Pakistan And India Prepare For War (Daniel 8)

Pakistan Buying Huge Amounts Of Chinese Arms

By Brendan Byrne on February 22, 2016 2:22 pm in Politics

China is now the third largest exporter of arms in the world, with Pakistan its biggest customer, and Saudi Arabia is leading the militarization of the Middle East.

Pakistan is the largest buyer of Chinese weapons, but European nations have dramatically reduced arms purchases in recent years, writes Richard Norton-Taylor for The Guardian.

According to a new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Communist China has almost doubled arms exports in the last decade. Beijing has the world’s largest armed forces and now has the capability of producing advanced weapons rather than depending on imports.

China has a 5.9% share of the global arms market, which is significantly less than the U.S. and Russia. However Beijing is making strides, and Pakistan is taking advantage.

“Pakistan was the main recipient of Chinese exports, accounting for 35%, followed by Bangladesh and Myanmar, accounting for 20% and 16% respectively (all three states are neighbors of India, the leading importer of arms in the region),” the report said.

India leads global arms import race

Beijing and Islamabad describe themselves as “all-weather friends,” as testament to their close relationship. Reports claim that China provided help in setting up Pakistan’s nuclear and ballistic missile systems in addition to conventional weapons.

According to SIPRI, India was the largest importer of arms from 2011-2015. “In 2011-15 India’s imports were three times greater than those of either of its regional rivals: China and Pakistan,” it said.

India has struggled to develop its domestic arms industry, whereas China continues to surge ahead. As a result Chinese arms imports fell by 25% 2011-15 compared to 2006-10.

“However, China remains partly dependent on imports for some key weapons and components, including large transport aircraft and helicopters, and engines for aircraft, vehicles and ships,” continued the report.

Beijing bought air defense systems and 24 combat jets from Russia in 2015. However further investment in the domestic arms industry could see Chinese imports reduce even further.

Saudi Arabia leads militarization of the Middle East

The five biggest weapons exporters from 2011-15 were the US, Russia, China, France and Germany, which made up 74% of total exports. The U.S. and Russia dominate the market with 58% of total exports.

“The five biggest importers in 2011-15 were India, Saudi Arabia, China, the UAE and Australia. Together, they received 34% of all arms imports,” the report added.

Over the past five years Saudi Arabia has bought 275% more arms than from 2006-10. The development is part of a wider trend in the Middle East, where arms imports rose by 61%.

British firms sold more arms to Saudi Arabia than any other country, but Riyadh bought more arms from the United States than any other exporter. The weapons are implicated in the controversial bombing campaign in Yemen.

“A coalition of Arab states is putting mainly US- and European-sourced advanced arms into use in Yemen,” said Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher with SIPRI. “Despite low oil prices, large deliveries of arms to the Middle East are scheduled to continue as part of contracts signed in the past five years.”

More than 100 new export licenses have been approved for British arms, even since the coalition started bombing Yemen around 12 months ago.

Another big arms importer is Vietnam, which has been importing mainly Russian weapons in the face of increased tensions in the South China Sea. Arms supplies to the country have shot up by 699% in five years.

Russia Arms The Iranian Horn (Daniel 8)

Iran Plans $8 Billion Arms Deal with Russia

by TheTower.org Staff | 02.17.16 11:57 am
 

Iranian military officials announced Monday that they plan to purchase $8 billion worth of arms from Russia, the latest sign of growing economic and military ties between the two countries in the wake of the nuclear deal signed last year.

Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan and other senior defense officials have spent the last two days in Moscow, presenting to the Russians what the state-run Fars News Agency called a “shopping list” of military hardware requests. Dehghan told Iranian reporters before he left that Iran needs to “seriously focus on its air force and fighter jets.” The Russian state-funded news site Sputnik reported that Iran has requested Russia’s new Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter jet, which is used for air-to-air and air-to-surface combat. Iran also requested light attack aircraft and transport helicopters, as well as mobile coastal defense missile systems, frigates and submarines. The Russian business daily Kommersant reported that Iran was also considering asking for Russia’s help in repairing its largely Russian-made fleet of planes and submarines.

The nuclear deal led to the cancellation of a UN Security Council arms embargo on Iran, though bans on selling offensive missile systems remain in place. The Russian news agency Interfax reported that Iran’s new shopping list included Russia’s S-400 anti-aircraft defensive missile system. Iran and Russia have talked for years about purchasing the S-300 system, its predecessor, despite American objections that the missiles could be used offensively. Russia has already installed the S-400 system at its base in Syria.

