming clear that ISIL, from the very beginning, was a construct of the CIA and its pro-Saudi and pro-Israeli director, John Brennan; Israel's Mossad, which has ensured that Israeli targets are exempt from ISIL attack; and Saudi Arabia, which actually permitted ISIL attacks against two Shi'a mosques, one in the village of al-Qadeeh and the other in Dammam, in the Eastern Province, where Shi'as have a majority over Wahhabist Sunnis. In Iraq and Syria, U.S. and Israeli weapons have been seen by eyewitnesses being transferred to ISIL and forces of its allies, including the Al Nusra Front in Syria. Saudi bank cash receipts have been found in abandoned ISIL headquarters in both Syria and Iraq. The ISIL attacks on the Shi'as of Saudi Arabia are believed by many to be warnings by the unholy alliance of Washington, Tel Aviv, and Riyadh against predominantly Shi'a Iran.

From the terrorist Gladio «stay behind» network of fascists, which carried out terrorist attacks in Europe in the 1970s and 80s that were blamed on leftist irregulars, to the grand alliance of terrorists from Angola’s UNITA, the Afghan mujaheddin, the Nicaraguan contras, Laotian Hmongs who, under American auspices, met in 1985 in Jamba, Angola, the CIA has historically found that terrorist groups make advantageous allies. The CIA clandestinely and illegally violated two U.S. laws, the Clark and Boland Amendments, respectively, to support Angolan and Nicaraguan terrorists.


ISIL now serves as an important CIA, Saudi, and Israeli asset against common foes like Iran. ISIL has made no secret of its desire to bring the death and destruction it has visited upon Syria and Iraq into the heart of Iran. The destabilization of Iran by sponsoring terrorist attacks in Iran and against Iranian targets abroad has long been the modus operandi of the U.S., Israel, and Saudi Arabia, acting mostly through the anti-Tehran Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) and Baluchi separatists based in Pakistan. ISIL refers to Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan as «Wilayat Khorasan» or Korasan State. An ISIL affiliate, known as the Khorasan Group, has been fighting in Syria and is believed to be made up of central Asian ISIL recruits and commanders.

It was recently announced that Colonel Gulmurod Khalimov, the one-time head of the Tajikistan elite anti-terrorism police force, known as OMON, defected to ISIL and is now one its top field commanders in Syria. Khalimov, who was trained by U.S. Special Operations, Blackwater, and CIA officers during a number of official visits to the United States, has vowed to return to the Tajikistan to «slaughter» Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov, recruit Tajiks working in Russia to launch terrorist attacks inside Russia itself and Tajiks in Tajikistan to attack Russian military troops stationed in Tajikistan (which makes Khalimov an ally of NATO top military commander General Philip Breedlove and U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, who want to increase military pressure on Russia to Cold War levels). ISIL guerrillas, mostly Chechens, fresh from combat in Syria and Iraq, have been discovered fighting for Ihor Kolomoisky's Israeli- and neo-Nazi-led mercenary battalions against the pro-Russian forces of Donetsk and Lugansk in Eastern Ukraine.

ISIL has, conveniently for the West, attacked Taliban forces in Afghanistan. The Taliban declared ISIL's self-declared caliphate as illegitimate, and its caliph leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who may be an artificial product of the CIA's and Mossad's psychological warfare units, to be a fraud. The Taliban became alarmed as some of its members broke ranks with the jihadist movement and joined ISIL in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Moreover, ISIL declared the Taliban to be «kafirs», or unbelievers of Islam. In April, Al-Baghadi declared the Taliban's Mullah Omar to be «a fool and illiterate warlord.» It is no coincidence that ISIL's rhetoric about the enigmatic Taliban leader matches nicely with that issued forth by the U.S. military psy-ops units in Afghanistan at the height of the U.S. military intervention in that country. In mid-June, ISIL released a video tape showing its forces decapitating a Taliban prisoner in Afghanistan.

ISIL has, also, in concert with increasing U.S. military pressure on China and North Korea, declared jihad or holy war on the two Asian nations. In May, a North Korean couple, who worked as doctors at the local hospital in Zallah, Libya, were taken captive by ISIL in Libya. No word has been received on the fate of the North Korean husband and wife medical duo. In January, ISIL computer hackers, known as the «Cyber Caliphate», claimed credit for altering the Facebook page of Air Koryo, North Korea's state-owned airline. ISIL's black and white flag was pasted on the Facebook page with a statement calling North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un «a crying pig.» The ISIL hackers also had a warning for both North Korea and China: «North Korea, the communist thug nation, and the Chinese communist thugs will pay a price for their collaboration with the enemies of the mujahideen».

