Russian fleet to receive soon secret new cruise missile.

Russian fleet to receive soon secret new cruise missile. (RBTH).

In September 2014, state testing was completed on Russia’s newest cruise missile, which has been developed by NPO Mashinostroyenia, part of the Tactical Missiles Corporation. According to the general director of NPO Mashinostroyenia, Alexander Leonov, the new missile was designed for the Russian Navy and, in addition to the completion of state testing of the rocket itself, two sets of ground-based and sea-based missiles have also successfully passed state testing.

Nothing is currently known about the name, index, or even any of the tactical and technical characteristics of the new product. 

According to Dmitry Kornev, the chief editor of the internet project MilitaryRussia.ru, despite all of the secrecy surrounding the recently tested missile, it is already possible to make some assumptions about the product in question.

"It could be a fundamentally new missile, possibly hypersonic. One should not forget that NPO Mashinostroyenia has been actively working in this area, and it was not too long that ago mockups of the joint Russian-Indian hypersonic rocket BrahMos-II appeared at exhibitions,” Kornev told RBTH.

Also, in Kornev's estimation, this could be about the modernization of a missile already in service. In this case, a new, more accurate control system created using modern components and computational algorithms has probably been installed. It is also possible that the so-called homing device has been replaced," suggested Kornev.

In his opinion, if the missile is an upgraded product, then it is most likely to be based on the P-800 Onyx, better known under its export designation of Yakhont. The best-known of the supersonic missiles produced by NPO for the global market, it served as the model for the development of the joint Russian-Indian BrahMos supersonic missile system and the Bastion coastal missile system.

According to Boltenkov, putting the new universal missile system into the service of the military will significantly enhance the power of the Russian Navy.

At the same time, both experts noted that even though the facts about the new product are still a secret, it is already possible to presume that the new rocket has the potential for export.

It is noteworthy that the Vice Admiral of the United States Navy, Michael Connor, voiced concerns about the growing potential of the Russian submarine fleet on the pages of the American publication The Inquisitr.

The reason for his concern was the testing of the Bulava (“Mace”) intercontinental ballistic missile, one of the launches of which was successfully executed in September of this year. Launched from the center of the Arctic Ocean, the newest ICBM overcame several thousand kilometers of distance to successfully hit its target in the Kura testing range in the Far East.

Syria crisis - Standoff In The Mediterranean: The US Vs Russian Navies.

Syria crisis - Standoff In The Mediterranean: The US Vs Russian Navies.HT: ZeroHedge.

While the leaders of the two superpowers are shaking hands for the camera in St. Petersburg, their navies are sending a different message. 

Here is the latest breakdown of the world’s key navies in the Mediterranean theater of naval operations as of last night. By now it is likely woefully outdated, now that there are reports the Chinese have joined the fray too (not on the side of the ‘free droning world’). 

Hmmm.......How many US and Russian subs ?

Russian large landing ship Nikolai Filchenkov heads to coast of Syria.

Russian large landing ship Nikolai Filchenkov heads to coast of Syria.(RBTH).

The large landing ship Nikolai Filchenkov of the Russian Black Sea Fleet on Friday will leave Sevastopol for Novorossiysk, from where it will then depart for the coast of Syria, the General Staff of the Russian Navy told Interfax-AVN.

"The Nikolai Filchenkov under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Igor Dmitriyenko is immediately going on a distant mission today. The ship will go to Novorossiysk, where it will take special cargo (S-300?)on board and will head to its appointed combat service area in the Eastern Mediterranean," the source said.
The source in the General Staff of the Russian Navy said the warship has just returned to Sevastopol after four voyages to the Mediterranean from Novorossiysk. The ship had been working on tasks as part of the naval group since April.

Two more Russian naval ships to join Mediterranean unit.

