| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| The New Sino-Russian Alliance |
| 2014-05-22 |
| by Spengler [PJMedia] China and Russia evidently have concluded a 30-year gas deal which shifts the balance of Russian hydrocarbon exports eastwards, but that's not the thing to focus on. Pravda reports: The central themes of the talks between the two leaders will be two projects in the field of aviation -- the creation of a joint wide-body long-haul aircraft and the production of Mi-26 heavy helicopter in China, the Kommersant reports. Russia, entering into such cooperation with China, indicates that it is ready to open access to Russian aircraft technologies, despite the fact that China previously resorted to building unlicensed copies of well-known Russian aircraft. Energy is important, but military and aerospace technology may be even more important. As the Russian newspaper observes, Russia had restricted exports of its best equipment to China because of intellectual property violations. Two weeks ago Putin approved sale of Russia's new S400 air defense system to China; this reportedly will give China air cover over the whole of Taiwan, among other things. Russia always has had first-rate designers, but its production capacities never matched the ideas. Merge Russian designs with Chinese engineering, and the likelihood that the Sino-Russian combination might challenge US technological superiority is high. It's not surprising that Russia responded to US sanctions by cutting off exports of the rocket engines on which the US depends to launch spy satellites. Bloomberg reports that it will take the US six years to build replacement capacity. Provided Democrats don't win 2016 elections? |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #4 Rocket science on the Burg. Who says the waterfront is not well covered here ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-05-22 14:51 |
| #3 Squinty: there is no such thing as an Atlas V heavy. The highest LEO payload that actually available models can carry is about 18000 kg. It would be a lot more cost effective to just ramp up the production of Delta IV, which would probably lower the cost. Lockheed said they were going to build a Atlas V heavy, just like they said that the RD-180 wasn't a risk. Guess what, they were lying both times. And Midnight Basketball for Russia has been a complete waste of time and money. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2014-05-22 14:44 |
| #2 Bloomberg reports that it will take the US six years to build replacement capacity. Bloomberg is overlooking the SpaceX Falcon 9 which is flying today. Payload to low earth orbit 13,150kg (28,991 lb) and to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) 4,850kg (10,692 lb). The Falcon Heavy (first launch in 2015) has a payloasd of: LEO-53,000kg (116,845 lb) GTO-21,200kg (46,738 lb) The existing Atlas V Heavy with RD-180 Russian engines has 29,400 kg (64,816 lb) payload to Low Earth Orbit. The existing Delta IV Heavy has 27,569 kg (net with 1221 kg payload attach fitting) payload to LEO. It might take Boeing and Lockheed-Martin six years to produce the Atlas Phase 2 but SpaceX is here now. |
| Posted by: Squinty 2014-05-22 10:05 |
| #1 Remember the last time a couple of really big autocratic socialists signed a pact? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2014-05-22 08:49 |