GarryB Fri Nov 17, 2023 10:15 am
I would say this SMO confirms that the vast majority of Russian weapons systems and equipment is excellent and effective, but in many cases there is room for improvements and changes in tactic in how things are used and organised.
They continue to get excellent bang for their buck and taking on lots of new soldiers is not going to weaken them or blunt their growth.
The numbers of aircraft has not increased exponentially, but their vast array of air to ground weapons have been proven on an international stage to be accurate and effective and so I will expect export sales for air defence and air delivered weapons will massively increase, not to mention demand for their drones will be peaked too.
They are certainly going to develop their navy simply because their entire economy has shifted... all their trade with the rest of the world used to go through the west, whether it is shipped on western ships, and insured by western insurance companies, the bulk of their trade actually went to Europe where their cheap energy and raw materials powered the EU economy and created products they sold back to Russia and around the world at top dollar making nice profits considering how cheap they got things.
They used Russia the way they used African countries... the poor black boy in the diamond mine 16 hours a day getting paid 50c a day if he is lucky finds a fist sized diamond and takes it to his boss... the owner of the mine who gives him maybe $50 and is told to get back down that mine and find some more. The rich europeans who actually control the mine arrives when he hears of the find and take that diamond and the other diamonds they have found and maybe gives the mine owner $20K, and then takes those diamonds to Europe to a diamond cutter and pays that diamond cutter 3-4 million dollars to cut that diamond because diamond cutters know how much diamonds are worth, so after spending maybe 3 million dollars plus the $20K to the mine owner, that white rich european prick gets a diamond maybe worth 20-30 million dollars. He might visit 20 mines on his trip and most of the time the diamonds are much smaller but he always makes big money when something is found and you can bet your arse the guys in the mines finding diamonds don't have flash cars in their garages... and that same prick who buys cheap wood and cheap gas and cheap everything from Russia is not afraid to bring the final product... flash paper or a new BMW and charge Russians top dollar to buy their products they couldn't make if it wasn't for the cheap energy and materials they get from Russia.
Well the worms are turning... Russia has said enough, China has said enough, Africa is saying enough, even the Palestinians are saying enough... how long before central and south america and Asia do the same...
But all this has nothing to do with how many planes and ships Russia buys over the next few years.
@ lancelot, they wouldn't even amend the CFE treaty to allow for Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia or Nagorno Karabach or transnetria (spelling), or to compensate for the fact that the CFE treaty was a treaty between HATO and the Warsaw Pact and most of the sides have changed sides and all joined HATO but the number allocations were not changed.
Personally I think the separation of Russia from the west and Europe is the best thing that could happen to Russia, but Europe is going to suffer, but they deserve it.