I thought some of you might be interested in what is happening on the weapons front. New and newer systems just keep coming online. It seems to me that eventually no country will be able to maintain a decisive lead in weaponry even though countries like the U.S. are pouring hundreds of billions into development. We create a new weapon and within a few years, some foreign country we are not on the best of terms with has it. It almost seems that investing in spies produces a greater return than spending the money on development.

Cruise Missile
Photo Source: U.S. Air Force

I think we all know what a cruise missile is. Taurius Systems in Germany is developing many new types of cruise missiles. They have joined forces with Saab Bofors Dynamics of Sweden. Apparently the Germans think that these missiles have great potential and 600 have been ordered for the German Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe had the first cruise missiles ever made and they were used un World War II.

It is a tradition in the U.S. that the armed services ask for more than they actually need so that when the funds are cut there is still enough to fund the services. There wasn't much of a cut this time and the the US Senate and House of Representatives conference committee has approved a whopping 436.6 billion dollars. You can almost bet that more will be added to this before the fiscal year is over. We are pouring money into the war like there was no tomorrow. Can you imagine what we could have done to help our citizens with this type of cash? Aside from Iraq and Afghanistan, an additional 70 billion dollars has been approved for the war on terror. By the way, the admitted amount in the defense budget is about ten times that of France, a country that has increased its defense budget steadily for the last five years.

Iran is testing it's own weapons. They now have a bunker buster. It is a 2,000 pound bomb and is what has become known as a precision munition. It is guided to the target. The name of the bomb is the Qassed. I guess it is very foolish and arrogant of us to believe that we alone possess smart bombs and cruise missiles. Even lasers are not the sole purview of the U.S., China is developing a system using lasers that can shoot down our satellites.

The U.S. is not the only country getting on the unmanned aerial vehicle bandwagon. Germany is manufacturing them now and countries like Norway and the Netherlands have purchased them and are gaining experience in their use. As these unmanned planes spread to countries all around the world, it presents a problem for our manned fighters. Our best manned fighters cost about one hundred million dollars each. The unmanned planes only cost a fraction of this. This presents a problem that I have yet to hear discussed. Will our best planes be overrun by planes that can be produced in huge numbers? Things could go the other way. We may see waves of unmanned planes attacking each other in the skies above a battlefield.

Russian weapons are popular with many countries. The reason for this is that they are usually cheaper than American weapons and many are of a superior grade. They have just introduced a new weapons station that can be mounted on their MT-LB tracked armored vehicle. The module contains two 23 mm cannons. A series of other upgrades are also being offered for this vehicle. Speaking of armored vehicles, the Dutch are taking possession of a new one. It is called the Fennek. It is to be used basically for reconnaissance.

Abrahams Tank
Photo Source: U.S. Naval War College

For those of you that thought that the U.S. was the only country that had M1A1 Abrams tanks, you would be wrong. Australia has them also and they are about to modify their fleet. They are going to modify them so that the communications on them will be compatible with other vehicles in their service.

There is a lot of thought going on in Britain these days on how ships can be protected with cheap missile systems. The ships they want to protect are tankers and the missiles used would have to be able to hit incoming missiles. This type of missile has yet to be proven in actual battle. We all remember the Patriot System. We thought it was great then we found out later that it missed most of the time. Can the Brits do better? I hope so because if they do, we will surely gain access to the system.

Many of the weapon types that we think of as being advanced are also being developed by other countries. Germany seems to have become a major supplier of advanced weapons as has France. Russia has been for a long time with a burgeoning weapons industry in Brazil taking shape. Of course the U.S. is also a major weapons supplier and one of the biggest in the world. There are many players on this stage and many countries just waiting to get their hands on these high tech items. The spread of nuclear weapons is unfortunate, but it is a fact of life. The latest entries into the nuclear club are India, Pakistan, North Korea and maybe Iran. I know that it is not believed that Iran has a nuke yet, but they have so much underground that we really don't know for sure. Even if they don't possess a bomb that they designed, they may have gotten at least one from Pakistan without that government knowing about it. The world is in a mess and we can only hope that cooler heads will prevail.