Russia's Putting Hypersonic Missiles on Its Battlecruisers

The blisteringly fast Zircon missile will give old battlecruisers new striking power

 

 The Russian Navy will start sending so-called hypersonic missiles to sea as early as 2022. Capable of flying five to six times the speed of sound, the missiles will be carried by both aging battlecruisers and brand-new submarines, giving each the ability to quickly kill enemy ships.

Currently in advanced stages of development, the Zircon anti-ship missile is capable of flying at hypersonic speeds, between 3,800 to 4,600 miles an hour. That's fast enough to travel from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. in just over thirty minutes.

According to Moscow's state press, Zircon is undergoing land-based testing and and is planned to enter production in 2018. Zircon almost certainly builds upon Russian know-how in hypersonics, learned during the the joint development of the Russian-Indian BrahMos hypersonic anti-ship missile. Brahmos has a maximum speed of Mach 2.8 and a range of about 180 miles. 

Supersonic missiles

The extreme speed of the Zircon will make it very tough for navies to defend against. At 4,600 miles an hour, the Russian hypersonic missile will be traveling faster than a mile a second. Even if a defending ship were to detect an incoming Zircon at 100 miles, that leaves the ship just over one minute to shoot the missile down. 

Zircon's striking range and warhead size are both currently unknown.  Space inside every missile is at a premium, with the high explosive warhead, guidance system, engine and fuel all competing for room. The missile is meant to fit inside the new 3S-14 shipboard missile silo system, which can also fit Onyx and Kalibur anti-ship missiles.

The Little Tank Robot That Carries a Glock

THE DOGO

The Dogo from General Robotics is a portable, tactical combat robot. We've seen that before. The big difference is that the Dogo is armed with a 9mm Glock pistol.

Dogo weighs 26 pounds and can to climb stairs and other obstacles. It trundles along at 2.5 miles an hour for at least two hours on one battery charge. The operator gets a 360-degree view of the surroundings via six video cameras, while another two cameras are sighted along the pistol barrel.
 
  The Dogo can fire five rounds in two seconds. One advantage of having a robot of this size is that it is not thrown out by the recoil. It can accept a magazine with up to fourteen rounds, and the operator display shows how many shots are remaining. General Robotics claims the machine is so intuitive that a soldier can operate the robot after just a few minutes of training.

Some additional features have been added for police use. One is full two-way audio communication via microphone and speakers for conducting negotiations remotely. In addition to the Glock, the Dogo can also carry non-lethal weapons which are fitted in a standard Picatinny rail—pepper spray and a dazzler module are mentioned.

The Dogo is likely to be popular for exploring tunnels and other confined spaces. In more open situations it's at a tactical disadvantage since humans on two legs may be able to outmanuver the small, vulnerable bot. This is probably the reasoning behind sending more than one Dogo at a time, as you see in the video, so the second robot can cover the first.SEE THE VIDEO ON HOW IT WORKS AND OPERATES.

 

 From PM.

MODERN RUSSIAN MILITARY VEHICLES THAT USA ADMITS TO RESPECT.

1) IMR-3M Obstacle-Clearing Vehicle

 

A vehicle built for heavy engineering in tough environments, it's hard not to respect this road-clearing (or -creating) monster. The two-man crew inside the vehicle can breach tree entanglements, blaze an 8-mile trail in an hour and lift 2 tons with a telescoping arm that extends 10 yards. It's also prepared to survive a fight, with thick armor, masking smoke and a machine-gun turret. Best of all, it's mounted on the chassis of a T-90 main battle tank. It can also survive blasts from explosives—the plow can clear pressure and magnetic-fuse mines—making the vehicle an all-purpose brute.

 

9A52-4 Multiple Launch Rocket System

                         


One hero of Russian history is the Katyusha, a wheeled vehicle from World War II that rained rockets on German troops and tanks. This modern version, a very lightweight rocket launcher mounted on a truck chassis, has a simple design but packs a wallop—the crew inside the cab fires 300-mm rockets with warheads that include incendiary, fuel-air explosive, cluster munitions or antitank mines. The one on display here features six reusable launch tubes, which can be reloaded by a separate vehicle, using a crane, within 8 minutes. While the four-axle truck it's mounted on is not ideal off-road driving, these systems are masters of the shoot-and-scoot; by the time counterbattery fires rain down, they have driven away. This air-transportable version of the popular Smerch rocket system was introduced in 2007 but still awaits an international customer.

 

Kasta 2E Radar

             

The Kasta is a great all-purpose radar system that can be used to track helicopters, cruise missiles and airplanes. Set this up for remote operation, and you've got a movable defense screen for virtually anything in the air or an air-traffic-control radar that can operate in any weather for up to 20 days. The radar here can cover about 90 miles, depending on the height of the antenna it is mounted on, and can be set up for action in 20 minutes. The Kasta is said to be resistant to enemy jamming. A newer version of this radar is a popular item on the international market and guards Iranian nuclear sites. The diesel engine fires up with a whine, and the old-school mechanical radar dishes spin, unlike newer electronic radar arrays.                 