ISIL propaganda rhetoric about China and North Korea also coincide with pronouncements emanating from the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii about the military threats posed by Beijing and Pyongyang. North Korea has responded to the ISIL threats by providing the Type 73 machine gun, manufactured by the First Machine Industry Bureau of North Korea to Iraqi government and Kurdish forces fighting against ISIL in Iraq. North Korean military advisers are also believed to be assisting Syrian government and Lebanese Hezbollah forces battling ISIL in Syria. South Korea, which never misses an opportunity to confront North Korea militarily, permitted a South Korean citizen, known only by the very common Korean name «Kim», to join ISIL ranks in Syria in February. It is more likely that «Kim» is a South Korean intelligence agent who is responsible for coordinating ISIL attacks on North Korean assets in the region, including the North Korean medical couple in Libya.

Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro, who the CIA is busy trying to overthrow, called ISIL a «Frankenstein, a monster nursed by the West itself» in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in 2014. Not coincidentally, as President Barack Obama declared that Venezuela posed a «national security threat» to the United States in March, there were reports of nascent ISIL activity in Venezuela. The U.S. Army War College, including Professor Robert Bunker, began issuing statements that increased ISIL activity in Venezuela would be good for U.S. national security because ISIL is the natural enemy of Hezbollah, which the U.S. neocons are claiming has gained a strategic toehold in Venezuela. The links between ISIL and the West in Latin America have not been lost on the Western Hemisphere's sage senior statesman, former Cuban president Fidel Castro. In September 2014, Castro accused Israel's Mossad, in league with Senator McCain, of helping to create ISIL.

The ultimate perpetrators of ISIL's ravaging of the Middle East are not to be found in the deserts of the Middle East and the mountains of Afghanistan but in the seventh floor director's suite at CIA headquarters in Langley. In 1985, the same year the CIA sponsored the summit of right-wing terrorist groups in Jamba, Angola, the CIA tried to kill Lebanon’s Shi’a Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadl-Allah with a car bomb in Beirut. The CIA missed the ayatollah but killed 80 innocent people and wounded 256. Today, the CIA allows ISIL to get its fingers dirty in carrying out such terrorist attacks from Iraq and Syria to Yemen and Libya. ISIL cannot be brought to its knees without dealing harshly with Mr. Brennan and his top advisers.

Reprinted with permission from Strategic Culture

America's Trillion-Dollar Navy Is Highly Vulnerable to Inexpensive Anti-Ship Technology — The Ships are 'Floating Coffins'

During the recent crisis in Crimea the US sent a guided missile destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, into the Black Sea. A single Russian SU-24 fighter bomber  conducted simulated bombing runs on the destroyer. The SU-24 was reported to have frozen the destroyer's defense systems with an electronic warfare device and simulated shooting 12 missiles at the destroyer. "After this incident, the USS Donald Cook chose to immediately and at full speed move towards a port in Romania, where 27 shocked crew members asked for dismissal from the service."

The guided missile destroyer USS Donald Cook: It looks lethal - Maybe against a "third world" navy or civilian
airliners.. But against modern weaponry it's little more than a floating coffin. The $2 billion dollar ship was
"destroyed" during simulated bombing runs by a $25 million dollar Russian SU-24.

.

How Long Would the US Navy Survive in a Shooting War?

By Marc Hopf
America sees itself as a ruler of the world’s oceans. After all, the country — which spends 10 times more on its military forces than the following nine countries — has by far the biggest naval force. And as since the Vietnam War they have dealt only with militarily inferior opponents, they are extremely self-confident in their belief that they can defeat everything and everyone. It is not surprising that some young Americans even wear T-shirts with the logo: “United States Navy: The Sea is Ours.”

RELATED STORY: What Frightened the USS Donald Cook So Much in the Black Sea?

Perhaps we need to meet this pride and arrogance with some understanding in view of the numerical superiority of the U.S. Navy. In total, it currently has 10 operational aircraft carriers (two in reserve), while Russia and China have only one each.

Aircraft carriers are the great pride of the U.S. Navy and are also perfect to underline visually the claim of the ruler of the seas. They are therefore well liked by U.S. presidents as stages for delivering speeches when the time comes to tell the people that this unique nation has once again won a heroic victory.

What thrilling moments these were (at least for Americans) when George W. Bush landed in a fighter jet on the USS Abraham Lincoln (no, not as a pilot) and then, with the words “mission accomplished” and “a job well done,” proclaimed the end of the Iraq war to the people. As we know, the destruction of Iraq was carried out by the Americans under the label of Operation Iraqi Freedom. We may still ask ourselves what it had to do with freedom, but that’s a different story.

