I grew up as a military brat in Germany during the Cold War.
I was a military nerd and became an Army Officer after joining the Guard in college.
I followed all of the latest info on the Soviet military threat and came away with one observation after the Cold War ended and the USSR dissolved.
The Russians can build some decent high end stuff but they cannot afford to purchase them in any volume. This is true for pretty much all of their stuff. Looks shiny and maybe its even competitive but if you don’t have enough of them they are not “game-changers”.
The Russians can not compete on latest generation tech nor do they have much money for training to use it in comparison to our military. Look at the difference in expenditures and look at the raw numbers of platforms.
We have an entire industry in the US that continually pumps the threat to keep the money flowing.
“The Russians can not compete on latest generation tech nor do they have much money for training to use it in comparison to our military.”
This is correct. Even if the Russians obtained all of the plans for our B-21 bomber they don’t have the technical and industrial capability to build one. The Russian tech is generally very tough and resilient but we edge them out when it comes to eking out very fine tolerances from our stuff. You see this evidenced when you find out how modern bombers and fighters have to be coddled when they’re not in the air. The Russian ground crews would never be so careful with their planes.
Which leads to the fact that the current Red Army is no different than the old Red Army in a very critical way: enlisted personnel do not receive the intensive training that USAF ranks receive.
Part of this is a lingering mistrust in the Russian military that wants technical information kept in as few hands and minds as possible...typically officers. And that ends up creating a vicious circle where the kinds of equipment the Russians actually deploy has to be tough and resilient just to survive the treatment they get from their poorly trained ground crews.
This dynamic in their military consequentially limits their ability to field sixth generation aircraft.
On the other side of the equation the USAF now produces such complicated aircraft that even the USA can only afford to buy and deploy a scant few of them.
Seriously, we produce aircraft that often cost more than aircraft carriers when you factor in the full suite of development and support costs. It buys us an edge but it’s the kind of edge that allows the US to conduct short and devastating operations.
But when it comes to prolonged conflict the edge goes to the guy who can get into the air with a ground team whose favorite way to get sensitive equipment to function is to beat on it or else borrow a fuse from a Lada.