1V13 Artillery Fire Command Vehicle

                             


Even the most modern artillery shell or missile is useless without knowing where targets are located. This scrappy recon vehicle is made to operate, day or night, in the most miserable conditions possible to provide guidance to indirect fire coming from large and small formations, from the platoon to the battalion level. The 1V13s are studded with radios, laser rangefinders, navigation equipment and an aiming circle that provides the angle needed to correctly place a round. Once in position, the crew of six can set up to direct volleys of heavy fire within 15 minutes. The low profile and telescoping antenna are meant to protect the crew members as they sneak into position. The guys inside these things need to be close to the enemy to do their jobs—that takes bravery and good hardware, especially since they are favored targets of the enemies. Like almost all Russian military equipment, the vehicle was designed during the Soviet era and has been sold internationally and sporadically upgraded.

 

9A39 Launch/Reload Vehicle for the BUK M1-2

                             

The BUK M1-2 Self-Propelled Launch System (called the SA-11 Gadfly by NATO) is tailor-made to spot and destroy aircraft and inbound cruise missiles. In this photo is an oft-forgotten part of the medium-range system—the reloader. The crane, bent in the front, hoists missiles onto nearby Gadflys. The system can't see for itself—it relies on other nearby vehicles carrying radar for targeting—but it can shoot and reload on its own. The missiles are radar guided and can reach Mach 3. These vehicles are sold all over the world, including in Pakistan, Egypt, North Korea, Syria, China and (arriving soon) Venezuela.

 

MIK-MKS Mobile Communications System

 

 

It takes a half-hour for the 100-foot mast of this vehicle to reach its full height. But once it does, the MIK-MKS provides wireless broadband access for 200 users using the four antennas atop the mast. Micran, the company that makes the system in the Siberian city of Tomsk, can tailor it for a variety of other communications uses, but the main purpose of the system is for a single vehicle to connect a slew of dispersed units. It's designed to be hardened against jamming interference from enemies and rough conditions of  Mother Nature, especially high winds.

TILTROTOR REPLACING THE BLACK HAWK HELICOPTER.

The Army's Black Hawk helicopters lead a hard life. Over the next decade or so the Pentagon will need to begin replacing the ubiquitous UH-60 medium-lift helos, and when it does, it will require vertical lift with similar cargo carrying capability to what it has now. And beyond that, what the Army really wants is speed.

So what's fast and can takeoff and land like a helicopter?

 

 A tiltrotor. Bell Helicopter is building a tiltrotor aircraft called the V-280 Valor for the Army's Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator project, hoping to win the contract for the Black Hawk's successor. Bell will pit the Valor tiltrotor against the Sikorsky/Boeing-built SB-1 Defiant coaxial rigid-rotor helicopter that features two rotors, one placed atop the other.

 The Valor achieves that speed and range via a tiltrotor design that departs from the V-22 most notably at the wing. Instead of the complex, forward-swept dihedral wing found on the Osprey, the Valor will use a straight wing without dihedral. As with the Osprey, the wing is made of carbon fiber but rather than being constructed using a time-consuming carbon-fiber tape-strip layup, the Valor's wing is made using swaths of carbon fiber. Vince Tobin says the difference is akin to having a tailor made suit starting with thread only versus starting with bolts of cloth

V 280 Valor production

 Bell envisions a real production version of the Valor having an aerial refueling capability, but has given the plane the ability to carry fuel bladders in its fuselage. Like the Black Hawk, the Valor will be unpressurized, typically operating up to altitudes of 10,000 feet in cruise.

DOZENS OF A -10s AND F-16s ROLL OUT FOR AN "ELEPHANT WALK"

To flex some military muscle in the Pacific region, the U.S. Air Force rolled out the fighter planes en masse

 Earlier this week, the U.S. Air Force rolled out dozens of A-10s and F-16s in an "elephant walk"—a military demonstration that involves taxing entire squadrons of aircraft down the runway to train for the type of en masse takeoffs that would be necessary in wartime. An elephant walk also serves as a reminder to surrounding nations of the United States' military capabilities.

USA Army.

 The U.S. Air Force recently decided that the A-10 Thunderbolt II, affectionately nicknamed the Warthog, is just too useful to be retired. Originally designed to take out Soviet tanks, the armored attack plane continues to prove its worth. Likewise, the F-16 Fighting Falcon, referred to as the Viper by many airmen, has proven its competence in battle, and with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program lagging, it's safe to say the Viper isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

USA Airforce.

It's no secret that tensions are high between the United States and China in the Pacific region, particularly in the South China Sea where China is building airstrips on atolls that they claim are for civilian research, but look suspiciously like military facilities. China claims sovereignty for 12 nautical miles around these manmade islands. The United States doesn't recognize that sovereignty. 

Who knows if these A-10s and F-16s will be needed, but the U.S. wants the entire Pacific region to know that they are "ready to fly tonight." AS it was reported....