re: Russia Unveils New Main Battle Tank, Among Other Things

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What's that?

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Someone joked about how good the satellites would be

Well, you could certainly tell what was going on.

Looked like one in custody and a perceived threat still at large.....

So it's safe to say that they will be able to see where our carriers are then. Until something wrecks that capability for them.

the new battle tank is such a beast that it broke down on it's unveiling.

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In my view, it's time for the German people to defend their own Sacred German Soil of the Fatherland.

What would Frederick the Great say if he were alive to witness German dependence on Americans to defend sacred German soil?

This goes of the Polish people, too -- What would (insert name of Polish military hero) say if he were alive to witness Polish, . . .

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1. They are never ever going to move on NATO. Nobody is stupid enough to risk a nuke war.


Putin appears to be betting that we won't risk nuclear war to defend Europe. He's not ready to move yet, but he's building up for it.

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Putin is posturing to keep his ppl from getting upset at him for the shitty economy. That is what he does. He stirs Russian patriotism when the economy is bad, and it works his approval rating is in the 80s when it was in the 50s in 2013. However, if he hasn't sent the red army rolling into east ukraine then he is not going to send them into any NATO country either. By that I mean like he did vs Georgia in '08.

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Things break down. If I had a dollar for every time we had to call an 88 to drag our tank back to the battalion maintenance point, I'd be a rich man.

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No shite, but during the biggest military parade. Everybody always overreacts about the newest russian tech only to find out later that it doesn't live up to the hype. Also I gurantee you there are American toys that are ready to f**K that new Russian equipment. Remember we spend way more on defense than any other country in the world.

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As others have done in this thread, you've grown accustomed to the US have complete and total air supremacy. If we were to have to face Russia, they would contest our air and considering their air defense capabilities, I'd say at best we'd be able to achieve air superiority (yes, there's a difference between air supremacy and air superiority). And Drones are highly vulnerable to modern day SAMS.

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Do you really think NATO hasn't considered that and planned for that? Straight cash is in the AF and based with NATO right now and he basically schooled you early in the thread.

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And as for Russia being able to take on NATO, to quote your own words, this ain't the 1980's anymore. As I've already shown more than once in this thread, NATO of 2015 is only a shadow of NATO of 1989.

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Russia is also nowhere close to 1980s strenght either?

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Consider the situation today. East Germany no longer exists, while Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and every one of Russia’s other erstwhile Warsaw Pact partners are now members of NATO. So are Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which in 1989 were parts of the Soviet Union itself. In 1989, the Red Army had almost a half-million troops and 27 maneuver divisions (plus enormous quantities of artillery and other units) on the territory of its three main allies. Today, it has a total of seven divisions in its entire Western Military District, all of which are based on its own territory. Indeed, the entire Russian army today boasts about 25 divisions, fewer than it had forward deployed in its Eastern European allies during the waning days of the Cold War.

Today, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany alone field more divisions than Russia has in its Western Military District. These countries are backstopped by the rest of NATO, including, of course, the United States. And this raw count doesn’t take into account the general deterioration of Russian forces since 1991, a quarter-century that saw little equipment modernization. By the late 1980s, NATO already enjoyed a significant qualitative advantage over the Warsaw Pact, and that edge has only increased since then.

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Even if they rearm they have 25 years of catching up to do, their allies are all on our side now and we are still spending 8 times as much as they are? We have 3 triple the size active military right now, 4x as many aircraft, and a huge naval advantage. LINK

If it is going to take them 10 years to challenge us why should we pay for stationing troops and equipment in europe now? Why don't we just monitor their activities and send troops over in about 8 years from now?

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Russia is not broke.

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Russian ain't broke? Are you high or are you just choosing to not read when someone presents evidence that disagrees with you? I posted a couple pages back where they were cutting defense spending by 10% this year. Until febuary it looked like Russia was going to default on its debts anyday, but they have stabilized since then. However they are not anywhere close to being able to afford the rearmanent program you are afarid of?

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On top of that, Russian retail sales are falling for the first time since the financial crisis, and real wages are declining faster than they have since Putin came to power in 1999. Russia is clearly heading for a recession. The question is how bad it gets. Most banks are forecasting that Russian gross domestic product will shrink by just a few percentage points this year. The World Bank, for instance, estimates Russia’s economy will contract by just 1.5 percent in 2015. But that assumes an average oil price of $70 a barrel—$10 higher than the current price for international crude.
Yes, those grim forecasts were made two months ago. But with crude production still booming in the U.S. and demand sluggish around the world, it seems like cheap oil is here to stay for the foreseeable future. That’s why some analysts are starting to think Russia could be on the brink of a much bigger economic disaster. Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, believes Russia’s economy could contract by 10 percent in 2015. That would mark the worst annual decline since the country defaulted on its debt in 1998.

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Here is some more evidence that Russia can't afford to challenge NATO.

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But Russia has only a 2.9 percent share of global gross domestic product. This is only 6 percent of NATO's GDP. In 2012, Russia's defense expenditures corresponded to one-tenth of NATO's defense expenditures. A country so economically weak would be well advised not to challenge far wealthier and stronger neighbors. To make matters worse, Russia has few allies.

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From yesterdays WSJ:

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But a report published in April by Moscow-based defense think tank CAST said Russia’s military spending has reached a crisis. “The modern Russian economy just does not generate enough resources to finance the current 2011-2020 rearmament program,” CAST said in the report. “This seriously reduces the ability to efficiently renew the Russian armed forces’ equipment.”

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Monthly statistics published on Friday showed that consumers turned even more bearish in March despite the currency’s recent stabilisation, and economists estimated that gross domestic product was likely to have shrunk by between 2 and 4 per cent in the first quarter.

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Do you still believe Russia isn't broke?

Regarding the Russian economy, cutting defense spending and being broke are not exactly the same thing.

Indeed, Russia's economy is growing again, despite sanctions and low oil prices.

Further, it still has pretty healthy foreign reserves.

Silly Russians. It is hard to be scared when their super scary tank breaks down at its unveiling.

Russia is weak. They bluster and run their mouth, but they don't do shite.