Date: 2024-09-08 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00022337
THE UKRAINE WAR
IMPACT ON PUTIN ... ON RUSSIA!
Did Russia’s Putin teach a lesson to NATO countries and the West by attacking Ukraine? ... Oh ya- Putin taught NATO lessons like he was a professor.
IMPACT ON PUTIN ... ON RUSSIA!
Did Russia’s Putin teach a lesson to NATO countries and the West by attacking Ukraine? ... Oh ya- Putin taught NATO lessons like he was a professor.
Burgess COMMENTARY
This is from 'Quora' and the general theme of the observations match information from other sources.
Peter Burgess
Oh ya- Putin taught NATO lessons like he was a professor.
Answered by Alex Mann
Lesson 1: Russia sucks
I cannot overstate how long NATO has feared the invincible Russian bear- a military that could muster 15,000 tanks and swarm Europe. The US has spent 700 billion dollars PER YEAR building to face this exact threat.
NATO developed special tactics to deal with Russia including specialized defense-in-depth (definition in comments) procedures, specialized weapons training, and tactical concepts meant to target Russia’s weak points.
The big question was “would it work”. Would these untested tactics, strategies, and weapons work in the face of a large-scale Russian invasion?
Ukraine didn’t really have much of an Army prior to 2014. Then Putin annexed Crimea and started fighting in the Donbas. Suddenly Ukraine had to build an army very quickly with the singular goal of defending against a Russian invasion. So naturally, they turned to NATO for training and NATO gave them everything- the weapons, the tactics, the strategies.
Turns out it did work! The tactics used by the Ukrainians are NATO tactics (with some alternations) and the weapons proving to be the deadliest are NATO weapons.
So now we know for sure that the US military would dominate the Russian military in short order. Ukraine is managing to really give the Russians a bloody nose with minimal training, minimal equipment, and minimal support.
- Russia has failed to control the air space in the face of about 500 anti-air weapons, a handful of Helicopters, and 225 Aircraft. The US has 6,000 Aircraft, 3000 Helicopters, and over 2000 highly advanced anti-air missile guidance weapons.
- Russia has struggled against a few thousand APCs- the US has over 10,000 plus 250,000 Humvees
- Russia has struggled against the 1,500 outdated Ukrainian tanks- the US has 8,000 Abrams tanks and 6,000 Bradleys.
The entire Russian military isn’t bad. Their Navy is pretty modern, though it lacks carriers. Their Airforce is also something to behold. How much of the airforce is functional and combat-ready? Not a ton. But even if Russia could sustain combat operations with 25% of their Airforce it would be deadly.
But Russia has some serious flaws here too.
- Their logistical capability is…. subpar to say the least. They lack manpower, trucks, and even tires. Russia is down to using civilian trucks to haul supplies to the frontlines. It’s not like Ukraine is a superpower either. Ukraine was able to unravel the entire Russian logistical system with a few drones. In fact, it's unlikely that Russia could have supplied its forces without Ukrainian intervention. By week 2 of this conflict, Russian troops were looting markets for food and abandoning tanks due to a lack of gas.
- Their tactical depth is bad. When a war starts and you send all your guys forward how far can they go before they run out of food, fuel, and ammo? The further the better obviously. Well, Russian troops can’t operate more than 90 km from a supply depot. This means they cannot strike deep into enemy territory or employ flexible creative advances. They have to hop-frog from city to city because cities can serve as ample supply depots.
- Russia has bad SEAD (definition in comments) capabilities. Step 1 of any war is to destroy your enemy's fixed-wing aircraft (or airports) and then target anti-air weapons by bombers, cruise missiles, artillery, you name it. Russia hasn’t even destroyed the very small Ukrainian Airforce yet and Ukraine still possesses loads of anti-air weapons.
- Russia relies on conscripted troops too heavily. Someone forced into the army, given little training, and paid virtually nothing is not going to fight hard or well.
- Russia has too much old equipment. There are lots of obsolete Russian tanks, planes, helicopters, trucks, guns, artillery- you name it. These old weapons systems are not doing well.
Putin's goals are clear- reform the USSR (in terms of size) and he is willing to go to war to do so.
Putin cares little for peace or for his own people. He should be viewed like we viewed Hitler in 1938.
In summary, Russia is inferior to most modernized nations militarily due to their many flaws and Putin is something a rouge dictator- and a threat to world peace.
Tamer Aydogdu