via Defense News.
Russia is close to purchasing a Mistral-class French warship and needs such a vessel to patrol waters around Pacific islands that are the subject of a long-running dispute with Japan, a top general said June 8.Read the whole thing but if Japan is thinking about scaling back defense spending this should give her pause. Wolves are lurking and territory is at stake.
Russia's plan to purchase the Mistral - capable of carrying up to 16 helicopters and a 750-strong landing force - has alarmed some of its neighbors amid expectations it would become part of its Black Sea fleet.
and then this juicy tidbit...
He said in the region around the Kuril Islands "we need mobile means so that a landing force can be rapidly sent there at the necessary time".
Russia is sovereign, and can buy or make what weapons it wants. It can patrol its territory for security reasons with said equipment.
ReplyDeleteWhy, however, such a blatant poke a sore spot? They are fishing for a reaction. From the Japanese, certainly. Possibly from us and China too. Seeing how we react to a resurgent Russia in the Pacific.
They may even be saying to Japan, look, your supposed allies will sell me stuff even when I say it's for use against you.
exactly right but they're not testing the US military, or even the Japanese or France or NATO....they're testing President Obama....all our enemies smell pussy and they're about to try and fuck us.
ReplyDeleteCome on, the Mistral in the Black Sea would be like a fat tortoise with no exact purpose in mind. It has no place and no usage there, the Russian Black Sea continues to exist without having real enemies, more for the sake of the Crimean Ukrainian fleet base and perhaps, in view of a possible relocation of forces in Syria, in case they'll go for the Mediteranean Sea. The Mistral is the Russian solution to the fact that despite current muscles flexing, they can't reach alone the status they claim to have.
ReplyDelete