Congressional officials are concerned that Russia and China are
teaming up against the United States in a new arms race — with missiles
employing American technology and funding provided by the Clinton
administration.
According to the China expert for Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif.,
Russia is selling the new Zvezda KH-31 missile to the Chinese military.
Yet, against bi-partisan congressional opposition, the Clinton
administration is financing the Russian military — at the expense of
American defense jobs — by buying the same Russian missile to serve as
a target drone for the U.S. Navy.
“The Russian KH-31 air-to-surface attack missile is being sold to
China,” said Richard Fisher, former member of the American Enterprise
Institute, now working for Cox.
“The Chinese appear to have backed down from a co-production deal on the
KH-31,” Fisher told WorldNetDaily. “They are making a flat-out buy (of
missiles) from Zvezda.”
Built in 1988 by the Zvezda-Strela design bureau for the former
Soviet Union, the U.S. Navy test-fired four of the ramjet-powered,
titanium cruise KH-31 missiles in 1997. U.S. defense contractor Boeing
announced this year an agreement between Russia and the U.S. Navy to
purchase up to 100 KH-31s for use as target drones.
“The KH-31P was designed by Russia to counter the radar of the
Patriot surface-to-air missile, which Taiwan has already purchased, and
the U.S. Aegis radar that Taipei would like to acquire,” wrote Fisher in
a recent defense report.
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| SCUD missile on mobile launcher erector. The SCUD threatened Israel and Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf war. The new Russian SS-27 mobile missile can hit America with H-bombs. |
Fisher expressed his concern that the Russian Sukhoi SU-30 strike
fighters newly acquired by the Chinese air force also will include
weapons never before exported to Beijing. The new strike fighter is
specifically designed to carry the KH-31 missile.
“The Sukhoi bureau hopes the SU-30 will become comparable to the U.S.
Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle,” wrote Fisher in the defense review. “It is
likely that China will also buy from Russia a package of advanced laser
and low-light targeting systems, plus a variety of bombs and missiles to
equip its SU-30s. The KH-31P/KR-1 anti-radar missile will likely be a
major weapon for the SU-30.”
The Russian strike fighter sale to China also raised concerns of a
new arms race in other defense analyst circles. Robert Karniol, Asia
editor of Jane’s Defense Weekly, said the Chinese SU-30 sale included
spare parts, support and weapons systems. The deal will provide China
“with a whole new range of air-launched missiles that the Russians
previously refused to sell Beijing,” Karniol said.
The Clinton administration decision to purchase the Zvezda KH-31
missile has raised concerns inside Capitol Hill — not only with
Republicans, but with some Democrats as well.
On Oct. 14, Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind., sent a letter to Deputy
Secretary of Defense John Hamre: “In light of our difficulties with
Russia with respect to deep differences over Kosovo, I believe that
relying on a Russian-made system at the expense of the current and most
reliable domestic supplier of targets will place the needs of the Navy
at considerable risk and uncertainty.”
The Zvezda KH-31 is not the only new Russian missile with Clinton
roots. Russia is also deploying a brand new strategic missile capable
of striking America with nuclear warheads. Again, the new Russian weapon
has been linked to the Clinton administration scandals.
This month, the Russia Defense Ministry announced it will deploy 10
more mobile SS-27 TOPOL-M ballistic missiles, although it would not
divulge where they would be deployed. The SS-27 will join the first
batch of 10 TOPOL-M missiles that rolled into active service in 1998 for
the Strategic Rocket Forces, replacing 10 older SS-19 missiles located
at the Sarakov missile site 450 miles southeast of Moscow.
The SS-27 can carry up to 10 small nuclear warheads, or can be armed
with a single massive H-bomb developed by the Russian Ministry of
Atomics (MINATOM) Arzamas-16 site. According to Russian weapons
engineers, the new Arzamas-designed warhead has an explosive force equal
to over half a million tons of TNT.
