What your WalMart purchases are buying

Hey, they have to something with all that cash you are sending their way.

Russia handed over to China a destroyer equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry. The handover, which took place in St. Petersburg, finalized the $1.5 billion deal, which analysts say will boost Beijing’s clout in its standoff with Taiwan.

“The handover act was signed today, and a Chinese flag was hoisted on the ship,” a Russian defense industry source told Reuters, requesting anonymity.

The warship was the fourth Project 956E ’Sovremenny’ (Modern) class destroyer built at the Northern Shipyard in Russia’s St. Petersburg and sold to China under a 2002 deal through Russia’s state arms trader Rosoboronexport.
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“Concern about these ships in both Taipei and Washington is justified by the fact that Taiwan and perhaps even the U.S. Navy lacks an effective defense against the ship’s SS-N-22 Sunburn (3M-80E Moskit) supersonic anti-ship missile,” Washington-based think-tank the International Assessment and Strategy Center said on its Internet site, “This missile travels at about three times the speed of sound and can perform violent manoeuvres that can defeat most defenses designed to ward off subsonic anti-ship missiles.”

At least they are giving it to our friends the Russians. Ahem.