The Bonanza That Is War

[pangaia]

Concerning the Russian SU-24 that was shot down by a Turkish F-16 (Wonder where they got that?)...

A Russian SU-24 going up against an F16 is like a Pop Warner football team taking on the New England Patriots. No contest. The F16 is a far superior machine and Lockheed Martin also completed and delivered a $635 million upgrade to Turkey's F16 fleet just seven months ago.

..... Because the established worldwide defense industry is already finding the continuing Syrian civil war and the war on ISIS to be a bonanza for its business. It was one thing when the worldwide war against terrorism was simply against the terrorists. As scary as they can be, ISIS, al Qaeda, Hamas, Boko Haram, Hezbollah etc. don't use the most sophisticated weapons and they certainly don't have fighter jets, and that includes outdated ones like the SU-24. The most frightening thing these groups do often use are ground-to-ground missiles like Hamas and its offshoots use against Israel. That created the need for the impressive "Iron Dome" missile defense system that the Israeli and American designers have already begun to successfully sell to some of their allies.

But with the Russians now getting into the mix in Syria with air and ground power, the weapons and deterrence wish list is growing for countries involved directly and indirectly in the Syrian fighting. The headlines have been hard to miss. It seems like every country from Britain to Japan is beefing up defense budgets and looking to acquire the best weapons and surveillance equipment available. No other Middle Eastern nation wants the Syrian war to bleed into its borders. That's one reason why Syria's neighbors have accepted so few Syrian refugees. Perhaps they're worried they will suffer the same fate Lebanon did in the 1970's after a massive amount of refugees flooded its border fleeing Jordan's "Black September" purge.

The other big market maker in this space is Iran. .....

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/24/lockheeds-pimped-out-f16s-in-action.html