Posted on 08/14/2008 1:52:39 PM PDT by lizol
Fight in Georgia Exposed Weak Points in Kremlin's Aging Army
By JEANNE WHALEN
August 14, 2008; Page A6
MOSCOW -- The Kremlin's short and victorious campaign in Georgia shows that Russia's military has improved from its dilapidated state in the 1990s, but analysts said the aging equipment and tactics also underscored how much more work Moscow faces in its quest to turn its army into a world-class fighting force.
Modernizing Russia's military has been a major priority for the Kremlin, which has boosted annual military spending from about $7 billion in the late 1990s to about $35 billion today, with further increases planned. Last year, then-President Vladimir Putin installed a new defense minister who vowed to accelerate efforts to make the military more compact, nimble and better equipped.
The military made fast work of what it called "Operation Clear Field," sending Georgian troops into retreat early in the five-day conflict over the South Ossetia separatist region. To many that was no surprise, given that Russia's million-strong military dwarfs Georgia's modest armed forces. "You would expect the Russians to roll over the Georgians," says Siemon Wezeman, a weaponry expert at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Some military experts said they saw signs of more modern equipment in Russia's armory, including smart bombs. And the losses Russia reported Wednesday -- 74 dead, 19 missing and 171 hospitalized with wounds -- were "limited," says Alexander Pikayev, director of the department for disarmament and conflict resolution at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations in Moscow.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
“Slavic savages?”
Bigot.
From a historical view, I’d say this is no brag, just fact.
Russians and their junk have always been better against poorly equipped small countries or civilans.
I didn’t say Russia. I said how many Abrams did Georgia have? I asked how many F-15s and F-16s did Georgia have. Since you stated that Russia defeated a Nato armed Georgia, I was wondering then if Georgia had any abrams or F-15s or F-16s. So apparently, all that happened here was more Russian weapons defeated less Russian weapons.
“Patton was right. “
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100% agree!
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“The Russians are mongols. They are Slavs and a lot of them used to be ruled by ancient Byzantium. From Genghis Kahn to Stalin, they have not changed. They never will change and we will never learn, at least, not until it is too late. Russia knows what it wants. World domination. And she is laying her plans accordingly. You mark my words. Dont ever forget them. Someday we will have to fight them and it will take six years and cost us six million lives.”
Chop up an isolated Russian armored column and slaughter a bunch of Russian reservists in a supply column.
is exactly what the Chechens did to several tank columns when the Russians went into Grozny in 1995. So it can be done.
I'm not sure what that has to do with the discussion, but okay.
And by the time the Soviets had the Germans in full retreat, Germany was all but pulverized by allied air power courtesy of the United States Army Air Corps and the Royal Air Force
And yet, German war production actually peaked in 1944. Unilt the end, German military units were supplied with everything they needed, except enough men to hold back the Russians in the East, and later the Western Allies in the West.
As for Patton and the Jews? It is quite frankly irrelevant to this thread, which is about RUSSIANS, a topic upon which Patton was extremely well educated and informed.
Other than meeting up with the Russians at the end of the war, Patton had no special experiences with them. He was certainly no expert on Russia. And you're still trying to cherry-pick: If Patton is as good a judge of national character and qualities as you say, then he must be as right about the Jews as about the Russians.
Right?
Without OUR backing the Nazis would have run over them like dogs in the road. Late 45 the Soviets were just about out of everything including cannon fodder. Patton was right and once we pulled our BIG support the Soviets would not stand up against Patton’s fighting machine.
And Saddam Hussein had one of the biggest conscript armies in the world, and it got carved to pieces by a much smaller professional force.
I think it was pretty much a given for chances of success. They are afterall within driving distance. But there is still a chance that small band of the homeboys might get behind them and do what the Iraqi insurgents pulled off. Killing a lot of russian soldiers in a few attacks would really make them look bad.
OOpps, needs a comma between the and Nazis!!
While the Russian Air Force did lose several aircraft to Georgian AAA and SAMs, these weapons were mostly obsolete in nature and were unable to cope with the modern jamming systems of the Russian fighter-bombers and ground-attack aircraft.
I agree- the Georgians didn’t have a chance of winning.
But they could have embarrassed the Russians and inflicted some very tele- and photogenic casualties, if they’d played their cards better.
And the Russians couldn’t have pulled the same murderous crap they did with the Chechens, with the world watching.
I saw that report. Do you know how seriously he was injured?
What took balls was to invade a country one 50th your size that had already sent the russkies running like women as we did in afghanistan.
We could make Russia irrelevent in a month.
Izvinitiye, I thought you were Russian.
Anyway, what’s the comparison? All those NATO countries who intervened in Kosovo, agree/disagree why they did, were not trying to re-impose historic imperialistic rule like Russia wants to do right now in Kavkaz region.
Russians want their empire back (pre-1917, mind you).
Just wait till they attack Ukraine. Ten times the size of Georgia and when they do, get out the flatscreen and the popcorn.
The Georgians didn't have the air support that the Russian troops had. Georgia's fighting Air Force consists of something like 8 Su-25 and a sprinkling of old Soviet attack helicopters. Any fighting force knows that air superiority is key. So you statement is somewhat misleading. It was not an equal fight.
The US and UK would of been able to use newer tanks just coming out at the end of WW II, British Comet and the American M-26 Pershing that would of been more than a match for the T-34 and IS tanks. Also, from what I read about the Battle of Berlin the Red Army was forced to use teenage boys to keep up its manpower. RAF and USAAF would of established air superiority considering the Soviets were never able to establish that against the Luftwaffe. We had the heavy bombers to strike deeply into Soviet lines of communications.
“Bunch of Slavic savages... like Poles and Czechs, Serbs, Ukrainians, Slovaks, Bulgarians”
Of that group the Poles,Czechs, and Ukrainians are seeking democracy and distancing themselves from the thug Russians.
The Slovaks and Bulgarians I haven’t been keeping up with.
The Serbians as represented on this message board have proven to be supporters of Russians at the expense of any reasonable view on the Russian slide back into authoritarian brutality aginst the freedoms of its own people and now sovereign countries.
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