The Pentagon is quietly working to set up an elaborate network of defenses to protect American cities from a barrage of Russian cruise missiles.

The plan calls for buying radars that would enable National Guard F-16 fighter jets to spot and shoot down fast and low-flying missiles. Top generals want to network those radars with sensor-laden aerostat balloons hovering over U.S. cities and with coastal warships equipped with sensors and interceptor missiles of their own.

One of those generals is Adm. William Gortney, who leads U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, and North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD. Earlier this year, Gortney submitted an “urgent need” request to put those new radars on the F-16s that patrol the airspace around Washington. Such a request allows a project to circumvent the normal procurement process.

While no one will talk openly about the Pentagon’s overall cruise missile defense plans, much of which remains classified, senior military officials have provided clues in speeches, congressional hearings and other public forums over the past year. The statements reveal the Pentagon’s concern about advanced cruise missiles being developed by Russia.

“We’re devoting a good deal of attention to ensuring we’re properly configured against such an attack in the homeland, and we need to continue to do so,” Adm. Sandy Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a May 19 speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in Washington. (Read more from “Pentagon Building Cruise Missile Shield to Defend US Cities From Russia” HERE)

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By Barbara Starr. A Russian fighter jet, flying at high speed, came within 10 feet of a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the Black Sea late last month, several U.S. officials told CNN Thursday.

The Russian jet flew alongside the U.S. plane at the same altitude, broke off, and then shadowed the plane before leaving the area in the May 30 incident, the officials said. The U.S. aircraft took no evasive measures, and no other details were immediately available. Military officials could not say whether a diplomatic protest had been filed.

The close call comes weeks after another incident between the U.S. and Russia over the skies of Europe, when a U.S. RC-135U flying a routine route in international airspace was intercepted by a Russian SU-27 Flanker in what authorities called an “unsafe and unprofessional manner.” (Read more from “US, Russian Aircraft Came Within 10 Feet Over Black Sea” HERE)

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Putin, Once Critical of Stalin, Now Embraces Soviet Dictator’s Tactics

By Carol J. Williams. Only six years ago, President Vladimir Putin visited the Polish port of Gdansk, birthplace of the Solidarity movement that threw off Soviet domination, and reassured his Eastern European neighbors that Russia had only friendly intentions.

Putin spoke harshly that day of the notorious World War II-era pact that former Soviet leader Josef Stalin had signed with Adolf Hitler — an agreement that cleared the way for the Nazi occupation of Poland and Soviet domination of the Baltics — calling it a “collusion to solve one’s problems at others’ expense.”

But Putin’s view of history appears to have undergone a startling transformation. Last month, the Russian leader praised the 1939 nonaggression accord with Hitler as a clever maneuver that forestalled war with Germany. Stalin’s 29-year reign, generally seen by Russians in recent years as a dark and bloody chapter in the nation’s history, has lately been applauded by Putin and his supporters as the foundation on which the great Soviet superpower was built.

Across a resurgent Russia, Stalin lives again, at least in the minds and hearts of Russian nationalists who see Putin as heir to the former dictator’s model of iron-fisted rule. Recent tributes celebrate Stalin’s military command acumen and geopolitical prowess. His ruthless repression of enemies, real and imagined, has been brushed aside by today’s Kremlin leader as the cost to be paid for defeating the Nazis.

As Putin has sought to recover territory lost in the 1991 Soviet breakup, his Stalinesque claim to a right to a “sphere of influence” has allowed him to legitimize the seizure of Crimea from Ukraine and declare an obligation to defend Russians and Russian speakers beyond his nation’s borders. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Photo Credit: Business Insider Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko sparked fresh Kremlin fury by warning that his crisis-torn country was fighting a “real war” against Russian aggressors that could escalate at any time.

The pro-Western leader said the weekend capture of two purported Russian special forces members proved the separatist uprising in the industrial east of Ukraine was a guise for a Moscow-orchestrated campaign aimed at breaking up his ex-Soviet state.

“This is not a fight with Russian-backed separatists, this is a real war with Russia,” the 49-year-old Ukrainian leader told the BBC . . .

Ukraine’s military on Tuesday showed off two wounded Russians who had been taken prisoner during a firefight in Lugansk — a blue-collar region that together with neighbouring Donetsk revolted against Kiev’s shift toward the West 13 months ago.

The men testified during a taped interrogation that they entered the war zone nearly two months ago as part of a 200-strong reconnaissance unit from the Russian army’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). (Read more from “After Russian Special Forces Soldiers Captured, Ukraine Says it’s Fighting a Real War Against Russia” HERE)

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Russian space agency Roscosmos believes some fragments of its out of control spaceship may hit Earth on Friday.

It claims most of the Progress spaceship will burn up in the atmosphere, as is the case with all space cargo carriers once they have delivered their shipments to the ISS . . .

But there is a chance some small parts will crash on to land – although no one knows where or when these fragments will hit.

The Progress spaceship was launched on April 28, but entered the wrong orbit and went into an uncontrollable spin.

Russian flight controllers have since been unable to regain command of the wayward ship, which is carrying three tons of supplies to the ISS. (Read more from “Russian Space Officials Warn Stricken Spacecraft Might Not Burn up Entirely in the Atmosphere, but No One Knows Where It Will Hit” HERE)

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