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Russia may defy U.S. to sell S-300s to Iran
By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News Analyst
Published: Sept. 25, 2008 at 5:27 PM
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Russia is likely to sell even more of its most modern anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems to Iran, according to the head of the nation's main arms export corporation.
The move looks certain to even further strain relations between Moscow and Washington that are already now as fraught as at any time since the darkest days of the Cold War.
"Contacts between our countries (on delivery of air defense systems) are continuing, and we do not see any reason to suspend them," Rosoboronexport General Director Anatoly Isaikin told a news conference at the Africa Aerospace & Defence-2008 exhibition near Cape Town, South Africa, on Sept. 18, RIA Novosti reported.
Isaikin was speaking not long after Russia sent to Iran Tor-M1 air defense missile systems worth $700 million that Tehran had ordered in late 2005, as previously reported in these columns. RIA Novosti also confirmed that Russian advisers had prepared "Iranian Tor-M1 specialists, including radar operators and crew commanders," to operate the new systems. The Tor-M1 will certainly upgrade Iran's air defenses against any future Israeli or U.S. pre-emptive air strikes to knock out Iran nuclear facilities.
Isaikin's comments indicated that Russia may go even further and also sell to Tehran its advanced S-300 missile system, the S-300PMU1 -- NATO designation SA-20 Gargoyle. RIA Novosti described this system as having a range of more than 100 miles with the capability of destroying ballistic missiles and operating at both low and high altitudes.
Some analysts have even claimed that the S-300 could have an 80 percent interception rate capability against America's old, slow and in many respects obsolete subsonic Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The Russian report also noted that Iran had already carried out several air defense maneuvers this year, culminating in what it described as "a three-day series of Air Force and missile defense exercises on Sept. 15 to 18."
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Russia pushes ahead with Bulava after test success.
Russia is pushing ahead and deploying its long-troubled Bulava-M submarine-launched ballistic missile with its nuclear submarines starting next year, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Sept. 19.
The Bulavas will be deployed on the first Borey Project 955 nuclear-powered strategic missile submarine that is scheduled to be commissioned next year, the report said, citing what it described as "a senior (Russian) navy official."
The announcement came the day after the successful test launch of a Bulava from a Typhoon class ballistic missile-armed nuclear submarine, the Dmitry Donskoi, in northern Russia's White Sea on Sept. 18. Russian officials said the Bulava successfully hit its target at the Kura testing grounds on the Kamchatka Peninsula, 4,200 miles northeast of Moscow.
"The successful launch of the ballistic missile allows us to assert with certainty that both the Bulava missile and the Yury Dolgoruky submarine will be put into service in 2009," RIA Novosti cited the Russian navy official as saying.
As previously reported in these columns, the Bulava's designers experienced years of problems and unsuccessful test-firings with the missile. The main problem appeared to be that the new generation of the Borei Project 955 Russian strategic nuclear submarines were designed to be considerably smaller and more stealth-capable than the gargantuan Typhoon class made famous in the U.S. movie "The Hunt for Red October."
However, making the submarines smaller meant the launching silos to fire the missiles had to be considerably smaller too. This in turn meant the first, main launch stage of the Bulava, a maritime variant of the highly reliable Topol-M ICBM, had to be redesigned, leading to a series of unanticipated engine failures that set the project back years.
Nevertheless, a combination of strong political will from former Russian President and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and greatly increased resources that could be devoted to the project, thanks to record Russian export earnings from oil and gas sales, eventually allowed these problems to be solved.
RIA Novosti said the Bulava -- NATO designation SS-NX-30 -- was created at the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology. The first Borey-class Project 955 sub will be the Yury Dolgoruky, which was constructed at the Sevmash plant in Russia's arctic Arkhangelsk region. It is already at sea, being checked out.
The Yury Dolgoruky is 580 feet long with a diameter of 42 feet and an underwater speed of about 29 knots -- well over 30 miles per hour. It is designed to carry 16 Bulava ballistic missiles, each capable of having a payload of as many as 10 multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicle -- MIRV -- warheads, each capable of destroying a target 5,000 miles from the launch point. Each Borey Project 955 sub, therefore, will have the potential capability of destroying as many as 160 cities anywhere in the United States, Canada or Western Europe.
Russia is also completing work on the other two subs in the class, the Alexander Nevsky and the Vladimir Monomakh, also at the Sevmash plant in Arkhangelsk. Each sub is budgeted to cost $890 million, and the Russian navy plans to have seven of them by 2015, RIA Novosti said.
