Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
The largest airplane in the world is Russian. They also have a working space program from which we beg rides, and they just took over the Crimea when we abandoned Eastern Europe.
Does it seem to you that the America-Russia pendulum is swinging, and not in a good way?
Joe Doakes
I’m a little upset that Obama seems to want to make so many of our sacrifices during the Cold War vain.
No, I’m not being funny.
“Does it seem to you that the America-Russia pendulum is swinging, and not in a good way?”
Not on the basis of the facts cited.
The Antonov design bureau is in Ukraine, not Russia; only one AN-225 has ever been built, and it was built for the express purpose of schlepping the USSR’s version of the space shuttle (which never flew). A modified 747 was perfectly adequate for us.
Our space shuttle was a piece of equipment in search of a mission, and the decision to retire it before we had our own means of transit to the ISS was a budgetary decision as much as anything else, and in another year or so, we’ll have private (SpaceX et.al.) capability to do so at a fraction of the cost of STS missions.
And Crimea has historically been part of Russia for much much longer than it was ever part of Ukraine.
None of which is to negate the point that Putin has made the Current Occupant look like the feckless empty suit that he is in re Syria.
Have to agree with mnbubba here. Certainly Boeing has a design for a heavy lift airplane in their inventory but determined that they have little customer demand for such a special use item.
only one AN-225 has ever been built, and it was built for the express purpose of schlepping the USSR’s version of the space shuttle (which never flew)
I was unaware only one has been built. Interestingly enough, it was here in Mpls last week at the airport, picking up air conditioner parts bound for the middle east:
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/265320841.html
(I didn’t read that article until just now)
There’s a video on youtube of it taking off from MSP. It’s rather disconcerting watching how long it takes to lift off and how slowly it gains altitude at first.
Unless the U.S. changes direction we will see Eurasia, the Pacific region, and Africa dominated by the Russians and the Chicoms. And by ‘dominated’ I mean colonized — though they won’t use that word. Neoliberal policies tend to be colonization by another name.
So be it, it is a new century. I’d hate to see the finlandization of Western Europe (or Eastern Europe), but it seems likely to happen within the next decade or two.
I am not certain we can do anything to stop the rise of Russia and China. I don’t believe we will be able to afford a 640 billion dollar annual military budget for much longer.
@PM – I’m extremely dubious that Russia will be colonizing anyplace given that their population is imploding.
And the Chicoms are CINOs. Fascists or mercantilists would be more like it. Perhaps we should be happy to let them “take up the white man’s burden”.
I’m personally far more concerned about the prospect of radicalized and Islamicized France and/or UK. Let’s remember that they have carriers and SSBNs.