Posted on 04/02/2014 1:01:08 PM PDT by goldstategop
The soldiers guarding the entrances to the surrounded Ukrainian military base here just south of the capital, Simferopol, had little in common with their predecessors from past Russian military actions.
They were lean, fit and sober. Few if any seemed to be conscripts. Their uniforms were crisp and neat, and their new helmets were bedecked with tinted safety goggles.
And there was another indicator of an army undergoing an upgrade: compact encrypted radio units distributed at the small-unit level, including for soldiers standing such routine duty as guard shifts beside machine-gun trucks. The radios are a telltale sign of a sweeping modernization effort undertaken five years ago by Vladimir V. Putin that has revitalized Russia’s conventional military capabilities, frightening some of its former vassal states in Eastern Europe and forcing NATO to re-evaluate its longstanding view of post-Soviet Russia as a nuclear power with limited ground muscle.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I don’t think it’s wise to underestimate any potential foe. However, since 1973, whenever Soviet/Russian weapons and doctorine have been engaged in conventional warfare, they come up short.
Were any overtly gay? Then the NYT would REALLY be impressed.
Yeah, but this is not Stalin’s Russia. Good luck getting the Russian people to foot the the bill for a Cold War level military.
That took a decade to defeat a ragtag Chechynan campaign inside their own borders - a region that has less than 1% of Russia's total population.
Do you ever lighten up on your neo-Soviet propaganda, goldstategop?
Don't you ever just take a moment to pour a nice cup of tea from your samovar and stare at the shirtless portraits of Vlad festooning the walls of your mother's basement?
I wonder, could someone watch Marines arrive in Vietnam and tell by looking, which ones were drafted, and which were volunteers?
Russia has traditionally relied on brute force and overwhelming numerical to win wars. The limitations of this approach were starkly illustrated in Chechenya and in the Georgian conflict.
Russia has been shifting from an army of conscripts to an army of volunteer servicemen. Pay and standards have been raised and incompetent officers and soldiers have been retired and dismissed.
The traditional view of Russia having a Third World army with nuclear weapons is seriously out of date. Russia has made rapid strides in both being able to project its power as well as to defend itself.
And this has come in the face of Western cutbacks in defense spending and troop strength levels.
As a resurgent great power, Russia has come of age.
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I don’t think they have arrived. I think they are enroute. There are several things they will have to achieve to make it stick, and there are factors and actors militating against them achieving those goals. They must:
1) Retain their distinct identity and culture in the face of transnational sameness, interference and coercion, and they must somehow overcome Islamic undermining politically and demographically.
2) Restore their Rus population and viable birthrate (they need to expunge Soviet era attitudes towards abortion)
3) Diversify their economy by establishing incentives to creativity and hard work; couple intellect with raw resources.
4) Oppose western moral rot, and recognize that if a western authority is talking to them, odds are that they are lying.
“I don’t think it’s wise to underestimate any potential foe. However, since 1973, whenever Soviet/Russian weapons and doctorine have been engaged in conventional warfare, they come up short.”
They chose to go with a cheap, numerical advantage where they would overwhelm the enemy.just so happens that tank killers, shoulder fired weapons and theatre nukes stopped that in its tracks.
Thank you, Ronald Reagan
Their equipment and tactics have largely been used by third worlders of exceedingly low quality. If the Israelis had been flying MiGs, and the Syrians had been flying F-15s in the Bekaa valley,,, the Israelis would have cleaned their clocks just the same.
Contemplating a fight with Russians, on their home territory is just a bad idea. But Europe seems to want to try it every few decades. Now they’ve learned their lesson, now they’ll use the USA to do it on their behalf.
The automatic rifles in the top pic appear to be the old AK-74 with blacked butt and grips. Not that there’s anything wrong with em, but they sure are old hat.
You don’t want to wake up to the fact Russia is getting stronger.
The West is gutting its military. Whine all you like.
But don’t ridicule it simply because its not in keeping with the stereotype of Russian soldiers who can’t shoot straight.
This is a formidable adversary.
The most important thing is that the Russian soldiers and officers believe they are fighting for Russian nationalism not International Communism.
“Good luck getting the Russian people to foot the the bill for a Cold War level military”
They probably will, just as we always do. And the way it will happen there is because it will boost their wounded national pride from the post 1991 era. And also because every Russian is well aware of how many times Europe has invaded then and gone for Moscow. Now the NATO brain trust is on the verge of making Ukraine NATO, and having forces poised a little over 200 miles from Moscow.
Defense would be an easy sell there I’m afraid.
Russia is spending a lot of money on defense - and the amount of resources devoted to rebuilding its armed forces will only increase.
Russia is not putting butter before guns. For the Kremlin, national strength is THE absolute priority.
Overrated, logistically.
Like the Chicago Bears with a new QB, Wide receivers, and running backs: Isnt going to matter, they’ll still suck.
Yes, yes. This could change.
“took a decade to defeat a ragtag Chechynan campaign inside their own borders “
A decade to defeat a mountain based moslem insurgency. Really wanna go there? Think hard.
What kind of Marine gets drafted?
My mistake...that is probably an AK-100. The Russians stopped buying AK-74’s back in 2011 IIRC.
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