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Outside View: Vietnam weapons -- Part 1

Fri, 09 May 2008 11:34:48 -0400

By ILYA KRAMNIK
UPI Outside View CommentatorMOSCOW, May 9 (UPI) -- A red flag was raised over the Palace of Independence in Saigon at 11:30 a.m. on April 30, 1975, signaling the official end of the second Indochinese war, which broke out in the late 1950s.

Military Matters: Armor lessons -- Part 2

Thu, 08 May 2008 14:02:57 -0400

By WILLIAM S. LINDWASHINGTON, May 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army has designed its tanks, especially the M-1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, for tactical utility with little thought for operational mobility.

Defense Focus: Numbers count -- Part 1

Thu, 08 May 2008 13:58:05 -0400

By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News AnalystWASHINGTON, May 8 (UPI) -- In weapons procurement, demanding only the best is usually a recipe for disastrous defeat.

Military Matters: Armor lessons -- Part 1

Wed, 07 May 2008 14:50:35 -0400

By WILLIAM S. LINDWASHINGTON, May 7 (UPI) -- Bruce Gudmundsson, author of "Stormtroop Tactics," has a new book out: "On Armor."

Defense Focus: High-tech limits -- Part 3

Wed, 07 May 2008 11:59:46 -0400

By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News AnalystWASHINGTON, May 7 (UPI) -- The United States, Russia, China, France and Britain have all found that pushing their high-tech capabilities too far has sometimes given them weapons systems that are turkeys instead of eagles.

Thompson Files: Delay U.S. defense review

Tue, 06 May 2008 10:40:29 -0400

By LOREN B. THOMPSONARLINGTON, Va., May 6 (UPI) -- There is no overwhelming threat around which to organize our defense preparations, despite U.S. attempts to make the global war on terrorism that crusade.

Outside View: Russia's Blackjack power

Tue, 06 May 2008 10:36:09 -0400

By NKITA PETROV
UPI Outside View CommentatorMOSCOW, May 6 (UPI) -- On April 29 representatives of the Kazan Aircraft Production Association presented the 121st Heavy Bomber Regiment of the Russian Air Force's 37th Army with a brand-new Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bomber.

BMD Focus: West trumps East -- Part 2

Tue, 06 May 2008 10:31:47 -0400

By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News AnalystWASHINGTON, May 6 (UPI) -- In the struggle over ABM defense bases in Central Europe, Washington finds Western Europe supports it while Poland and the Czech Republic are wavering.

Analysis: European defense contracts

Mon, 05 May 2008 14:40:09 -0400

By LEANDER SCHAERLAECKENS
UPI CorrespondentBRUSSELS, May 5 (UPI) -- Spending up, troop numbers down in Europe; Russia backs India into aircraft carrier corner; Boeing drops out of Swiss fighter competition

BMD Focus: West trumps East -- Part 1

Mon, 05 May 2008 14:24:31 -0400

By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News AnalystWASHINGTON, May 5 (UPI) -- U.S. President George W. Bush's plan to build two antiballistic missile bases in Central Europe -- one in the Czech Republic and the other in Poland -- is forging along more strongly than ever. In so doing, it is confounding the conventional wisdom of the past 20 years about the future dynamics of the Atlantic Alliance.

Outside View: Iran and ABMs

Mon, 05 May 2008 14:16:44 -0400

By ANDREI KISLYAKOV
UPI Outside View CommentatorMOSCOW, May 5 (UPI) -- On May 2, the foreign ministers of Russia, China, the United States, Britain, France and Germany met in London to discuss a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear problem.

BMD Watch: SASC agrees to fund BMD bases

Fri, 02 May 2008 21:02:28 -0400

By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News AnalystWASHINGTON, May 2 (UPI) -- U.S. President George W. Bush's hard-driving determination to build anti-ballistic missile bases in Central Europe cleared another hurdle Thursday when the Armed Services Committee of the U.S. Senate approved funding for the coming Fiscal year 2009 to construct them.

Analysis: China to get SAMs from Russia

Fri, 02 May 2008 18:04:10 -0400

By ANDREI CHANGHONG KONG, May 2 (UPI) -- Russia will deliver to China four battalions of 200-kilometer-range S-300PMU2 surface-to-air missiles this summer, the last batch in a series ordered by China. The first batch of four battalions of the same missiles was delivered in July 2007.

Outside View: China's obsolete fighters

Fri, 02 May 2008 14:37:50 -0400

By ILYA KRAMNIK
UPI Outside View CommentatorMOSCOW, May 2 (UPI) -- Earlier this year reports appeared in the media that China had copied Russia's Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker fighter and that its J-11 version, now manufactured in China, would be sold to third countries, undermining Russia's positions on the global arms market.

BMD Focus: Czechs back BMD plan -- Part 2

Thu, 01 May 2008 13:16:02 -0400

By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News AnalystWASHINGTON, May 1 (UPI) -- President Bush racked up not one but four major foreign policy triumphs in his drive to deploy effective ABM bases in Central Europe.

Outside View: Nuke power future -- Part 2

Thu, 01 May 2008 13:09:11 -0400

By SERGEI GOLUBCHIKOV
UPI Outside View CommentatorMOSCOW, May 1 (UPI) -- Uranium prices are increasing throughout the world and have doubled over the past three years.

BMD Focus: Czechs back BMD plan -- Part 1

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:34:09 -0400

By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News AnalystWASHINGTON, April 30 (UPI) -- The Czech government's decision to approve the building of a U.S. ballistic missile defense radar base on its territory is an important strategic victory for the Bush administration.

Outside View: Nuke power future -- Part 1

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:31:38 -0400

By SERGEI GOLUBCHIKOV
UPI Outside View CommentatorMOSCOW, April 30 (UPI) -- On April 22 in Yerevan, Russia and the former Soviet republic of Armenia signed a treaty to set up a joint venture for the exploration and mining of uranium and other minerals in Armenia.

BMD Focus: Patriot power -- Part 2

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:50:37 -0400

By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News AnalystWASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- The latest Patriot missile purchases and upgrade deals by Taiwan and South Korea point to a widespread expectation of growing tensions and expectations of eventual war on Asia's Pacific Rim.

Thompson Files: Boeing at war with USAF

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:47:11 -0400

By LOREN B. THOMPSONARLINGTON, Va., April 29 (UPI) -- If you want to understand how former allies end up going to war -- or former lovers end up getting divorced -- take a look at how Boeing and the U.S. Air Force are treating each other in their angry confrontation over the award of a next-generation tanker program to Northrop Grumman.