World Defence Forum

To intercept the Sarmat ICBM, at least 500 US anti-missiles are needed, RIA Novosti chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security Viktor Bondarev said. " This is the conclusion of Western experts." Dagger "along with its carrier is also immune to enemy weapons, while it is guaranteed to hit any given targets," he said. Earlier, the New York Times quoted an anonymous high-ranking official as saying that Trump, in a telephone conversation, had informed Russian President Vladimir Putin of his concern about Russian weapons developments that could exceed US remedies. Putin in his message to the Federal Assembly on March 1 spoke about the new types of strategic weapons that came to Russia's disposal.  Thus, the strategic nuclear forces included 80 new intercontinental ballistic missiles, 102 ballistic missile submarines and three strategic missile submarines "Borey".  In the message, Putin also demonstrated the te...

A US destroyer has sailed within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese-claimed island in the South China Sea, a highly-contested stretch of water where China's been reclaiming land and building islands, US officials told CNN Friday. In its own statement late Friday, China's defense ministry said two Chinese Navy ships "took immediate action to identify and verify the US ship, and warned and dispelled it." "China holds indisputable sovereignty over the islands and their surrounding waters in the South China Sea," ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said in a statement. "By repeatedly sending military ships into these areas without authorization, the US has seriously harmed Chinese sovereignty and security, violated basic rules of international relations, and harmed regional peace and stability," the spokesman said. China's defense ministry claimed that by carrying out these so-called infringements, the US had "damaged the atmosphere of militar...

Turkey appears to be determined to press ahead with the purchase of Russian-made S-400 air defense systems from Moscow even as the United States pressures Ankara to walk away from the deal. Turkey points out that NATO allies did not pressure Greece to drop its S-300 purchase in previous year, though that deal came under during a much less antagonistic period in the West’s relations with Russia. “You’ve said nothing to Greece but you said that you will not let Turkey acquire S-400,” Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said according to the Moscow-based TASS news agency. “You claimed that the contact with Russia was a mistake. You also said that you might introduce sanctions. We are not going to be accountable to you. We will proceed along the right way without any concessions for the sake of achieving our own goals.” Russia and Turkey signed a deal for Ankara to purchase the S-400 in September, 2017. Turkey has apparently made a deposit for the new missile system ahead of takin...

Sometime in the early 2030s, the largest submarine ever built in the United Kingdom will slip into the waters off Barrow-in-Furness, pass through a series of docks and make for the Irish Sea. HMS Dreadnought will be the ninth ship to bear that historic name, and by far the most lethal. The Dreadnought-class submarines will be the custodians of the UK’s nuclear arsenal for at least thirty years, preventing the country from falling victim to surprise attack. The United Kingdom’s first ballistic-missile submarines were launched in the 1960s. The four Resolution-class submarines, two of which were also built at Furness, were built around the American Polaris submarine ballistic missile. The Resolutions were the sea-based leg of England’s nuclear deterrent force, and under a plan called Continuous At Sea Deterrence (CASD) the country has kept at least one nuclear-missile submarine on watch every day for the last forty-nine years. The Resolution class was eventually replaced by th...

China needs to build defensive structures on islands in the South China Sea to display its claim to sovereignty over virtually the entire crucial waterway, a leading Chinese general said yesterday. However, the vice president of China’s Academy of Military Sciences, Lt. Gen. He Lei, declined to comment on aircraft deployments on artificial islands Chinese has built in the area, saying those were entirely China’s domestic affair. “I don’t think any country would want to make irresponsible comments about such matters,” He said in a rare meeting with Chinese and foreign journalists on the sidelines of the annual session of China’s ceremonial legislature, of which he is a member. Earlier yesterday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi appeared to blame the U.S. and its allies for stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, which is claimed in all or in part by China and five other governments. He said China had been working with other claimants and its Southeast Asian neighbors on completing a c...

The Argentine government incorporated four Bell 412EP helicopters into the Argentine Air Force (FAA, in Spanish) as part of its efforts to upgrade its aerial fleet. The move improves FAA’s search and rescue, humanitarian aid, natural disaster relief, and peacekeeping operations. The new units were formally introduced on February 20th in the military sector of the Jorge Newbery Airfield in Buenos Aires, Argentina. “The modern aircraft acquired under the U.S. government's Foreign Military Sales Program will allow the Air Force to fulfill the responsibilities assigned by the Argentine government,” Colonel César Grando, chief of FAA’s Department of Institutional Communication, told Diálogo. “They will be used in important tasks such as air assault, troop transport, aerial refueling, aeromedical evacuation, and air transport.” The aircraft will be based in the 7th Air Brigade of Moreno in Buenos Aires, where FAA houses its helicopters. The four aircraft were assembled at the Quilm...

While France, at times, has been the butt of many jokes when it comes to military prowess, we must not forget one historical fact: The French Navy arguably won the battle that secured American independence by defeating the Royal Navy's effort to relieve General Cornwallis at Yorktown. The Battle of the Virginia Capes, at the time, was a rare setback for the Royal Navy - it was like the Harlem Globetrotters losing a game. It's a reminder that the French Navy is no joke, even if it has left a lot of the heavy lifting in the World Wars to the Royal Navy. In fact, France has one of the more modern air-defense destroyer classes in the world. They didn't design this vessel on their own, however. In 1992, the French Navy, the Royal Navy, and the Italian Navy began development of what they called the Common New Generation Frigate. The goal was to come up with a common design that would help cut costs for the three countries. The British planned to buy 12 vessels, France fou...

Germany is struggling to maintain the operational readiness of its military aircraft inventory, as obsolescence issues and challenges around the introduction of new platforms combine to diminish front-line availability. Helicopters, in particular, are singled out for their low deployability rates by the German defence ministry's latest annual report into the readiness levels of all the major weapons systems operated by its armed forces. In the case of the German navy's 21 Westland Sea Kings and 22 Sea Lynx, the problem is simple: the elderly helicopters – introduced in 1975 and 1981, respectively – are reaching the end of their natural lives. The navy struggled to maintain the minimum deployable fleets for both types throughout 2017, the report says. However, the Sea Lynx's operational readiness rate of six aircraft, or 32% – based on an average availability of 19 helicopters – is seen as an improvement on previous years, where the navy has struggle...