Not So Friendly

At The Diplomat Guy Plopsky asks a very good question—why is Russia pointing its missiles at China?

In early June 2017, Russian media reported that yet another Ground Forces missile brigade received the dreaded road-mobile 9K720 Iskander-M missile system (known in Russian military parlance as an “operational-tactical missile system,” or OTRK in short). The brigade in question is the 29th Army’s newly established 3rd Missile Brigade, based in Russia’s colossal Eastern Military District (MD). Formed in December 2016, this brigade was initially armed with the aging 9K79-1 Tochka-U tactical ballistic missile system, and became the Eastern MD’s fourth missile brigade to be re-equipped with the Iskander-M as part of the Russian Defense Ministry’s plan to phase out all Tochka-Us by 2020. The district’s three other brigades — the 107th, 103rd and 20th — received their Iskander-M OTRKs in 2013, 2015, and 2016, respectively. As a result, there are presently more Iskander-M brigades in the Eastern MD than any other district; Russia’s other three military districts (Central, Southern, and Western) currently house two Iskander-M brigades each. What, then, is the purpose of these four brigades?

Whereas the task of Iskander-M OTRKs being deployed in Russia’s Western MD is to hold U.S. and allied forces in the Baltics and Poland at risk, the systems stationed in the Eastern MD appear to primarily serve a different purpose: strengthening both Russia’s conventional and nuclear deterrence against China. Indeed, while an Iskander-M system stationed in Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast allows Russia to target a wide range of NATO military assets, including the Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in Poland, an Iskander-M stationed in Russia’s Far East has very limited ability to threaten U.S. forces deployed in the region.

Read the whole thing. I doubt that this will assuage the concerns of those who fear a Chinese-Russian combine against the U. S. but it should at least make people think. The Russians have a lot more missiles pointed at China than they do at us or our European allies. If Russia and China are so chummy, why is that?

As I’ve said before, Russia and China are natural enemies while the U. S. and Russia are naturally uninterested in each other. Russia and China have territorial disputes and are competing for power and influence in the same regions. All we need to do to defuse tensions with Russia is to stop waving the Russophobia flag.

I don’t deny that Russia has been engaging in disinformation and, worse, information campaigns intended to influence American elections. As they say, payback is a bitch.

IMO blaming the Russians for a loss of confidence in our system is extraneous and unnecessary. We’re doing a fine job of that ourselves.