The Nastoichivy destroyer of the Russian Baltic Fleet and the Smetlivy escort ship of the Black Sea Fleet will join the Russian naval unit in the Mediterranean within the next few days, a Russian Navy Main Staff source told Interfax-AVN on Wednesday.
"The Smetlivy escort ship will start its combat mission in the Mediterranean according to the operational command's plans within the next few days. There are plans that the Nastoichivy destroyer, the Baltic Fleet flagship, should join our ships as well," the source said.
The Smetlivy has a water displacement of 4,460 tonnes and is armed with the Kh-35 Uran anti-ship missiles, the AK-726 artillery system, the Volna anti-aircraft missile system (16 missiles), a 533-mm torpedo launcher (5 torpedoes), and two RBU-100 launchers.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry information, the Neustrashimy escort vessel and the Alexander Shabalin, Admiral Nevelskoi, and Peresvet landing ships are currently performing their missions in line with the operational headquarters' plans.
The Novocherkassk and Minsk landing ships belonging to Russia's Black Sea Fleet and Baltic Fleet should join the group on September 5-6. The SSV-21 Priazovye medium reconnaissance vessel, which left the port of Sevastopol on September 1, is performing a special General Staff mission.

Related: Russia sends warship with ‘special cargo’ towards Syria

Former commander of the Russian Air Defense Forces: "Syrian Army may have S-300 missile systems.'

S-300

Former commander of the Russian Air Defense Forces: "Syrian Army may have S-300 missile systems.'(RBTH).

The Syrian Armed Forces might possess S-300 surface-to-air missile systems in addition to S-200, Buk-M1-2, Buk-M2E, Pantsir-S1E, S-125 Neva and S-125M Pechyora systems, which would allow Damascus to successfully respond to U.S. air and sea missile attacks, a Moscow military source familiar with the situation said.

"Syria's air defense systems are able to appropriately respond to strikes by the U.S. and its anti-Syrian coalition allies, should a war begin. Today Damascus has approximately 1,000 air defense missile systems and more than 5,000 different air defense weapons," a former commander of the Russian Air Defense Forces told Interfax-AVN on Friday.
The source did not rule out that the Syrian Armed Forces might also possess S-300 missile systems.
"Russia did not deliver these systems to the Syrians in the past, which was confirmed at the highest level, but Belarus or China could have done so tacitly in 2010-2011," he said.

Related: Flashback May 2013.

Russian Nezavisimaya Gazeta: "Russian military experts are in Syria,They prepare the four divisions of S-300 for combat."

Updated Syrian Air Force and Air Defense Capabilities

Russian supersonic missiles on New Submarines behave like wolves.

Russian supersonic missiles on New Submarines behave like wolves.(RBTH).

Large-scale construction of the next-generation Project 885 Yasen-class multi-purpose nuclear attack submarine, armed with Onyx supersonic cruise missiles, is starting in Russia. The ships will compete with the latest American Seawolf-class nuclear submarines in terms of their noise profile and will be world leaders in terms of fire power.

Moscow plans to acquire at least 10 of these boats by 2020. The fourth submarine in this class was laid down in Severodvinsk on the eve of Navy Day, which was celebrated on July 28.
The Project 885 nuclear submarine is the quintessence of everything the Russian military industrial complex has achieved in over half a century of building submarines.
The vessel has a hull made from high-resilience, low-magnetic steel, and can dive to a depth of more than 1,968.5 feet (conventional boats cannot go deeper than 984.2 feet), which effectively puts it out of reach of all types of modern anti-submarine weapons. Its maximum speed is more than 30 knots (about 34.5 miles per hour). The nuclear submarine is equipped with an escape pod for the whole crew.
The Russian designers say that the Yasen is not only quieter than the quietest Russian nuclear submarine (the Project 971 Akula - 'Shark'), but also quieter than the latest American Seawolf nuclear submarine.
Moreover, unlike those vessels, the new missile submarine will be more functional, thanks to the weapons at its disposal (several types of cruise missiles and torpedoes). It will be able to fulfil a wide range of roles at sea.
The Akula nuclear submarine currently forms the basis of the Russian group of multi-purpose attack submarines designed for raiding operations against sea lanes. Virtually inaudible in the depths of the ocean, they are equally effective against transport vessels and warships, and can also hit the enemy’s coastal infrastructure with cruise missiles.
Akula submarines were recently reported within the 200-mile zone of the coasts of the United States and Canada, which caused a serious commotion among the countries’ respective militaries. Having discovered the presence of these “guests,” neither of them was able to track their movement, which naturally caused serious concern.
After all, the Akula carries 28 Kh-55 Granat cruise missiles on board — the equivalent of the American Tomahawk, which can fly 1,864.1 miles and deliver 200-kiloton nuclear warheads to their targets.

