Posted on 02/10/2017 9:39:29 AM PST by drewh
Russian President Vladimir Putin has again scrambled his jets in a snap military drill meant to prepare his air force for a "time of war."
"In accordance with the decision by the Armed Forces Supreme Commander, a snap check of the Aerospace Forces began to evaluate readiness of the control agencies and troops to carry out combat training tasks," said Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, according to Russia's state-run media.
"Special attention should be paid to combat alert, deployment of air defense systems for a time of war and air groupings' readiness to repel the aggression," continued Shoigu.
Russian snap exercises on the border with NATO happen often, without warning, and they often come with menacing overtones. For some time now, Russia has held a numerical, qualitative, organizational, and timing advantage over NATO forces in the Baltics.
In 2014, Putin said he could take Kiev in two weeks. In 2015, a Czech general said Russia could take the Baltics in two days. The US and NATO have responded to Russia's rising aggression steadily but slowly, most recently by stationing 80 tanks in Poland.
But according to a presentation made at the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia by Senior International Research Analyst Michael Johnson of the RAND Corporation, Russian tanks outnumber NATO tanks at about 480 to 80.
In Air Power, even with a US Navy carrier battle group in the mix, Russia could muster up fully one-third of their air force to the fight, according to Johnson.
Meanwhile, nearly two-thirds of US F/A-18s can't currently fly due to budget cuts that lead to a backlog on maintenance and sourcing new parts, Defense News reports. The Marine Times reports something similar — more than half of the Marine Corps' planes couldn't fly in December.
Even with the US's ship-based aviation crippled by age and budget cuts, the bigger problem is Russia's advanced anti-air systems.
In October, Dr. Igor Sutyagin, an expert on Russian and US air power and air defenses at the Royal United Services Institute, said even the US's best, stealthiest jets and pilots would have to be "operationally, tactically brilliant" to cope with Russia's advanced S-400 air defenses.
Legacy fighters from the US and NATO would have their work cut out for them in a battle of the skies and against missile defenses, leaving few planes left over for close air support. Essentially, US troops would fight without total air superiority for the first time since World War II.
Additionally, by the time US and NATO reinforcements reached the Baltics, the Russians would have long ago established themselves, possibly with more air defenses. US troops would have to go from fort to port, 5,000 miles across the sea, land outside of Russian missile range or air space, and then make their way to the Baltics. The whole ordeal could take up to 6 months, according to Johnson.
US President Donald Trump has often called NATO "obsolete," though the current challenges from Russia would argue that the alliance now bears more relevance than any point since the end of the Cold War. Trump, and Obama before him, have both called on all NATO states to pay their fair share on defense, but the US must still lead the fight.
"There are more police officers in New York City than there are American soldiers stationed in Europe today. So while bipartisan presidents have always called on Europeans to do more, I think we can also look to our own situation in Europe now," said Johnson.
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Si vis pacem, para bellum
We need to be prepared too - what Obama, with the help of the feckless RINOs, did is obnoxious.
Verum.
Not my fight when the surrounding countries won’t pony up troops or money to defend their own borders.
Sounds like the old days - Russian tanks outnumber NATO tanks at about 480 to 80 - when it was something like 30,000 to 5,000.
The Russians can rush a lot more tanks to the front much quicker than we can ship them from the ME or US. Any such action would see the T14 on scene which seems to have no peer, and the wide spread use of tactical nukes across Europe.
Yeah this sounds more like Euro weenies need to put up their own forces or shut up.
If a European country .. or more than one .. requested the US to use one or more tactical nukes in Europe, I would require them to ask for it/them publically.
You just know that, when the war is over, we will be blamed for every tactical nuke used in Europe. So we need to pull out our troops and let them juice up their own defenses. We can backstop if they request it, but only if they specifically and publically do so.
“Russian snap exercises on the border with NATO happen often, without warning, and they often come with menacing overtones”
We expand NATO right up to their border. They hold exercises inside their own nation. Headlines: Russia holds exercises on NATO borders. lol
As for the statement that he could take Kiev in two weeks, that wasn’t a threat, it was a statement of disinterest. Everyone was acting like he was about to try to invade and take all of Ukraine. He said if we wanted that we could have it in two weeks. It would be like an America president saying if his goal was to take over Canada he could capture Ottawa in a week.
One think I know for sure, someone actually wants a shooting war with Russia, and is convinced they can keep it limited and conventional.
> How ironic that less than 40 years after Brzezinski’s super genius Cyclonic brainstorm - the Islamic invasion of Europe provides the pretext for the reoccupation of Poland.
I would be pretty surprised if the Russians could pull that off. They still don’t have a working logistics system that could extend into the conquest of Poland nor are the Poles pushovers in the military department.
Putin is negotiating with Trump. Both of these guys know how it is done effectively. I suspect Trump will be more successful in the end because he does it by instinct. Putin does it with historically tried and often effective methods. effective. A skilled operator is facing a skilled Natural.
>US President Donald Trump has often called NATO “obsolete,” though the current challenges from Russia would argue that the alliance now bears more relevance than any point since the end of the Cold War. Trump, and Obama before him, have both called on all NATO states to pay their fair share on defense, but the US must still lead the fight.
Why? It’s Europe’s land, not ours. Russia has the GDP of California. The European union has a larger GDP than America. They should be able to easily field quite large armies to deter any possible attack from Russia.
IIRC, there are Russians on the ISS.
Talk about battle for the high ground.
5.56mm
This is just Defense contractors wanting to repeat the legitimate 1980s Reagan buildup. They see it as a modern cash cow. So you need a boogyman.
Russia isn’t going to invade Europe, not even a chance. And we are crystal clear on the Russian doctrine that any land invasion into Russia will be met with a strategic nuclear response on the attacker. Its their clear doctrine that another invasion like the Nazis pulled off is best repelled by the nuclear destruction of the homeland of the attacker.
So they aren’t coming west, and we aren’t coming east.
No war is coming. But a lot of defense contracts and EU welfare are.
>>nor are the Poles pushovers in the military department.
Just give ZBig’s Mooslim cancer time to do its wonders.
I would like to see a joint Russo-American holy war against these primates.
We aren’t going to get any help from our `allies’ busy importing them as fast as they can.
Chris Kyle, April 8, 1974, Odessa, TX Died: February 2, 2013, rightly called Islamic terrorists “savages”.
I saw a video the other day of four of them, ISIS, with a small boy in the back of the pickup truck. They cut his head off with a knife.
But I suppose a district court judge somewhere would call defending ourselves an establishment of religion and issue a TRO.
>Just give ZBig’s Mooslim cancer time to do its wonders.
They’re actively resisting. Right now Hungary and Poland are the primary EU nations not taking them in. However, a Soro’s backed color revolution is underway in Poland. Hard to say how that ends.
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