Mathias Rust probably questioned his decision to fly again to Moscow. In 1987, the then-19-year-old West German national breached the Soviet Union’s border in a rented single-engine Cessna, flew nearly 550 miles through what what supposed to be the country’s most heavily guarded airspace, and landed on a bridge near the Red Square. After a …
Missiles on Parade: The Saudi DF-3
by | 2014-05-02 | 4 Comments
Jeffrey and I discuss the Saudi decision to unveil the Kingdom’s DF-3 missiles. The conversation begins with a brief discussion about the Saudi missile program and includes our thoughts on the likely reasons for the decision to bring the Saudi missile force “out of the closet.” The analysis builds on the conclusions Jeffrey published in …
Open Skies
by | 2014-05-02 | 9 Comments
On March 24, 1985, Major Arthur D. Nicholson, Jr. was shot in the chest by a Soviet sentry while observing a tank shed near Ludwigslust, in East Germany. The 1947 Potsdam Agreement for the military occupation and reconstruction of Germany made provision for US, UK, French and Soviet military liaison missions which carried out observations …
A Gordian Knot: Missiles in the Gulf
by | 2014-04-30 | 9 Comments
Saudi Arabia made headlines recently, after it publicly paraded two DF-3s for the first time. The Kingdom secretly purchased these missiles from China in 1987, but has hitherto opted not to show them off in public. The consensus is that the Kingdom’s public display was intended to signal to Washington its current discomfort with the …
