There is no credible reason to assume that, with the proper funding, the Ukraine couldn’t develop an ICBM. They’re already developing the Grom and/or Sapsan (they might be the same thing) tactical ballistic missiles. Combine that experience with the SLV production ability and the know-how from the SS-24 guidance unit and you have an ICBM without Russia.

http://www.missiles.ru/korshun_e.htm

http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/ukraine/missile/index_5523.html

http://military-informer.narod.ru/English-Sapsan.html

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?p=3486976

There’s also been talk of cooperation with Israel, which could aid such an effort:

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Ukraine_Seeks_Missile_Alliance_With_Israel_999.html

ICBM which needs more advance guidance and control

What, like the inertial guidance system for the SS-24, which was made in, you guessed it, the Ukraine?

That topic was moved to the Trash folder, which regular users can’t access. I think only a moderator can do that, so one of the Historic mods must have thrown it out as it was also locked. Send one of them a PM.

It is a big embarasment for USN that they didn’t manage to shoot down a single a/c in IRAQ with much publicised Phoenix.

They only fired one or two, and both of them were at receeding targets at range. No big suprise they missed.

Phoenix was a piece of crap, so much is clear. Even USN admitted that… only after they were phased out, of course…

Worked for Iran.

Only years later, when technical difficulties emerged as too great, they cancelled these projects.

Wrong. When they realized that the Soviets had no supersonic bomber threat, the F12B was “cancelled”. It was already approved for production when McNamara withheld the funding.

On the other hand, the Russians succeded to make Mach 3 multi role combat a/c

No they didn’t, they did the same thing as the US: they created a basic airframe design that was adapted into different variants for different roles. One solitary MiG-25 aircraft could not perform reconnaissance, intercept, and anti-radar sorties, so it was not a multi-role aircraft. Different variants for different missions. Nothing wrong with that either, you don’t have to compromise the capabilities of one variant to incorporate those of another.

And if you were right, the Ukraine wouldn’t be able to construct SLVs. Like I said, all they need to do is find warheads.

That naval deployment is probably related to this:

http://informationdissemination.blogspot.com/2008/08/observing-iwo-jima-expeditionary-strike.html

Could be that they’re headed for Somalia:

http://informationdissemination.blogspot.com/2008/08/5th-fleet-focus-groundhog-day-off.html

More on naval movements:

http://informationdissemination.blogspot.com/2008/08/global-naval-operations-order-of-battle.html

Interesting to speculate, but it does happen. I remember when the one in Mozambique blew apart a while back.