The US-Russia arms race
- By Zhao Jinglun
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E-mail China.org.cn, December 18, 2013
America's two major parties were hardly talking to each other. But they have come together to save the military-industrial complex. In a deal brokered with senate budget chair Patty Murray and Mitt Romney's running mate Paul Ryan, federal spending will be increased by $45 billion, half of which will go to the Pentagon, in spite of sequestration.
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All tied up [By Jiao Haiyang/China.org.cn] |
Paul Ryan famously said on Oct. 20, 2012: "We are not going to gut our military." They didn't. They would cut every discretionary federal spending, especially social and welfare spending such as food stamps, but never military spending. The U.S. still out-spends all other countries put together on defense.
US Navy has recently launched the next generation aircraft carrier, the 100,000 ton USS Gerald R. Ford. It features a series of technological advances, including upgraded nuclear power plants, electromagnetic catapults and a larger flight deck to accommodate more carrier-launched stealth drones.
A new super spy satellite is also being added to U.S. orbital assets.
The Pentagon is developing a hypersonic (Mach 6, some 4,000 mph) aircraft known as Boeing X-51, the "Wave Rider" which can strike at any target in the world within an hour.
To counter that threat, Russia announced that it would retaliate any attack by launching nuclear missiles. The launch may even be pre-emptive.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Dec. 10 that in 2014, the Russian armed forces must receive more than 40 most modern intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), more than 210 airplanes and helicopters, and more than 250 armored vehicles. Nuclear rocket carriers the Alexander Nevsky and the Vladimir Monomakh will take over the combat watch and six new satellites will reinforce the orbital grouping.
According to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Russia will see the continued deployment of the Yar ICBM to the Strategic Missile Forces.
