Yeah, Good Luck With That.
HELP ENLIGHTEN YOUR FELLOWS. BE SURE TO PASS THIS ON. SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON IT.
Reminiscence of the Future...
Andrei Martyanov's Blog
MATERIALS REPRODUCED HERE BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR
France, as was anticipated, started to complain and take "action".
French shipbuilder Naval Group has said it will send a “detailed and calculated proposal” to Australia after Canberra canned a $40 billion submarine deal in favor of a new pact with the US and UK, much to France’s dismay. On Wednesday, Naval Group CEO Pierre Eric Pommellet told France’s Le Figaro newspaper that Australia would be receiving a bill for the submarine contract which was cancelled last week. Pommellet said a “detailed and calculated proposal” would be sent to Canberra in the next “few weeks” which sets out the money it expects Australia to cough up for cancelling the 2016 deal. The shipbuilder chief said that such an eventuality had been planned for by the French firm.The bill will supposedly cover costs already incurred as well as those to come, with some “linked to demobilization of infrastructure and IT as well as the redeployment of employees,” he said, adding that the company will assert its rights.
US nuclear sub John Warner, sailing in the Ionian Sea near Italy. Will the Americans really share their sub technology with the Aussies?
Any chance of me getting on the French legal team which will be dealing with this issue? I expect a financial bonanza for lawyers in this matter. But, on the other hand, one has to keep in mind that at this level, same as it was with the hapless Mistrals' deal (awarded to France by Russia for "mediation" after Russian-Georgian War of 080808), geopolitics and operational realities play as large, if not larger, a role as financial considerations, however important $40 billion may be. As I have continued to stress for the last week: we still don't have all the facts on our hands in terms of American-Australian intentions and I want to underscore--we are merely speculating for now. If the lease comes through, things will become much clearer. Some are even suggesting the possibility of a US converted Ohio-class SSGNs leased out to Australia. I doubt it, but I could be wrong. Obviously, with a single Ohio-class SSGN packing 154 TLAMs (Tomahawk missiles) this is a concern for China. But then again--I stress it--for now it is mostly speculation.
I personally lean towards SSNs on SLOCs, [Sea lines of communication, prime maritime routes between ports—Eds] but we just have to wait and see. As for French grievances, well, what can I say--the geopolitical weight of the players is too different, not in France's favor, for France to have any reasonable chance of substantial compensation, not to mention wounded national pride. Thanks to Larch for pointing this out.
HELSINKI, Finland (AP) — The top U.S. military officer met with his Russian counterpart Wednesday, against the backdrop of U.S. struggles to get military basing rights and other counterterrorism support in countries bordering Afghanistan—a move Russia has flatly opposed. The meeting in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, between Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Chief of the Russian General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov comes at a crucial time in the wake of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Without troops on the ground, the U.S. needs to forge more basing, intelligence sharing and other agreements to help monitor al-Qaida and Islamic State militants in Afghanistan to ensure they are not regrouping and posing a threat to America and its allies. Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said in July, however, that Moscow warned the U.S. that any deployment of American troops in countries neighboring Afghanistan “is unacceptable.” He said Russia told the U.S. “in a direct and straightforward way that it would change a lot of things not only in our perceptions of what’s going on in that important region, but also in our relations with the United States.”
(See https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2021/09/22/milley-meets-russian-counterpart/)
Many early Soviet era nuclear subs are now rusting in docks around Russia. Awesome machines, and witness to enormous technical and scientific accomplishment, they are being systematically replaced with state-of-the-art vessels and leading-edge weapons systems.
As I am on record for years--I feel better when Russian and American militaries speak to each other. Russia, obviously, is not going to allow US troops to be stationed in all those Stans, but I want to stress another tremendously important point: there IS a very real threat of Jihad and terrorism which should not be discounted against the background of the US escape from Afghanistan. We can only speculate (yet again) on the complexity of this issue, but it is an established fact that exchanges between Russia and the US regarding these matters exist and [the practice] is steady. Well, the United States can only blame itself for this development, with special thanks to Zbig, who, being a rather fanatical Russophobe and a pseudo-scholar thought that the United States could manage the Political Islam it helped to create and fund. We all know how American political "science" works in real life, ask Fukuyama, the late Huntington or present-day Mearsheimer who got lost completely in their ignorance of the outside world. But then again, it is a defining feature of the American "academe" and elites. The proof, as it is known, is in the pudding, or as Hegel stated--practice is the criterion of the truth. Those who are not brainwashed are well aware of this truth.
In related news, Russia continues to build and launch those pesky missile corvettes capable of carrying anything from 3M14M and 3M54M to Zircon, like there is no tomorrow. The latest one, two days ago was launched in Kerch, at Zaliv wharf.
This one is named Askold after the famous Russian cruiser of Russo-Japanese war and of Gallipoli fame. It (she) still has to have navalized Pantsir and other systems installed. Can you imagine a ceremony at Zaliv when first project 23900 LHD will be launched? I hope to live to see that. I am sure HIMSELF will be present for this occasion. I am also in desperate anticipation of Admiral Nakhimov getting more publicity and getting ready for sea trials in 2023. I cannot recognize this world anymore. The changes in the last 5 years are stunning and historic in scale and scope.
ANDREI MARTYANOV is an expert on Russian military and naval issues. He was born in Baku, USSR, graduated from the Kirov Naval Red Banner Academy and served as an officer on the ships and staff position of Soviet Coast Guard through 1990. He took part in the events in the Caucasus which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. In mid-1990s he moved to the United States where he worked as Laboratory Director in a commercial aerospace group. He is a frequent blogger on the US Naval Institute Blog. He is author of Losing Military Supremacy and The Real Revolution in Military Affairs.
The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of The Greanville Post. However, we do think they are important enough to be transmitted to a wider audience.
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