AV-MF/Tupolev Tu-16 Badger. The Badger is a mainstay of Soviet Naval Aviation
Posted on 10/30/2010 12:03:30 AM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Russian naval aviation is facing a crisis, in that within the next five years, few of the navy's aircraft will be flyable. It's not that no one saw this coming, it's just that there were larger calamities to deal with. The collapse of the Soviet armed forces after 1991 (when the Soviet Union dissolved) was a catastrophic event, with the largest military establishment on the planet quickly losing 80 percent of its manpower. A lot more equipment stayed on the books, in theory. But over 100,000 tanks and aircraft were allowed to quietly fall apart in the 1990s, because there was little money or manpower available to maintain the stuff. Most of this stuff was eventually recycled, but little of it was replaced. In the last decade, the Russian Air Force has been receiving new and refurbished aircraft, and the army has been getting new helicopters, and a lot of money for aircraft maintenance. The navy has gotten little besides a few feeble promises. Search and rescue aircraft (flying boats and helicopters), anti-submarine aircraft, bombers and jet fighters have all been wasting away since 1991, with no replacements at all in most categories, and little money for maintenance. Shipboard helicopters are now obsolete and lacking upgrades. Some new helicopters are promised (but not ordered yet), and new jet fighters for carrier operations are on order. But even this is being done more to try and keep MiG Aviation in business, by ordering MiG29s, than to replace the Cold War era Su-33s. More land-based jet fighters are promised, but not on order. The thinking seems to be that, since there's not much worth defending at Russian naval bases, why spend any money defending it
(Excerpt) Read more at strategypage.com ...
Good.
Russia is trying to rebuild its military. But it will be decades before the Russian Army is anywhere close to the strength the old Soviet Army enjoyed.
And neither Putin nor Medvedev can get it done in a hurry.
Their entire military is eroding quickly.. That is why their are buying technology from the West. 85 percent of the Russian army technologies are still stuck in the old analog system
AV-MF/Tupolev Tu-16 Badger. The Badger is a mainstay of Soviet Naval Aviation
Everything is decaying. The only missile system they have put into service is the Topol-M. Other than that, everything is in a state of disrepair.
Russian GDP is significantly less then the single state of California.
(Millions)
California 1,812,968
Russia 1,289,582
A modern military is very very expensive.
Russian troops are seen near truck-mounted Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missiles as they rehearse for the Victory Day parade in Moscow's Red Square, at a training field in the town of Alabino outside Moscow, Tuesday, March 18, 2008
It is. You need the technology for a modern army which Russia does not has. They are about 30-40 years behind the United States. They are planning to purchase that technology from the West.
That is the only thing close to “modern”.
They must have a different definition for “Naval Aviation” than we do.
I don’t see a tailhook on that plane.
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Chaim Topol was the Fiddler on the Roof.
You don’t see them on P-3s either.
Good thing we don’t have to depend on them to get astronauts and equipment to and from the space station.
I read a statistic that 70% of the worlds military spending is spent on the US military.
The US Navy knows how to land a 4-engine turbo prop on an aircraft carrier without the additional weight of a tailhook.
http://www.theaviationzone.com/factsheets/c130_forrestal.asp
Even with a declining population, their GDP has nowhere but to go up. In two decades from now, it will be worth 6 trillion dollars (in 2010 dollars)
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