Invulnerable.

The main attack system on the Yasen is the P-800 Onyx — the latest Russian supersonic cruise missile. The missile is the basis for two absolutely identical export versions: The Russian Yakhont and the Indian BrahMos have a similar appearance to the Onyx, but with significantly reduced combat characteristics.
The Onyx devices are capable of being fired from underwater, and they fly at a speed of 2,460 feet per second, carrying a devastating, high-explosive warhead weighing half a ton. The missiles have a range of more than 372.8 miles.
The Onyx is guided to its target by a navigational system that operates on target designation data provisionally input to the missile before it is launched. At a predetermined point in the trajectory (15–50 miles), the missile’s homing device is briefly activated and determines the precise location of the target.
The next time the homing device is activated is after a sharp reduction in altitude to 15–50 feet, just seconds before it hits the enemy. This is to ensure that, when the enemy detects the missile’s launch, it cannot “jam” the missile with electronic countermeasures.

Wolf pack

It is not the missile’s high speed or the protection of its homing device against electronic countermeasures that makes the Onyx a super-modern weapon.
Once it is launched from the submarine, the missile finds the target by itself. After determining their coordinates, the missiles “wait” until the last one is out of the launch tubes and then line up, just like a wolf pack, and begin to “home in on their prey.”

The designers are not really advertising this point, but it is the missiles themselves that decide which missile attacks, which target and how. The missile “pack” decides these targets, classifies them in terms of importance, and selects the tactics for the attack and the plan for its execution.

In order to prevent mistakes, the missile’s onboard computer system is programmed with electronic data on all modern classes of ship. This is purely tactical information—for example, on the class of vessel.
This enables the missiles to determine what they are up against — whether it be an aircraft-carrier or landing group—and then to attack the main targets within the group. The Onyx missile’s onboard computer also holds data on how to counter the enemy’s electronic warfare systems, which can divert a missile from its target, and systems for evading anti-aircraft defense systems.

At the same time, like wolves in a real pack, the missiles themselves decide which one of them is the main attacker and which must take the role of the decoy to lure the enemy’s aircraft and air defense systems away. 

Once the main selected target has been destroyed, the other missiles immediately redistribute the combat assignments between themselves and begin to destroy other vessels. There is no ship in the world that can dodge an attack by Onyx missiles.

Yes, ship-borne radar systems can detect that they have been launched, but then further resistance is useless. The speed of these missiles and the way they constantly maneuver above the surface of the sea makes it practically impossible to intercept them with air defense systems or aircraft.Hmmm.......Onyx will also be included in the weaponry of the Su-30MK family of fighters and the latest Su-34 frontline bombers.Read the full story here.

Russia Sending Missile Systems to Shield Syria.

Russia Sending Missile Systems to Shield Syria .(NYTimes).Moscow — Russia’s chief arms exporter said Friday that his company was shipping advanced defensive missile systems to Syria that could be used to shoot down airplanes or sink ships if the United States or other nations try to intervene to halt the country’s spiral of violence. “I would like to say these mechanisms are really a good means of defense, a reliable defense against attacks from the air or sea,” Anatoly P. Isaykin, the general director of the company, Rosoboronexport, said Friday in an interview. “This is not a threat, but whoever is planning an attack should think about this.” As the weapons systems are not considered cutting edge, Mr. Isaykin’s disclosures carried greater symbolic import than military significance. They contributed to a cold war chill that has been settling over relations between Washington and Moscow ahead a meeting between President Obama and President Vladimir V. Putin, their first, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit meeting in the Mexican resort of Los Cabos next week. Mr. Isaykin’s remarks come just days after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton raised diplomatic pressure on Russia, Syria’s patron, by criticizing the Kremlin for sending attack helicopters to Damascus, and amid reports that Moscow was preparing to send an amphibious landing vessel and a small company of marines to the Syrian port of Tartus, to provide security for military installations and infrastructure, if it becomes necessary.Read the full story here.