Why Proliferation of Russia’s S-400 Air Defence System Seriously Undermines Western Interests

[The SC]

Why Proliferation of Russia’s S-400 Air Defence System Seriously Undermines Western Interests; U.S. State Department Threatens Sanctions Against Any Potential Clients for the Weapon ​

The U.S. State Department has indicated that it is willing to impose economic sanctions on any country which acquires the Russian S-400 surface to air missile system, as part of its growing campaign to limit the proliferation of Russian arms and put pressure on the country’s economy by specifically targeting its defence sector. State Department's spokeswomen Heather Nauert stated that Washington firmly opposed acquisition of the weapons platform by U.S. allies around the world, a number of which have shown considerable interest in the S-400 despite considerable Western pressure due to its unique capacities and Western producers’ inability to manufacture an air defence system with comparable capabilities. A number of longstanding U.S. defence partners including Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Egypt and NATO member Turkey have all shown considerable interest in the system - a serious embarrassment to Western manufacturers given claims to undisputed superiority over Russian made weapons technologies. Non aligned states India and Vietnam have also shown interest in the weapons platform, alongside a number of longstanding Russian defence clients including China, Belarus, Algeria and Iran. Indeed, even South Korea has sought out S-400 technologies indirectly following its failed attempt to acquire the S-300 due to U.S. pressure. The new Korean M-SAM system will rely heavily on S-400 technologies provided by Russia.



Proliferation of the S-400 seriously threatens the interests of the Western Bloc for a number of reasons, hence the considerable pressure and the singling out of this weapons system in particular. With the Western Bloc having since the 1940s relied overwhelmingly heavily on aerial assets to project power across the world, from military campaigns against Vietnam, China and North Korea to the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, the S-400’s potential to deny event their most advanced stealth aircraft such as the U.S. F-22 Raptor and B-2 Spirit the ability to operate offensively threatens to seriously undermine Western power projection capabilities which have long been a key tool of European and American foreign policy. General Joseph Votel, speaking before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, attested to this, noting that the S-400’s potential proliferation to Middle Eastern states threatened the U.S. military’s ability to dominate the region’s airspace - to which Western militaries have had near undisputed access to since fighter aircraft first gained prominence in the First World War. Proliferation to other regions further threaten the Western Bloc’s ability to intervene in regions such as the Taiwan Strait, East China Sea and Afghanistan, due to the S-400 batteries deployed by China, or West Africa due to those batteries deployed by Algeria. The implications for the global balance of power of the undermining of the status quo, which has long been for Western powers to have few restrictions on their ability to project power across the skies, is considerable.



The S-400 retains an unmatched engagement range of 400km against hostile aircraft when deploying 400km range 40N6 missiles, with accompanying 48N6E2 and 48N6DM/48N6E3 missiles retaining ranges of 200km and 250km respectively. The platform is capable of firing up to 160 missiles and engaging up to 80 targets simultaneously, and with its missiles travelling at hypersonic speeds and striking with high degrees of precision it can effectively eliminate any known formation of attacking combat jets in little over a minute even at extreme ranges. The weapons system entered service just months after the U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor, widely considered the most survivable combat jet ever developed, specifically to be able to counter the elite new fighter - an essential requirement considering Russia’s lack of next generation air superiority jets of its own at the time. Fighters with lower survivability than the F-22, including the lighter, slower, less stealthy and lower flying F-35, are all well within the S-400’s capabilities to neutralise as a result - though its engagement range against stealth aircraft is reportedly lower than that against standard fighter designs which form the vast majority of the Western Bloc’s air fleets.



Export revenues and a potential expansion of production facilities for the S-400 due to high demand will not only provide invaluable revenue for Russia’s defence sector, but it will also quite possibly make the weapons system considerably cheaper to manufacture due to economies of scale. The result may in turn be more sales due to more competitive prices, and more deployments on Russian territory itself, as well as more investment in the development of future air defence systems such as the upcoming S-500 - which will serve to further weaken the Western Bloc’s position. As a result it remains essential for the Western Bloc to limit S-400 exports through the application of pressure to potential clients, including their allies and non aligned states. Doing so however is far from a simple task, given the desirability of the weapons system and the risks of alienating potential allies through threats and the application of economic sanctions. Turkey remains a key example of this, in that after contracting the S-400 resulting U.S. pressure led Ankara to further cement its ties with Russia. Attempts to punish the country through the freezing of sales of F-35 stealth fighters only led Ankara to being to consider Russian made stealth jets as an alternative - showing the limits of a pressure campaign at a time when the Western Bloc lacks a monopoly on modern armaments.



https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/71058#hola​

 

[Persian Gulf 1906]

good wahhabi american slave aren't you

 

[WarKa DaNG]

So americans know that S-400 can detect and shoot down their F-22 and F-35