Russia doesn't sound like a military superpower????

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

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I've been watching the news about Putin's buildup of 200,000. I see where these new troops are going for "training". Putin's exhausted his active military strength??? The number2 military power on the planet is out of men? This is a war on his own border, and he's having manpower issues?? I'm not a military scholar, but to me, it seems the Russian military is a far cry from the USSR, and it's toppling of Hitler's Germany. Ot has war gotten too costly to wage?
 

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Laurie said:
Never underestimate the enemy.
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....which seems to be Putin's weakness in strategy. It seems I have actually overestimated Russia's military strength for many years. This makes me wonder about the state of his nuclear arsenal as well. He is creating chaos throughout Europe, not just Ukraine by fighting this war using tactics and equipment from his last war. It might be time for Nato to step in and stop this nonsense.
 

JustDave said:
....which seems to be Putin's weakness in strategy. It seems I have actually overestimated Russia's military strength for many years. This makes me wonder about the state of his nuclear arsenal as well. He is creating chaos throughout Europe, not just Ukraine by fighting this war using tactics and equipment from his last war. It might be time for Nato to step in and stop this nonsense.
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Didn't Putin replace the old Soviet nuclear arsenal with a state of the art missile arsenal?
 
I too have overinflated the capability of Russian troops,
they went thru the Afghan thing but now seem unable to
form any sort of cohesive plan to take Ukraine....maybe all
those medal covered generals are too old to play war
any more !!!!
 
kenfrombaltimore said:
Didn't Putin replace the old Soviet nuclear arsenal with a state of the art missile arsenal?
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I don't know, but if that information came out of Russia, it would be as suspect as any other claim they made about their military strength. Russia could make that effort with good intentions, but by the time the corrupt officials sapped away all the money for the project, the end product would be questionable. And how long does a state of the art last before the next state of the art replaces it?

This is all academic anyway. No one here gets to decide when to push the red button.
 
Russia definitely has a manpower shortage. They have also shown their vulnerability in the sky. Russia has already lost many of their planes and attack helicopters. I guess the many SAM’s that we have sent to Ukraine have been put to good use.

How this war is going to end is becoming very dramatic.
 
It's a little thing, but in calling up 200,000 more troops, they called up thousands of guys, who were way too old to fight. That's kind of a basic thing. All it takes is someone pushing the right buttons on a computer. yet, they couldn't do it.
 
JustDave said:
....which seems to be Putin's weakness in strategy. It seems I have actually overestimated Russia's military strength for many years. This makes me wonder about the state of his nuclear arsenal as well. He is creating chaos throughout Europe, not just Ukraine by fighting this war using tactics and equipment from his last war. It might be time for Nato to step in and stop this nonsense.
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I can't help but view that as like sticking your hand into a rattlesnake's nest, there is something causing NATO to hesitate in that regard.
 
I can't think if there was ever a foreign occupier who successfully conquered another nation and had it last. I'm sure someone else will.
 
Nathan said:
I can't help but view that as like sticking your hand into a rattlesnake's nest, there is something causing NATO to hesitate in that regard.
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NATO has been justifiably cautious and observing the invasion of Ukraine closely assessing Putin's strengths and weaknesses. It's still possible that Ukraine can stop Putin in his tracks without official help from NATO. If that's the case, things can normalize. If Putin uses tactical nukes, I don't know what NATO will do. If Putin attacks Poland, and NATO fails to act, it would be a grave mistake giving a green light to Putin, but Russia just might run out of resources by that time.

My biggest question, is how much more face can Putin stand to lose? He's grasping at straws right now, and the more he grasps, the more foolish he becomes. What's his big spin going to be when he can no longer put together a charge and ends up with three burnt out tanks and a handful of wrecked airplanes, and a Politburo that will be looking for a scapegoat?
 
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Not surprised the land war gave them difficulty but anything tech related including the airforce I'm surprised they didn't fare better. In the old Soviet Union being an officer, pilot, astronaut etc gave one status I guess no more.

Keep in mind Russia has not fought a big land war since WWII yeh they had a few confiscations/annexes after they broke up after the Cold War but never were in a large scale conflict themselves. They fought proxy wars with advisers, tech and logitics but not large or prolonged battles themselves.