Russia may defy U.S. to sell S-300s to Iran
By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News Analyst
Published: Sept. 25, 2008 at 5:27 PM
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Russia is likely to sell even more of its most modern anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems to Iran, according to the head of the nation's main arms export corporation.
The move looks certain to even further strain relations between Moscow and Washington that are already now as fraught as at any time since the darkest days of the Cold War.
"Contacts between our countries (on delivery of air defense systems) are continuing, and we do not see any reason to suspend them," Rosoboronexport General Director Anatoly Isaikin told a news conference at the Africa Aerospace & Defence-2008 exhibition near Cape Town, South Africa, on Sept. 18, RIA Novosti reported.
Isaikin was speaking not long after Russia sent to Iran Tor-M1 air defense missile systems worth $700 million that Tehran had ordered in late 2005, as previously reported in these columns. RIA Novosti also confirmed that Russian advisers had prepared "Iranian Tor-M1 specialists, including radar operators and crew commanders," to operate the new systems. The Tor-M1 will certainly upgrade Iran's air defenses against any future Israeli or U.S. pre-emptive air strikes to knock out Iran nuclear facilities.
Isaikin's comments indicated that Russia may go even further and also sell to Tehran its advanced S-300 missile system, the S-300PMU1 -- NATO designation SA-20 Gargoyle. RIA Novosti described this system as having a range of more than 100 miles with the capability of destroying ballistic missiles and operating at both low and high altitudes.
Some analysts have even claimed that the S-300 could have an 80 percent interception rate capability against America's old, slow and in many respects obsolete subsonic Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The Russian report also noted that Iran had already carried out several air defense maneuvers this year, culminating in what it described as "a three-day series of Air Force and missile defense exercises on Sept. 15 to 18."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Russia pushes ahead with Bulava after test success.
Russia is pushing ahead and deploying its long-troubled Bulava-M submarine-launched ballistic missile with its nuclear submarines starting next year, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Sept. 19.
The Bulavas will be deployed on the first Borey Project 955 nuclear-powered strategic missile submarine that is scheduled to be commissioned next year, the report said, citing what it described as "a senior (Russian) navy official."
The announcement came the day after the successful test launch of a Bulava from a Typhoon class ballistic missile-armed nuclear submarine, the Dmitry Donskoi, in northern Russia's White Sea on Sept. 18. Russian officials said the Bulava successfully hit its target at the Kura testing grounds on the Kamchatka Peninsula, 4,200 miles northeast of Moscow.
"The successful launch of the ballistic missile allows us to assert with certainty that both the Bulava missile and the Yury Dolgoruky submarine will be put into service in 2009," RIA Novosti cited the Russian navy official as saying.
As previously reported in these columns, the Bulava's designers experienced years of problems and unsuccessful test-firings with the missile. The main problem appeared to be that the new generation of the Borei Project 955 Russian strategic nuclear submarines were designed to be considerably smaller and more stealth-capable than the gargantuan Typhoon class made famous in the U.S. movie "The Hunt for Red October."
However, making the submarines smaller meant the launching silos to fire the missiles had to be considerably smaller too. This in turn meant the first, main launch stage of the Bulava, a maritime variant of the highly reliable Topol-M ICBM, had to be redesigned, leading to a series of unanticipated engine failures that set the project back years.
Nevertheless, a combination of strong political will from former Russian President and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and greatly increased resources that could be devoted to the project, thanks to record Russian export earnings from oil and gas sales, eventually allowed these problems to be solved.
RIA Novosti said the Bulava -- NATO designation SS-NX-30 -- was created at the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology. The first Borey-class Project 955 sub will be the Yury Dolgoruky, which was constructed at the Sevmash plant in Russia's arctic Arkhangelsk region. It is already at sea, being checked out.
The Yury Dolgoruky is 580 feet long with a diameter of 42 feet and an underwater speed of about 29 knots -- well over 30 miles per hour. It is designed to carry 16 Bulava ballistic missiles, each capable of having a payload of as many as 10 multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicle -- MIRV -- warheads, each capable of destroying a target 5,000 miles from the launch point. Each Borey Project 955 sub, therefore, will have the potential capability of destroying as many as 160 cities anywhere in the United States, Canada or Western Europe.
Russia is also completing work on the other two subs in the class, the Alexander Nevsky and the Vladimir Monomakh, also at the Sevmash plant in Arkhangelsk. Each sub is budgeted to cost $890 million, and the Russian navy plans to have seven of them by 2015, RIA Novosti said.