In 1995 and 1996, Arzamas-16 illegally obtained U.S.-made IBM
supercomputers exported with Clinton administration approval. The
supercomputers were exported directly to the Russian weapons lab, using
false commercial and non-military contracts.
IBM pled guilty to the illegal export and paid a $8.5 million fine for
their illegal sale.
The New York Times reported the Clinton administration had forgiven
the Russians for the illegal purchase of the IBM supercomputers:
“The 16 computers, now fully licensed and operational, will be on
display as part of the ‘open computing center’ that the American Energy
Secretary, Bill Richardson, is to inaugurate at the lab that developed
Russia’s hydrogen bomb,” said the Times. “The center is a joint project
of the Energy Department and MINATOM, the Russian Ministry of Atomic
Energy, to which Washington contributed $2.3 million. It is intended to
help find jobs outside the weapons industry for thousands of scientists,
engineers and technicians at this remote, still largely closed nuclear
city and its premier lab.”
Yet, documents obtained using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
show the Clinton administration deliberately allowed the supercomputers
to be exported for military purposes. In a November 1993 letter, NSA
Director Adm. James McConnell agreed to allow exports of advanced
supercomputers only days before President Clinton met with Chinese
President Jiang Zemin.
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| SS-20 unique waffle fin system for mobile missiles. The Russian SS-27 is also equipped with similar fins for control during launch. |
In 1994, IBM, Silicon Graphics and several other computer companies
joined together to form a lobby group called the CSPP, or Computer
Systems Policy Project. The CSPP corporate members pressed President
Clinton to allow supercomputer sales to military users inside Russia and
China.
“Controls on computer exports to Russia and China for commercial,
civil end-users should be eliminated,” states a May 1995 policy letter
sent to Commerce Secretary Ron Brown by the Computer Systems Policy
Project (CSPP). “Controls on exports for actual military end-uses may
be appropriate until there is greater certainty that neither country
poses a threat to U.S. national security.”
According to the files of the late Ron Brown, in June 1995, the
computer CEOs obtained a top-secret briefing inside the White House on
supercomputer exports. After the meeting, President Clinton changed the
export regulations on supercomputers, allowing shipments directly to
Russian and Chinese nuclear weapons labs, including Arzamas-16, the
design bureau for the SS-27 H-bomb.
Moreover, the new SS-27 is rapidly becoming the Russian and Chinese
nuclear first-strike weapon of choice. Russia has also sold the SS-27
design to China. Earlier this month, China announced a successful
computer-aided test of their version of the SS-27 missile under the
designation “Dong Feng” (East Wind) DF-41. The DF-41 will most likely
be armed with three Chinese nuclear warheads, designed with the aid of
stolen U.S. nuclear design software.
The SS-27 is manufactured by the Moscow Institute for Thermal
Technology, and is reported by Russian officials to have Maneuverable
Re-entry Vehicle (MARV) capability designed to defeat any expected U.S.
deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems.
The SS-27 has a maximum range of 6,500 miles, is 74.5 feet in length,
6.06 feet in diameter and weighs in at just over 102,000 pounds. It is
listed as a three-stage, solid propellant, “cold” gas-launched missile
equipped with an Inertial/Stellar guidance system. The SS-27 is longer
than the U.S.-built MX missile, but is one-half the weight. However,
unlike the MX missile, the SS-27 is equipped with eight waffle-patterned
folding fins for additional control during the first-stage firing.
Russian government officials recently threatened to deploy the SS-27
in larger numbers if the U.S. decides to field an anti-missile defense
system to protect America. Russian State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee
Chairman Vladimir Lukin told Moskovsky Komsomolets that Russia’s
security would not be weakened if the U.S. develops an anti-ballistic
missile system.
In a speech this month carried by Radio Liberty, Lukin said, “Russia
will be able to compete with U.S. space defense systems or will begin
installing multiple warheads on the TOPOL (SS-27).” Lukin commented
that the Russians would simply “churn” out more missiles. Lukin also
stated that such a build-up would be “expensive, but not that
expensive.”
