War Is Boring

The Russian military will acquire long-range, presumably jet-powered strike drones to help replace its arsenal of decrepit Cold War-era Tupolev heavy bombers, according to Moscow’s long-range aviation commander, Lt. Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev.

by DAVID AXE This week we highlighted the U.S. military’s small force of Soviet- and Russian-made MiG and Sukhoi fighters, studied for intelligence and flown for realistic air combat training. Now Bryan William Jones provides us some photos of the American MiGs at the Threat Training Center at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.  

From the always-fun English Russia, a photo gallery featuring Soviet tanks destroyed in battle in World War II.

by ROBERT BECKHUSEN In recent years, the US government has created research agencies for homeland security, intelligence, and energy — all modeled on the Pentagon’s mad-scientist arm, Darpa. Now Russia has gotten the bug, too. Russian industry and defense leaders announced plans last week to bankroll the Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects in the Defense [...]

by ROBERT BECKHUSEN Twitter is where you hang out with friends and meet new people. Now you can hang out with brutal pro-Kremlin warlord Ramzan Kadyrov. According to Russian news wire RIA Novosti, the Chechen president created a Twitter accountWednesday after meeting with Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s prime minister and former president. (Medvedev is an advocate of social media.) Kadyrov [...]

by ROBERT BECKHUSEN A transport ship the U.S. believes is carrying attack helicopters to Syria is now heading back to Russia. Ostensibly, the MV Alaed turned around after its insurance coverage was pulled. But the ship’s return coincides with a meeting between Obama and Vladimir Putin — a sign the two leaders may be starting to cooperate on [...]

English Russia takes us inside the Novosibirsk factory where workers are hand-assembling some 90 Su-34 fighters for the Russian air force.

by ROBERT BECKHUSEN Russia’s fleet of rusty strategic bombers has seen better days. For one, they haven’t seen significant upgrades in decades. For two, the fleet is less than half the size of America’s combined force of conventional B-52s, B-1Bs and B-2 stealth bombers. And with plans by the U.S. to build a stealthy new [...]

Via English Russia, a collection of photos from the First Chechen War (1994-1996).

The collapse of the Soviet Union left thousands of military aircraft scattered across Russia and its neighboring republics. They slowly rust away where they were abandoned. English Russia features a new aircraft graveyard pretty much every week.

Last week, the U.S. Navy released its annually-updated 30-year shipbuilding plan. The document confirms what analysts have expected since the January publication of the Pentagon’s new Strategic Defense Guidance: the world’s leading naval power is no longer planning a major expansion from today’s 285 warships to 313 or more, as was expected as recently as last year. Instead, the U.S. combat fleet will slightly shrink to a low of 276 vessels in 2015 before modestly expanding, peaking at a planned 307 ships in the late 2030s.

English Russia goes inside a MiG-29 squadron in Kursk.