Posted on 10/07/2010 10:24:49 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The recent Russian decision to buy four Mistral amphibious assault ships from France is just the beginning. According to the Russian Defense Minister, Russia will seek more Western weapons and military equipment. Russia is planning to spend over $600 billion in the next decade to replace aging Cold War gear. The Defense Ministry insists that the Mistral deal is but the first of many. Russia already has a deal with Israel, to build a factory in Russia to build Israeli UAVs under license. This arrangement may be aborted because the Israelis apparently expect Russia to stop selling advanced weapons to Syria and Iran in return for Russo-Israeli cooperation in building weapons for Russian forces. Russia is going to the West for military gear because Russian defense industries do not produce high quality stuff. This is a difficult admission to make, but it's what the Russian Defense Minister said (and a lot of Russian military personnel believe.) While Russia is still a major supplier of arms, they produce the same old Cold War era stuff. It's cheap and reliable. But for reequipping the Russian armed forces, the Russian brass want the best. That means going to the West. This was unthinkable during the Cold War, and for two decades thereafter. But now, times have changed.
Meanwhile, Russian defense firms are fully booked, and are unable to deliver some items for long periods because of backorders. The defense industry employs nearly three million people and accounts for about 20 percent of industrial jobs in Russia. At the end of the Cold War in 1991, defense related production was more than three times what it is now. It was the large size of the defense industry that played a major role in bankrupting the Soviet Union.
(Excerpt) Read more at strategypage.com ...
They never should have let the Red October defect to the West...
Or invaded Europe. Or had to fight the Chinese in Siberia.
That Tom Clancy, he's such a card!
“Andrei, you’ve lost another submarine?”
Ping
Their stuff has always sucked, they just make so much of it that numbers make up for quality. Even the famous T34 was quickly surpassed by the Tiger, TigerII, Panther, and even the later model MkIV. But the USSR built 50,000 T-34s, so they could afford to lose 5 tanks for every German one. Same ratio as the Sherman.
‘Quantity has it’s own quality’
Check the T-34’s weight against the Tiger’s or the Panther’s. Check which quality problems the nazi had at Stalingrad and what were the reasons of their tank losses.
No, it was communism that bankrupted them. In all of history military spending leads to new technology that leads to wealth. In the USA, military spending on robotics is one thing that could possibly lead to us avoiding bankruptcy from socialism.
Adding bolt on armor without adding HP is a bad mistake....
Many Panzer units removed the bolt on armor so the mk IV could actually climb a hill.
A Panzer leader once said that it took ten Shermans to kill one Panzer, but there was always an eleventh Sherman.
Never heard that one but love it.
Unless one was a Sherman crew.
This (the Israeli UAV’s) could be the reason that Russia canceled the S-300 sale to Iran.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.