Current Events in Europe

Russian Navy receives first Admiral Grigorovich class frigate (Jane's)

From RIA Novosti [excerpt]

Russia bolsters western air defence capabilities (Jane's) Russia activates new long-range radar (Jane's)

Russia: Bombers Grounded After Crash By C. J. Chivers The air force grounded its fleet of hundreds of Su-24 attack planes after one of the jets crashed during a training flight in Russia’s Far East. The pilots ejected safely and the cause of the crash was not clear, according to comments by Col. Aleksandr Drobyshevksy reported by Interfax. The Su-24 is a Soviet-era twin-engine jet that was first manufactured in the 1970s and saw action in the wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya. The crash occurred during a week in which President Vladimir V. Putin spoke of the need to modernize Russia’s civilian and military aviation sectors.

From DefenseNews Turkey Causing Security Problems: Greek Minister By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ATHENS Greece’s defense minister on May 6 accused Turkey of “systematically” violating international law and causing “grave problems to regional stability and security” two days after a spate of alleged airspace infringements by Turkish warplanes which Athens deemed “particularly provocative.” “Turkey’s provocative behavior systematically violates international law, causes great problems to regional stability and security, dynamites attempts to improve Greek-Turkish relations and undermines [Turkey’s] European prospects,” Spilios Spiliotopoulos said, according to a de…

From Flight Global [excerpt]

From Defense Aerospace [excerpt]

From Jane's Funding may delay UK's first JSF purchase By Tim Ripley 4 November 2008 UK procurement officials are considering options to push back the first purchase of Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft, amid growing speculation that funding shortfalls are threatening UK participation in the programme. Jane's has learnt that UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) officials have raised the possibility of not buying three low-rate initial production (LRIP) aircraft over the next two years at a cost of some GBP450 million (USD742 million) and delaying purchases until production-standard aircraft are available in the middle of the next d…

Including commander of Cypriot Navy

Writing with the Blackberry, is better to read the news report: http://www.meretmarine.com/article.cfm?id=119157

From RIA Novosti [excerpt]

From RIA Novosti [excerpt]

Russia May Scrap U.S. Arms Control Treaty Reuters DefenseNews MOSCOW -- Russia warned the United States on Thursday it might pull out of a Cold War nuclear arms reduction treaty because of plans by Washington to build a missile shield in Eastern Europe. General Yuri Baluyevsky, head of the Russian general staff, said Russia could unilaterally withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty), Russian news agencies reported. When asked whether Russia would pull out of the agreement, Baluyevsky, said: "We will see how our American partners are going to act," Interfax news agency reported. "What they are doing at the moment -- creating…

1st A400M To Be Delivered in 2nd Quarter of ’13 (DefenseNews)

Ice damage evident as UK SSN returns home (Jane's)

New S-400 missiles to protect Kola Peninsula (Barents Observer)

From RIA Novosti Russia delays launch of new nuclear submarine 15:3813/04/2010 Russia will not float out a new nuclear-powered multipurpose attack submarine as planned on May 7 due to technical reasons, a source in the shipbuilding industry said on Tuesday. Construction of the Severodvinsk, the first Project 885 Yasen (Graney) class submarine, began in 1993 at the Sevmash shipyard in the northern Russian city of Severodvinsk but has since been dogged by financial setbacks. Russia planned to float out the submarine on May 7 to mark the 65th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in May 1945. "The launch of the new Severodvinsk submarine has been d…

Russia Today story

Why Russia is Retiring Its Akula Strategic Nuclear Subs (Sputnik)

From Stratfor GEOPOLITICAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT 06.12.2007 Russia: Using Missile Defense as a Geopolitical Lever By George Friedman Russian President Vladmir Putin threw a classic Cold War curveball during his chat with U.S. President George W. Bush at the G-8 summit. Having totally opposed the creation of a U.S. ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in Poland and the Czech Republic, Putin suddenly shifted his position, saying he might go along with a BMD system under certain conditions. The system, he said, would be acceptable if the United States used a Russian radar system placed in Azerbaijan and based its interceptor missiles anywhere else, such as on s…