Since the nuclear deal was signed, Tehran and Moscow have repeatedly made military overtures. The two countries held joint naval exercises in the Caspian Sea in August. Qassem Suleimani, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iran’s elite extraterritorial militia, has repeatedly been seen in Moscow despite being subject to an international travel ban. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu held talks with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran last month. Russia has also reportedly been supplying the Iran-backed terror organization Hezbollah with advanced weaponry, including laser-guided rockets and anti-tank weapons.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew claimed last April that “Iran is expected to use new revenues [from the lifting of sanctions] chiefly to address those needs, including by shoring up its budget, building infrastructure, maintaining the stability of the rial, and attracting imports,” rather than funding terrorism. President Barack Obama said in a speech at American University in August that “our best analysts expect the bulk of this revenue to go into spending that improves the economy and benefits the lives of the Iranian people.”

Russia Closing In On Nuclear War (Revelation 15)

How close we came to Armageddon: Russian bombers began to arm NUKE near UK airspace

PILOTS in one of the two Russian supersonic bombers intercepted near UK skies last week had started the countdown to arm a nuclear bomb, sources revealed last night.

By MARCO GIANNANGELI, EXCLUSIVE

06:01, Mon, Sep 21, 2015 | UPDATED: 07:45, Mon, Sep 21, 2015

The discovery was made after RAF specialists analyzed a four-second signal transmitted from one of the Tupolev Tu-160 bombers, known by Nato as “Blackjacks”, in the days following Thursday’s incursion.

Analysts at RAF Boulmer, Britain’s Control and Reporting Centre, confirmed that the Russian bombers had begun the sequence to arm nuclear weapons while carrying out the incursion.
It is not the first time they have done this and comparison with a similar signal transmitted by a TU-95 “Bear” bomber revealed Russian air crew had begun the countdown during an incursion last year, as well.

The Sunday Express revealed that the bomber involved in the February 2014 incident had been carrying a submarine-busting nuclear depth charge designed to attack Britain’s Trident-carrying Vanguard submarines.

“All I can say is that we now know it related to the first stage of arming a nuclear device,” said a senior RAF source last night.

“There are several additional arming procedures which, thankfully, were not carried out.”
Last week’s air incursion, which was intercepted by Two RAF Typhoon jets, was the seventh this year by Russian forces.

RAF Boulmer, in Longhoughton. Northmberland, is the headquarters of the Air Surveillance and Control System force and the nerve centre of UK air security operations. Once a target is tracked the information is fed into the NATO network operated by the Combined Air Operations Centre at Uedem, Germany and the RAF’s Air Defence Operations Centre at Air Command, High Wycombe.
However it was only when a female analyst decoded last week’s transmission that it was realised Russia had carried out a similar exercise last year.

Aviation expert Justin Bronk, of the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said the revelation confirmed a “worrying” development in Russian strategy.

“Putin does not allow his air force to fly with cruise missiles because he is so worried about defections, but dual purpose bombs such as nuclear depth charges are a different matter. And these are designed to be a direct threat to or nuclear deterrent.

“It is entirely probable that Russian crews have been practicing arming drills. The whole process can take several minutes, and it is important to be able to carry out quickly.”
He added that the lack of Nimrod maritime surveillance patrol aircraft made the situation more worrying.

Britain’s Nimrod fleet, which was scrapped as part of the SDR in 2010, used to perform so-called “delousing” exercises, whereby it would give advanced warning of Russian aircraft when Trident-carrying Vanguard submarines set off on patrol.

Putin does not allow his air force to fly with cruise missiles because he is so worried about defections, but dual purpose bombs such as nuclear depth charges are a different matter
Aviation expert Justin Bronk “There is no doubt that, by going through even the initial stages of the nuclear arming sequence, Russia is sending Britain clear signals. This is classic Cold War operation, and it is not a game.”

Nato aircraft were “scrambled” more than 500 times over Europe in 2014, a fourfold increase over the previous year. Almost 90 per cent of those flights involved Russian incursions. The number of Russian incursions had already reached 300 by the end of last month, suggesting this year will see numbers akin to the height of the Cold War.

