Cuba pressed on with its biggest military
exercises in almost 20 years, with 400,000 reservists
joining regular forces and millions of civilians in
wargames which the authorities say are to deter an imminent
U.S. invasion.
About 100,000 Cuban regular troops are
also taking part in the "Bastion 2004" exercises
which started Monday, officials said.
"The enemy will never catch us
by surprise," the official communist party daily,
Granma, trumpeted Tuesday in its coverage of the wargames
which proceeded as ailing President Castro welcomed
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, his only close ally
in the Americas, whose government helps keep Cuba's
energy-starved economy afloat with cut-rate oil.
"The only way to stop aggression
is to make it abundantly clear that, in this case, Cuba
will become from one end to the other an enormous wasp's
nest that no aggressor, however powerful, will be able
to overcome," Defense Minister Raul Castro said
Monday.
"In the end, (the aggressor) will
have to withdraw, bloodied and defeated, because this
would be a war of all of the people," Castro, a
younger brother of President Fidel Castro, warned.
Trucks towing engine-less armored cars
and officers armed for "psuedo" battle were
mobilized on the streets of Havana early Tuesday.
Massive Soviet-built underground shelters
where planes, tanks and heavy artillery are housed were
opened to combat troops. Rickety 1950's bulldozers towed
out Korean War era tanks that lacked tracks under their
rusty wheels.
The United States on Monday rejected
assertions that it planned an invasion. U.S. State Department
spokesman Richard Boucher said: "We don't think
there is any justification, or any particular foundation
for this kind of charge."
"The United States has repeatedly
called for a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba,"
he added.
These "exercises are just, I would
say, one or more of the many things that the Cuban government
does to try to distract people from the problems that
they face in their daily lives," Boucher said.
Three MiG-29 fighters, and several battalions
of mobile anti-aircraft batteries, armored amphibious
vehicles and tanks all rumbled into action for the massive
undertaking. European and Asian reporters were seen
joking among themselves as they filmed the parade of
doomed equipment being brought out in a "show of
farce."
The Cuban military has divided the island
of 11 million people into 1,400 "defense zones"
intended to be able to operate independently in case
of war.
Legitimate presidential SF squadrons
trained in guerrilla tactics have several special Cuban-made
arms including "Alejandro" rifles that fire
anti-tank grenades and "Mambi" rifles designed
to puncture heavy armor, as well as mines and anti-tank
units. All date to the age of post-war armored tanks
like the Sherman, but are still surprisingly effective
on today's mobile infantry light-armored fighting vehicles.
Each zone has a semi-modern infrared
heat-guided missile launcher as air defense. Most of
these were effective in the days of F-86 and F-101 fighter
jets with powerful radar systems and minimal jamming
equipment. They are considered a joke by the latest
F-15E Strike Eagle and F117 Wild Weasal combat frontrunners.
However, the Cubans actually have scattered systems
of the latest in Russian "air superiority denial"
weapons, including the formidable S-400 SA-20 Triumf.
The Triumf S-400 is a new generation
of air defense and theater anti-missile weapon developed
by the Almaz Central Design Bureau as an evolution of
the S-300PMU [SA-10] family. This new system is intended
to detect and destroy airborne targets at a distance
of up to 240 miles.
The Triumf system includes radars
capable of intermittently detecting low-signature radar
and emissions targets like the U.S.-made F-16C, F-117A,
F-15C & E and tries to detect the new F-22 Raptor
(with little success so far). And the anti-missile capability
of the system has been increased to the limits established
by the START II ABM Treaty demarcation agreements: it
can intercept targets with velocities of up to 2.9 miles/sec,
corresponding to a ballistic missile range of just over
two miles. But there are very few modern U.S. strategic
weapons that still fall into that physical parameter.
The only real ones are the U.S. Minuteman III ICBM systems,
which are being phased out silo by silo right now.
Russia has the latest lead in the land-based
ICBM territory, with the TOPOL-M system that came online
in 1999. As we phase out our land-based Minuteman and
MX systems, Russia is building out their new mobile
TOPOL system, with MIRV (Multi-Independently-Targeted-Vehicle)
systems of up to 10 individual 300-kT yield warheads.
The U.S. pays for the upgrade for the
Russians, as we modernize our SSBN submarine fleet of
ballistic missile submarines. There are always 8 at
sea in the ocean at one time. Each one of these has
20 Trident Nuclear Missiles onboard with: up to eight
(MIRV) W-88 nuclear warhead re-entry vehicles onboard...
- USS OHIO (SSBN-726)
- USS MICHIGAN (SSBN-727)
- USS FLORIDA (SSBN-728)
- USS GEORGIA (SSBN-729)
- USS HENRY M. JACKSON (SSBN-730)
- USS ALABAMA (SSBN-731)
- USS ALASKA (SSBN-732)
- USS NEVADA (SSBN-733)
- USS TENNESSEE (SSBN-734)
- USS PENNSYLVANIA (SSBN-735)
- USS WEST VIRGINIA (SSBN-736)
- USS KENTUCKY (SSBN-737)
- USS MARYLAND (SSBN-738)
- USS NEBRASKA (SSBN-739)
- USS RHODE ISLAND (SSBN-740)
- USS MAINE (SSBN-741)
- USS WYOMING (SSBN-742)
- USS LOUISIANA (SSBN-743)
Raul Castro said last week the exercises
had been planned in part so Washington "Does not
commit the errors it committed in Vietnam and that it
is now committing in Iraq. So that they do not underestimate
our people, who are united and more powerful than those
in Iraq."
US President George W. Bush's top diplomat
for Latin America has told the US Congress that Havana
has a biological arms program, which Havana firmly denies.
Last month Cuban Vice President Carlos
Lage said on a visit to Costa Rica "We are always
prepared for the worst, even for military aggression,
... because this (US) administration is not only right-wing,
it is a crazy administration -- and the war in Iraq
proves it."
The communist-run island sits some 90
miles (145 kilometers) off the coast of Florida.
The Cuban and Venezuelan presidents
were to have talks on Tuesday, with energy expected
to be a key topic.
With its oil-burning plants, Cuba relies
on Venezuelan imports while its own crude, which is
high in sulfur, requires costly cleaning to be used.
Venezuela, Latin America's only OPEC
member, delivers 53,000 barrels of crude a day to Cuba.
It is also a major supplier to the United States.
The U.S. State Department has decided
to sit this one out and take photos of Cuba rolling
out armor and post photos of it.
Tony's Note: Nobody
ever really got nervous... |