China.org.cn
December 18, 2013
The US-Russia arms race
By Zhao Jinglun
America’s two major parties were hardly talking to each other. But they have come together to save the military-industrial complex. In a deal brokered with senate budget chair Patty Murray and Mitt Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan, federal spending will be increased by $45 billion, half of which will go to the Pentagon, in spite of sequestration.
Paul Ryan famously said on Oct. 20, 2012: “We are not going to gut our military.” They didn’t. They would cut every discretionary federal spending, especially social and welfare spending such as food stamps, but never military spending. The U.S. still out-spends all other countries put together on defense.
The US Navy has recently launched the next-generation aircraft carrier, the 100,000 ton USS Gerald R. Ford. It features a series of technological advances, including upgraded nuclear power plants, electromagnetic catapults and a larger flight deck to accommodate more carrier-launched stealth drones.
A new super spy satellite is also being added to U.S. orbital assets.
The Pentagon is developing a hypersonic (Mach 6, some 4,000 mph) aircraft known as Boeing X-51, the “Wave Rider” which can strike at any target in the world within an hour.
To counter that threat, Russia announced that it would retaliate any attack by launching nuclear missiles. The launch may even be pre-emptive.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Dec. 10 that in 2014, the Russian armed forces must receive more than 40 most modern intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), more than 210 airplanes and helicopters, and more than 250 armored vehicles. Nuclear rocket carriers the Alexander Nevsky and the Vladimir Monomakh will take over the combat watch and six new satellites will reinforce the orbital grouping.
According to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Russia will see the continued deployment of the Yar ICBM to the Strategic Missile Forces.
Moscow has also deployed Iskander-M missiles with a range of about 400 km in the Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad, bordering Poland and Lithuania, both NATO members. These missiles have a capability of destroying components of the anti-missile shields deployed by the United States in Europe. U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has just told Shoigu that the U.S. will continue to deploy those shields despite an interim nuclear deal reached with Iran.
Also notable is Putin’s announcement that Russia must possess every lever for the protection of its security and national interests in the Arctic. He said “The formation of new forces and military units of the prospective combat configuration of the Armed Forces is due to end next year. I request that you pay special attention to the deployment of infrastructure and military units in the Arctic.”
He stressed that Russia “was intensifying the development of that promising region and returning to it.”
In all, Russian Defense Ministry expenditures will reach 2.1 trillion rubles. Putin is also stepping up efforts to win over Ukraine.
Both the United States and Canada are asserting their presence in the Arctic. Some have even described it as a new Cold War between Russia and the United States.
Early this month, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper ordered a rewrite of Canada’s international claim for Arctic seabed rights to include the North Pole, a region Russia has already marked as its own. That territorial dispute will have to be negotiated between Ottawa and Moscow.
Washington’s objective is to secure territorial control on behalf of its oil companies as the Arctic is believed to hold up to 25 percent of the world’s oil and gas reserves. And from Washington’s perspective, the battle for the Arctic is part of broader global military agenda.
The race is on. Where it will lead remains to be seen.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn.
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