In addition to their suitability as impressive orator stages, the aircraft carriers also fulfill, of course, a military purpose. They can be considered as small floating airports, which ship up to 100 fighter jets to the scene of the action. Since they are equipped with the best weapons, radar, and defense systems, until now they have experienced almost no threat, especially since in the past the U.S. Navy parked them preferably off the coasts of defenseless desert states.

But what would it look like if the power of the U.S. Navy met its peer? The title of this article already implies the answer: not so good, and it could be that the patriotic U.S. Navy fans would hide their T-shirts quickly in the closet.

Back in the 70s, Admiral Rickover, the “father of nuclear navy,” had to answer the question before the U.S. Senate: “How long would our aircraft carriers survive in a battle against the Russian Navy?” His response caused disillusionment: “Two or three days before they sink, maybe a week if they stay in the harbor.”

The reason for the greatly reduced lifetime of the aircraft carrier in a battle against the Russians is a deadly danger below the water: modern submarines — especially Russian ones — are so powerful and difficult to locate that they can send large battleships and aircraft carriers to the bottom of the sea in the blink of an eye. The weakness of the U.S. Navy, therefore, is their vulnerability when they compete with an enemy that — using the language of the Americans — dominates the seas below the water surface. Of course, the U.S. military analysts are aware of this weakness, so one wonders why the U.S. Navy still adheres to the doctrine “the bigger the better” and continues to rely on an armada of aircraft carriers and large battleships.

Colonel Douglas McGregor, a decorated combat veteran, author of four books, a PhD and military analyst, gives the answer: “Strategically, it makes no sense, but the construction of large ships, of course, creates a lot of jobs.”

Read More

What Frightened the USS Donald Cook So Much in the Black Sea? — US Navy Discovered It's A 'Sitting Duck'

By Voltaire Network
The State Department acknowledged that the crew of the destroyer USS Donald Cook has been gravely demoralized ever since their vessel was flown over in the Black Sea by a Russian Sukhoi-24 (Su-24) fighter jet which carried neither bombs nor missiles but only an electronic warfare device.

On 10 April 2014, the USS Donald Cook entered the waters of the Black Sea and on 12 April a Russian Su-24 tactical bomber flew over the vessel triggering an incident that, according to several media reports, completely demoralized its crew, so much so that the Pentagon issued a protest [1].

The USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) is a 4th generation guided missile destroyer whose key weapons are Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of up to 2,500 kilometers, and capable of carrying nuclear explosives. This ship carries 56 Tomahawk missiles in standard mode, and 96 missiles in attack mode.

The US destroyer is equipped with the most recent Aegis Combat System. It is an integrated naval weapons systems which can link together the missile defense systems of all vessels embedded within the same network, so as to ensure the detection, tracking and destruction of hundreds of targets at the same time. In addition, the USS Donald Cook is equipped with 4 large radars, whose power is comparable to that of several stations. For protection, it carries more than fifty anti-aircraft missiles of various types.

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A video presentation of the US Aegis system. Currently installed on the most sophisticated US Navy warships and
in the process of being set up throughout the entire range of NATO naval forces, this missile defense system
was completely knocked out in the Black Sea by a Russian electronic warfare device.

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Meanwhile, the Russian Su-24 that buzzed the USS Donald Cook carried neither bombs nor missiles but only a basket mounted under the fuselage, which, according to the Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta [2], contained a Russian electronic warfare device called Khibiny.

As the Russian jet approached the US vessel, the electronic device disabled all radars, control circuits, systems, information transmission, etc. on board the US destroyer. In other words, the all-powerful Aegis system, now hooked up - or about to be - with the defense systems installed on NATO’s most modern ships was shut down, as turning off the TV set with the remote control.

The Russian Su-24 then simulated a missile attack against the USS Donald Cook, which was left literally deaf and blind. As if carrying out a training exercise, the Russian aircraft - unarmed - repeated the same maneuver 12 times before flying away.

After that, the 4th generation destroyer immediately set sail towards a port in Romania.

Since that incident, which the Atlanticist media have carefully covered up despite the widespread reactions sparked among defense industry experts, no US ship has ever approached Russian territorial waters again.

According to some specialized media, 27 sailors from the USS Donald Cook requested to be relieved from active service.

Vladimir Balybine - director of the research center on electronic warfare and the evaluation of so-called "visibility reduction" techniques attached to the Russian Air Force Academy - made the following comment:

"The more a radio-electronic system is complex, the easier it is to disable it through the use of electronic warfare."

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[1] “Pentagon Protests Russian Jet Buzzing Antimissile Ship in Black Sea”, Global Security Newswire, 15 April 2014.
[2] Rossíyskaya Gazeta, 30 April 2014 edition

Reprinted with permission from Voltairenet