Tuesday, February 15, 2005

More on the Ukrainian AS-15 sales

Pavel Felgenhauer of the Moscow Times follows up the discovery, as blogged on the 3rd of February, that a number of Kh55 (Nato name AS-15 KENT) strategic cruise missiles had been sold on the black market by Ukrainian officials at the time when the remaining 578 Kents in the Ukraine were returned to Russia. The highly capable long-range missiles had apparently been misappropriated and sold to Iran and to China. We speculated a little about the implications, and showed a pretty picture of a Tu-160 Black Jack bomber, designed to carry them.

Felgenhauer links the story to an agreement between Iran and Russia to launch Iranian satellites on Russian rockets - allegedly, the satellites are those required to provide the Kent's navigation data. It's also possible that the satellite program might include a capability for tracking shipping - a use for the Kh55's tactical variant would be to attack US aircraft carrier groups from long range. Mind you, he also charges that Iran has acquired the elements of a Pakistani nuclear weapon, which may reduce credibility on other charges.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

omg how sad r u lemme guess your all 50 yr old virgins!

kostenloser Counter