Most Russian aircraft fly without transponders so as not to give away their positions, making them a safety hazard to other air traffic.

“Scrambles are launched in response to Russian activity,’ said Nato spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jay Janzen, recently.

“The sole aim is to preserve the integrity of Nato European airspace and to safeguard Nato nations from air attacks.”

US May Arm The Saudi Nuclear Horn (Daniel 7:7)

 

WORLD VIEW: US IN MAJOR WEAPONS SALE TO SAUDIS TO COMPENSATE FOR IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL

by JOHN J. XENAKIS
4 Aug 2015

Last week, Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution, proposed by Malaysia, to authorize an impartial investigation into the shooting down of a passenger airliner on July 17 of last year. It was Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew members, when it crashed in east Ukraine near the border with Russia, killing everyone on board. All others voted in favor of the resolution, except for abstentions from Russia’s three “allies”: China, Venezuela and Angola.

Immediately after the MH17 airliner was shot down last year, Igor Strelkov, the commander of the Russian invasion forces in east Ukraine, tweeted the following to brag about the kill:
We shot down AN-26 [military transport] near the city Torez, Donetsk People’s Republic … We warned, don’t fly in our sky.

Later, when Strelkov learned that he had shot down a passenger plane, not a military plane, the tweet was taken down, but by then it was too late. Strelkov had already admitted about shooting down the plane — actually bragged about it. Later evidence showed that the Russians had shot down the passenger airliner with a Russian Buk surface-to-air missile launched from the area controlled by the Russians in east Ukraine.

There followed a blast of Russian propaganda, attempting to confuse the issue and pin the blame elsewhere. The claims by Russia controlled media included:

The airplane was not shot down at all, but fell out of the sky by itself;
A bomb exploded aboard the airplane;
The airplane was hit by a Ukrainian missile fired from the ground;
A Ukrainian air force fighter pursued and then attacked the plane;
The U.S. shot down the plane in order to damage Russia’s reputation;
The U.S. shot down the plane in order to embarrass Putin;
No living people were aboard the plane as it flew on autopilot from Amsterdam, where it had been pre-loaded with “rotting corpses.”

That was followed by Putin’s army of paid Russian trolls, whose job was to harass people like me who were describing what was really going on. I was targeted by no less than three of the trolls on different web sites in one week, and I have had frequent attacks by Russian trolls since then.

So Russia’s veto of a resolution to set up an international tribunal to investigate the MH17 disaster is consistent with Russia’s policies for the last year.

However, this time Russia received an additional humiliation: Russia’s so-called ally China did not join Russia in vetoing the resolution; instead, China abstained, as did Russia’s other “allies,” Venezuela and Angola.

The fact that even Russia’s allies did not join in voting against the resolution was a major defeat for Russian diplomacy, and indicates that even these countries refused to be associated with covering up as horrendous a crime as shooting down an airliner filled with passengers.

Russia is becoming increasingly isolated in the international community because its economy is cratering, mainly because of the collapse in oil prices. Russia Today and Jamestown

US in major weapons sale to Saudis to compensate for Iran nuclear deal

US Secretary of State John Kerry was in Doha, Qatar, on Monday, visiting the foreign ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The GCC members are extremely anxious over the nuclear deal with Iran. As I wrote last month in “19-Jul-15 World View — Behind the scenes in the Iran nuclear deal”, the Iran nuclear deal is forcing yet another realignment in the Arab world, as it deteriorates into war.

Kerry on Monday told the GCC ministers that the United States had “agreed to expedite certain arms sales that are needed and that have taken too long in the past.”

The arms sales that Kerry referred to were announced earlier this week. A $5.4 billion weapons deal involves the sale of PAC-3 Missiles as part of the upgrade of the Royal Saudi Air Defense Force. An additional $500 million sale includes ammunition, tracers, artillery shells and mines. Some of these weapons will resupply Saudi’s military in Yemen, where the Saudis are fighting a proxy war with Iran.

And so, with the Mideast deteriorating into war, the Iranians will receive billions in sanction relief to purchase weapons, while the Saudis are going to receive US weapons. There is now apparently a major arms race going on between the Arabs and Iran.

As I’ve been writing for years, Generational Dynamics predicts a full-scale sectarian war in the Mideast, with Iran an ally of the West fighting the Sunni Arabs. AFP and Middle East Eye and Reuters and Sputnik News (Moscow)