Russian Military Manoeuvres No Threat to UK

No one really believes there is any “serious intent” by Russia to threaten the UK militarily a retired senior British officer has told RIA Novosti.

“It’s a game of cat and mouse. I don’t think there is any serious intent, I don’t think anyone thinks there is any serious intent,” Crawford told RIA Novosti. “What the Russians are doing is basically a quick reconnaissance of the UK’s air defences. The same thing happens with the Danes and Norwegians,” he added.

Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Crawford now works as an independent defence analyst and said the interception by RAF fighter jets of two Russian Tupolev Tu-95s strategic bombers flying in international airspace was “normal and commonplace” and should not be interpreted as a direct threat.“We don’t expect to be attacked by the Russians at all,” Lt Colonel Crawford said.

The Russian Defense Ministry has insisted that the flights are carried out "in strict accordance with international regulations" and do not violate the borders of other countries.


http://en.ria.ru/military_news/20140424/189350597/OPINION-Russian-Military-Manoeuvres-No-Threat-to-UK.html

S-300 Air Defence system in Telemba, Buryatia, Russia

Putin Approves Sale of S-400 to China

Vladimir Putin has approved in principle the sale of Russia’s most advanced air and missile defense system to China, Russian media outlets have reported.

According to a report on the Russian business channel RBK TV, which was reproduced by BBC Monitoring, Russian President Putin has approved the sale of between two and four S-400 air and missile defense systems to China. Such a deal has long been under negotiation, and if approved would make China the first foreign customer of the advanced defense system. Already, China deploys a number of the Soviet-era S-300 defense system.

Despite the ongoing talks, some had felt that Russia would ultimately refuse to sell China the S-400 surface-to-air missile system for a number of reasons. First, there were reports that Russia planned to withhold all foreign sales of the S-400 until Moscow’s own military needs had been satisfied, sometime later this decade. More importantly, there were widespread concerns in Russian military circles that China would purchase a few of the systems with the intent of stealing the technology and reverse engineering a domestic version. This has been a common problem with military systems Russia has sold to China in the past.



http://thediplomat.com/2014/04/putin-approves-sale-of-s-400-to-china/

Russia to display new weapons on Victory Parade in Moscow

Victory Day Parade on May 9 in Moscow

Wikipedia

Chrysanthemum-C

KAMAZ-63969 Typhoon-K

The press-service of the Russian Ministry of Defence said that new models of military equipment would be displayed during the Victory Day parade on Red Square in Moscow.Thus, on May 9, one will be able to take a look at state-of-the-art anti-aircraft missile complexes Tor-M2U and anti-missile systems Chrysanthemum-C.

Tor-M2U has already been put into service in a number of military units. The system can destroy cruise missiles, air reconnaissance and electronic warfare equipment.Chrysanthemum-C is capable of striking modern tanks of any level, as well as low-tonnage ships, hovercraft and low-flying air targets.

About 11,000 troops will take part in the Victory Parade in Moscow on May 9th, including about a hundred pieces of military equipment. Military vehicles, such as Tiger, BTR-82A, T-90A tanks, self-propelled howitzers MSTA-S, anti-aircraft missile systems Buk-M2, anti-aircraft missile and gun complexes Panzer-C1, antiaircraft missile systems S-400, as well as Topol-M will roll on the cobblestones of Red Square on May 9th at 10:00 a.m.