World War III WARNING Thread: 3/10/14 - 3/16/14

[Weps]

RT @ISNJH: Russian armor on move in Crimea, note bat marking on side of vehicle.. Intel unit? pic.twitter.com/KCyyUnWArA

The bat is the emblem of the GRU Spetsnaz, Russian Foreign Military Intelligence and Operations Service.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spetsnaz_GRU

[breezy]

Sad, but funny.

[Silverheart]

@RiskProclivity 30m
Night launch! MT @SpaceflightNow Two Russian Express comms satellites have launched aboard a Proton-M rocket

Serious question... How common would it be to launch two satellites (presumably to occupy two different orbits) with one rocket? Those of us who do not work in the aerospace industry would like to know.

[jhpigott]

I've been looking, nothing yet.

Gonna try some Greek and Turkish sites to see.

Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier is anchored at Cyprus. Launching aircraft for recon training.

Russian jets hold training exercises over Mediterranean
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...A2D0LK20140314

He may be passing along chatter he is hearing off the internet. Galrahn is pretty plugged in with the USN

[jhpigott]

I guess the URK crisis may even be having some spill over effect in my backyard, literally (I'm about a 1.5-2 hour drive to Cape Canaveral)


Saturday, March 15, 2014

Watching the Russians... Off Florida's Coast

Tom Hill @te3ej has been tracking the Russian Tug Nikolay Chiker for the last few weeks as it made its way down to Cuba with Russia's premier spy ship the Viktor Leonov CCB-175. Yesterday Tom Hill noted the tug has taken up position just off the coast of Florida - now for two days at 29 18 00.0N, 80 30 00.0W.

While some mock the Russians for always deploying tugs with their Navy, I've grown to appreciate it as I have now observe them use the tugs effectively both in soft power operations and now military operations like trapping the Ukrainian fleet. Navy's can do a lot when they have ships with incredible utility like Fleet tugs, indeed one might ask how the US government screams really loud about climate change, but doesn't build ships like icebreakers and fleet tugs. Like I've always said, we should all start to actually worry about the effects of climate change the day the government starts buying a bunch of those types of ships, because that will be the day the government is legitimately worrying about it.

The Nikolay Chiker is widely considered to be one of the worlds most powerful ocean tugs, but more important from this observers perspective, the tug seems to always be escorting high value assets of the Russian Navy when it deploys.

So the question is, why have the Russians parked their premier Northern Fleet naval tug off the coast of Florida? There are probably several valid reasons, but if I was to speculate, the following two reasons strike me as the most likely.

The ship is observing the launch of Falcon 9 SpaceX CRS3 scheduled for early Sunday morning from the SLC-40 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Dragon C3 for its fifth operational cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station. The flight is being conducted under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.

In addition to that though, during previous visits to the US east coast by the tug, US media reported that Nikolay Chiker escorted Russian nuclear attack submarines that were patrolling our coast at the time. Given circumstances taking place in Ukraine, I think it is very possible that Nikolay Chiker is staying near Cape Canaveral for legitimate reasons (to monitor the launch) but is also standing nearby as one or more Russian nuclear attack submarines monitor US Navy activity out of Kings Bay, Mayport, and or Norfolk during a period of political crisis between the US and Russia.

Indeed, given the presence of Nikolay Chiker off the Florida coast and given the events unfolding in the Ukraine, I believe it would be foolish not to assume that Russia is operating submarines off our East coast naval bases.

Special thanks to @russiannavyblog for assisting me thinking through this activity as we have observed/discussed it together on Twitter the last few days.




Posted by Galrahn at 10:00 PM

http://www.informationdissemination....das-coast.html

[Jeffrey Thomason]

Serious question... How common would it be to launch two satellites (presumably to occupy two different orbits) with one rocket? Those of us who do not work in the aerospace industry would like to know.

It is very common these days: http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/

[Jeffrey Thomason]

RT @obk: Wow. NATO-websites down after attack claimed by http://cyber-berkut.org . Isn't that considered an act of war?

[Silverheart]

It is very common these days: http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/

Thank you.

[breezy]

The bat is the emblem of the GRU Spetsnaz, Russian Foreign Military Intelligence and Operations Service.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spetsnaz_GRU

How many troops can you fit in there....4? Uncomfortably?

And I noticed the transport behind it didn't have the "bat" emblem....

I'm definatly thinking...not Spetsnaz

[Beaum2000]

How many troops can you fit in there....4? Uncomfortably?

And I noticed the transport behind it didn't have the "bat" emblem....

I'm definatly thinking...not Spetsnaz

I heard it was 10 depending on how you sat but I don't believe it. It looks way to cramped.. I would not do well in a space like that!