World News Blog

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Russia to increase military budget by 50%

Although the recent drop in oil prices may hurt the economy, Russia is planning to use big profits from oil and gas exports to expand military spending by nearly 50 percent over the next three years.

Russia has been responding energetically to what it sees as expansionist moves by NATO. The new defense budget would include aggressive spending on cruise missile and attack submarines, and also emphasis on air superiority fighters. There are reports that Moscow is also planning to build eight highly-advanced Borey ballistic missile submarines.

Moscow has significantly increased operations beyond its borders that were nearly entirely retired after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Voice of America

Russia plans to boost military spending
Washington Times - 57 minutes ago
MOSCOW | Russia, flush with wealth from its record-level oil and gas exports, is planning to further boost its defense spending by almost 50 percent over the next three years, a senior legislator in Moscow said last week.
Video: World needs new rules RussiaToday
Medvedev promotes new security pact guardian.co.uk

Labels: air superiority, military spending, russia, submarines

Friday, August 15, 2008

Cold War Fears

On an interview with CNN the other night, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev complained that the U.S. military budget at more than $600 billion a year accounts for about half of the entire world's military spending.

While Russia greatly pared down its armed forces after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the U.S. still seems to be spending at Cold War levels. It is true that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq account for a healthy amount of this spending but the great bulk of it has little relation to what is going on in those countries.

During the Cold War, the U.S. and Soviets went neck-to-neck in matching each other's weapons systems. In those days, the Soviets seemed bent on increasing what is known as "force projection."

They build large "Frontal Aviation" forces consisting of fighters capable of taking off and landing on highways if necessary. These airplanes were to accompany the vast Soviet tank armies on what many thought was a planned invasion of Western Europe.

They also were investing large sums of money on building a "blue water navy" apparently set on building a large number of aircraft carriers.

However, when the Soviet Union collapsed, everything changes. Russia now has only one lone aircraft carrier. It's air force is well outnumbered by that of the United States, with the air defense emphasis now shifted toward cheaper but still sophisticated surface to air missile systems.

Russia also stopped projecting its forces in Vietnam, Cuba and other areas as did the Soviets. That is until the last few years.

In 2008, Russia well sharply increase its defense budget by 25 percent. It has an ambitious program in place to renew half of its weapons systems in the next seven years. Moscow is also more aggressively selling its weapons abroad probably in part to help pay for its own buildup. Russia is again projecting its forces overseas.

A great opportunity for the "peace dividend" appears to have been lost. There are many theories as to why this has happened from the unquenchable desire for world dominance to the insatiable appetite of the military-industrial complex. And of course don't forget the need to control the world's oil supplies. Whatever the cause, don't expect this "great game" to end anytime soon.

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