Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow is helping China build a system warning about ballistic missile launches. ...
He added that “this is a very serious thing that will radically enhance China’s defense capability.”
Excuse me? Russia wants to radically enhance China's defense capability? When Russia's territorial defense requires nukes in the absence of enough ground troops?
In what world of Chinese dormant claims on huge portions of Russia's Far East does that make sense? For either party?
The only way it makes sense for Russia to do this is that they believe they can infiltrate China's early warning system and perhaps use that as an entry point for even more cyber warfare opportunities.
Consider it a much bigger version of their effort to use the S-400 sale to Turkey to infiltrate the F-35 network.
And the only way it makes sense for China is that they believe they can learn how Russia's system works while stiff-arming Russia's efforts to penetrate China's defenses.
This seems high stakes for Russia. Are they that confident at their abilities or that worried about China that they'll gamble they can pull it off.
Just my speculation of course. I'm open to something else that makes sense.
UPDATE: Russia and China are closer. But there are serious points of friction. And this article doesn't even mention China's for-now dormant claims on large chunks of Russia's Far East that Russia took from China in the 19th century.
We should try to pry Russia from China's embrace.
UPDATE: This discusses some of the hardware but does not address friction and espionage.
