Current Events in Europe

From RIA Novosti [excerpt]

New SAM for British frigates

From RIA Novosti [excerpt] CV32: You can already find the AA-X-13 'Arrow' in the HCDB.

From RIA Novosti [excerpt] CV32: "Flarecraft" is a reference to 'wing in ground effect' vehicles or 'ekranoplan'.

From RIA Novosti [excerpt]

From Ares [excerpt]

Something to keep your eye on over the next year or three. The Scottish National Party, which won a majority in the devolved government of Scotland last year is starting to move towards a referendum on the country becoming independent. The issues with Westminster agreeing to let them do this legally are on firstly timing (Holyrood wants it in 2014, Westminster sooner) and over a second question allowing for a "devolution-max" (essentially having everything bar defence and foreign affairs). A full guide on the issue can be found here here. It's by no means a certainty that there would be a yes vote - but if Scotland were to break away, the defence ramifications wo…

From the most recent copy of Undersea Warfare: Oscar Shifts From Quality To Quantity Russia is planning to rebuild its Oscar II class nuclear submarines to carry a wide variety of missiles. Currently, each Oscar II carries 24 large anti-ship missiles. But by rebuilding the missile launchers (which are outside the pressure hull) to carry more, but smaller missiles, each Oscar II can carry up to 72 missiles. This makes it easier to overcome the anti-missiles of enemy surface ships. What is lost in range and warhead size will be made up with better target detection and countermeasures technology. Russia has eight Type 949A SSGNs (nuclear powered cruise missile submari…

From BBC [excerpt]

From Aviation Week [excerpt]

From Defense Aerospace [excerpt]

From Flight Global [excerpt]

(extract) RIA Novosti For those of you wondering about the time difference, Russia's decided not to go back from Daylight Savings.

From Aviation Week [excerpt]

From Flight Global [excerpt]

Oh, that'll help relations with Moscow. Wish I had one in my backyard. From RIA Novosti [excerpt]

From RIA Novosti [excerpt]

CV32: I think I heard that sigh of relief from here. From RIA Novosti A test warhead from a Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile successfully hit its target on the Kura test range in Russia's Far East Kamchatka region, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday. The missile was fired from the Dmitry Donskoy submarine in the White Sea. Bulava test launches were put on hold after a failed launch on December 9, 2009, which was caused by a defective engine nozzle. The Bulava (SS-NX-30), a three-stage liquid and solid-propellant submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), has officially suffered seven failures in 13 tests. MOSCOW, October 7 (RIA Novo…

BBC News story IIRC, Greek S-300s protected the 2004 Games in Athens.

From DEW Line [excerpt]