That’s a bold move 😎

Medvedev and Bagapsh visiting Russia’s base in Abkhazia on Sunday.

Air Force commander Alexander Zelin said Wednesday that S-300 air defense missile systems have been deployed in Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia region to protect the separatist authorities there, sending a defiant signal to Tbilisi and the West two years after a war with Georgia.

General Zelin also said that air defenses of other types had been deployed in Georgia’s other rebel region, South Ossetia. “The task of these air defenses is not only to cover the territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but also to avert violations of their state borders in the air and destroy any vehicle illegally penetrating their air space, whatever the goal of its mission,” Zelin said.

Georgia reacted promptly, accusing Moscow of “strengthening its image and role as an occupying country.” “It shows … not only that Russia does not intend to withdraw its troops from Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but that it is actually strengthening its military control over these territories,” said Eka Tkeshelashvili, head of Georgia’s National Security Council.

The S-300 is a mobile, long-range air defense system that can detect, track and destroy ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and aircraft. The United States and Israel have repeatedly voiced concern over possible deliveries of S-300s to Iran.

In August 2008, Russia crushed a Georgian assault on South Ossetia that came after days of clashes between Georgian and rebel forces.

Since then, Russia has recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent. President Dmitry Medvedev visited a Russian base in Abkhazia with Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh last weekend.

The S-300 located here can control the whole Georgian airspace.

Nooooooooooooo. Again the US-fan boy contaminating the threads with endless “arguments” about how enormous the PAK-FA RCS is! That’s getting really boring! :mad::(

Soviet ASAT tests

http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/ASAT/ASAT.htm

Larger Aperture size of Zaslon is interesting if they can add a new 1.4 m AESA then it will make it a very powerful and modern rarar.

I would love to see this beast.

Woooow. That’s huge!

by Staff Writers
Russia’s Defense Spending To Rise By 60% By 2013

Moscow, Russia (RIA Novosti) Aug 03, 2010
Russian defense spending will increase by 60 percent, to more than 2 trillion rubles ($66.3 million) by 2013 from 1.264 trillion ($42 million) in 2010, a leading Russian business daily has said.
The Russian government made the relevant decision during a meeting on Thursday. The largest growth is planned for 2013, when the figure will rise by 0.5 trillion rubles ($16.6 million), Vedomosti reported.

Konstantin Makiyenko from the Russian Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) told the paper that the government is likely to spend more on the Navy, as well as the aviation and space industries.

The construction of advanced submarines, including Yasen and Borei class subs, and Bulava ballistic missiles, as well as the construction of three new Talwar class frigates, three Improved Kilo class subs and other vessels for the Russian Black Sea Fleet are likely to require the largest part of the planned spending, Makiyenko said.

The budged allocation should also consider spending on the construction of the first two Mistral class amphibious assault ships under a Russian-French deal, a Russian military plant manager told Vedomosti. This may account to about $0.5 billion, he estimated.

Russia is currently in talks with France on the purchase of two Mistral class helicopter carriers and the construction of two others under a French license.

Besides this, Russia is planning to spend 80 billion rubles ($2.65 billion) on 60 Su-family fighter jets starting 2010, and buy 26 MiG-29K Fulcrum-D carrier-based fighter jets, with the expected contract estimated at about 25 billion rubles (more than $828 million), a military aircraft plant manager told the paper.

The plans also include the purchase of 32 Su-34 Flanker fighter bombers under the 2008 contract (a single plane then cost more than 1.1 billion rubles ($36.4 million), he said.

Whole economy PPPs aren’t meaningful when applied to specific expenditure categories. You can’t just adjust the defence budget by the whole economy PPP. You need a defence expenditure PPP.

Consider the PPPs for chapatis & cars for the UK & India in 1984. Having been in both countries that year, & checked prices for both products in both countries, I can reliably state that applying the PPP for one to the other would have given you a figure which was wrong by a factor of at least 10. An extreme example, but it illustrates the necessity for using appropriate sectoral PPPs in international comparisons of specific expenditure categories, not generic whole-economy PPPs.

I know. PPP is an average for the whole economy. Unfortunately I don’t know a source informing or indicating how to estimate a “defense PPP”. Anyway, I see disproportionate an expenditure number of $ 70 billions/yerars when the whole 2010 defense budget is around $ 40 billions.

I know the numbers from Popovkin, but, I think, they are estimated based on the above hypotheses.

$2-3 billion in 10 years is beyond the economic capability of a country that just dumped $70 extra billion / year to new arms procurement? Yeah right…

2-3 billions per 3 cruisers = 6-9 billions. Furthermore I don’t know where are this number ($ 70 billon year to arms procurement) from. Consider that the current defense budget is $ 40 billions (nominal dollars) or $ 60 billions on a PPP basis.

Anyway I would assume the re-entering of Kirovs will come in parallel with retirement of Slavas. Certainly this would mean the dead of the Ukrainia deal.