During the Cold War the communist bloc units might have been better than mother Russia's troops herself. That was a concern during the Cold War. How would units made up of troops from communist bloc countries act if Russia tried a full scale conventional war/invasion of West Germany let's say. They probably vetted and leveraged the communist bloc countries/militaries more.
 
kenfrombaltimore said:
Didn't Putin replace the old Soviet nuclear arsenal with a state of the art missile arsenal?
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I’m a little confused with the question. Putin does have nuclear missiles and has had them for many years. He does have multi-warhead long rang missiles which I would classify as state of the art. But, so does the U.S.
 
Be careful what you think you know about the Russian army. Did a little digging... (well a lot of digging) to try to find accurate official numbers.

Russia possesses an estimated 6,300 nuclear warheads as of 2022, the largest stockpile of nuclear warheads in the world; the second largest stockpile is the United States' 5,428 warheads.

Troops that are combat ready and trained to hit the ground in combat... Keep in mind that while we have the largest military in numbers and budget, Only 10% of the entire U.S. military force actually engage in battle.
Russia... total number of Russian ‘combat ready’ troops falls in the range of 134,500 to 168,000
USA... 48,125.4 combat ready troops.

“If war was to come today I think the Army would be in a difficult position,” said Thomas Spoehr, a retired Army lieutenant general. “Some of the brigade combat teams are well trained, but there’s a fair number that are not.” (that is a horrifying statement to an ex army dude).


The official total strength of the Russian Armed Forces is 1.013 million.
The official total strength of the U.S. military is 1.4 million.
 
Gaer said:
Wait! I haven't been able to get my News channel for awhile.. Did Ukraine join NATO? I missed this?
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Ukraine's application to join the EU was approved shortly after Russia invaded in Feb. Their very unpopular former president, Victor Yanokovych, shelved their application to join NATO in 2010 and fled Ukraine in February 2014, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine's Donbass region and the interim gov't had no plans to join NATO, but after their parliamentary election in Oct, joining NATO became a priority. A strategic course of Ukraine for membership in the EU and NATO are enshrined in the preamble of the Basic Law, three articles and transitional provisions, but Ukrainian public support of NATO membership remained low.

After Vladimir Zelenskyy was elected President in 2019, he worked on and with some programs required for NATO membership, and recently asked that Ukraine be fast-tracked to membership, however that hasn't happened bc of Russia's recent occupation of the NE region with it's confusion of alliances, rogue militia, questionable referrendums, and crap like that.

That said, ONLY THIS MORNING, the Counsel of Europe published a resolution re: Ukraine, it's sovereignty, it's territorial integrity, naming Russia a Terrorist Regime, and some other stuff. So changes are all but certain.
 
Indeed, what I keep seeing is that Russian soldiers are given outdated weapons and Soviet era equipment at best, and that they're untrained and very undisciplined. Russian soldiers have accused their commanders of drunkenness, looting, allowing rape, ordering beatings and massacres of Ukrainian civilians and the bombing and shelling of civilian targets.

After Putin ordered the mobilization of 300,000 men, an estimated 200,000 left the country. And his elite military commanders, who were ordered to mobilize men with military experience first, instead began with the likes of factory workers, criminal prisoners, and as many men from little villages as they could scoop up, even though they had a ridiculous shortage of men who could give these guys proper military training.

This has been the craziest military operation I've ever witnessed. I've seen bad ones, but this isn't just bad, it's insane.
 
JustDave said:
....which seems to be Putin's weakness in strategy. It seems I have actually overestimated Russia's military strength for many years. This makes me wonder about the state of his nuclear arsenal as well. He is creating chaos throughout Europe, not just Ukraine by fighting this war using tactics and equipment from his last war. It might be time for Nato to step in and stop this nonsense.
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Nato? And who would supply the troops? The US and every other NATO member. Nukes? Very likely. Probably not a great idea.
 
ElCastor said:
Nato? And who would supply the troops? The US and every other NATO member. Nukes? Very likely. Probably not a great idea.
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The US has been supplying troops since about the beginning of this fiasco. Supposed to be a secret, but secrets are hard to keep these days. Mostly our troops have been supplying training, but they've also been fighting elbow-to-elbow with Ukranian soldiers.

The moment a Russian nuke squeaks, the US, UK, Europe and Japan will be all over it, with and/or without nukes, and the US will very likely be all over Moscow. It will be heartbreaking, in a way.
 

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