Putin has not been sitting on his hands when it comes to re-arming the Motherland.
More here.With tensions rising again between Russia and Ukraine, there are fears of a renewed upsurge in the fighting.The Russians have deployed advanced weapons systems that are causing NATO commanders a great deal of concern. These are not proposed systems. These are systems that were used in the Crimea and Ukraine incursions.
Russia-watchers in the West are monitoring events carefully, not just in terms of the day-to-day crisis, but because Russia's military is worth watching.
Moscow's military's performance in Ukraine has provided a foretaste of a new kind of warfare; eastern Ukraine has provided a laboratory for ground combat in the 21st Century.
- The use of drones to provide targeting information.
- New, long-range air defenses.
- Anti-access and area denial systems.
- Communications jamming.
But perhaps the most worrying element of Russia's new approach is what has been broadly termed "hybrid warfare" - a mix of semi-clandestine operations; propaganda and information warfare; computer hacking and so on.
This was seen in its seizure of Crimea with troops in unmarked uniforms (the so-called "little green men"); the closing down of independent news sources and so on.
What is fascinating from the Russian literature is the priority that Moscow gives to the whole cyber-domain, ranging from large-scale hacking to even the trolling of Western service personnel using their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
5 comments:
Yea, but few know how to drive (or cross roadways as pedestrians) in Russia (Youtube - Russian driving)
Kid - dash cams: in Rooshia you never leave home without them.
But can they be politically correct like our forces, I doubt they can pull off that important goal.
The Russians have been improving their army incrementally. They have some regiments which are quite good, but most of the quality is focused there. The rear echelon troops are just not that good. But you're right. Putin is trying to improve both the army and the air force and the fighting in Syria and to a lesser extent, Ukraine, is a TRAINING ground for them. Much as Iraq and Afghanistan has been for the present US Military.
You are talking about a nation with the GDP of Alabama, since oil dived and last I heard. Seriously? If it weren't for their nuke arsenal they wouldn't even be invited to anything. Sure, even without that they can crush any single, and probably many, of the tiny former bloc nations and on west. Germany couldn't stop them, their police force is more potent then their military most likely at this point. (A sad thing, as German is probably the strongest "military" in Europe... Western Europe.) They have become anemic, depending solely on NATO which depends almost completely on the US. Arm them up, help them make contracts with each other, then get rid of US involved NATO.
Though, even with the EU in tatters, Europe still has to, quite often, fear itself more often than others. An armed Europe will eventually... fall upon itself with a fury. And stop being afraid of Russia. Nukes will keep them out, probably. Europeans are just... Europeans. But that shouldn't be our affair. Warned by founding fathers not to get involved, and for a good reason.
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