re: For the first time since 1991, the US Navy publishes report on Russian Navy

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Good point. And the notion that the Russian armed forces is made up of poorly trained and poorly equipped conscripts is as outdated as thinking Russia is still as unarmed as it was in the 1990's.

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I would not put them on the same level as our own training. But that's not to say they're untrained.

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Or, just as importantly, that the majority of NATO countries aren't full of similar quality soldiers. Yea, the British and French and a few others can go soldier-for-soldier with just about anyone. Most aren't much better - if any better - than the Russians.

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Or, just as importantly, that the majority of NATO countries aren't full of similar quality soldiers. Yea, the British and French and a few others can go soldier-for-soldier with just about anyone. Most aren't much better - if any better - than the Russians.

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Good point. Military training costs money. Want to see how Russia compares to the European countries in training? Look at what Russia is spending on their military and compare that to what the European powers are spending on theirs. That will tell the tale.

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Why should they waste money? They aren't going to invade anyone and if Russia tried to invade them the US would defend them.

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Let's say that tomorrow Russia invades the Baltic countries of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. In case you don't know where these countries are, here's a map.....



All three are NATO members so we'd have to come to their aid. What pray tell will we do? And what forces would we use to do it?

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That would be more of a nato led campaign. I am speaking more about Western Europe. Countries that probably could spend more on their military but choose n

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We'd still have to go to war to defend them. The fact they're not in Western Europe doesn't matter. They're still full NATO members. And when it comes to military matters, it's still the US and after that you've not got much else.

Looks like the Defense Contractors want to build some new ships for the Navy.

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Without a worthy adversary, it's more difficult for the US Navy to justify its own budget.

Here's another evaluation of the state of the Russian Navy

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Like Russia's fleet, that report is somewhat old.

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That would be more of a nato led campaign. I am speaking more about Western Europe. Countries that probably could spend more on their military but choose not to.

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Modern military procurement takes years and years of development, dude. This isn't 1945. There's a reason countries project fielding destroyers and aircraft carriers decades into the future.

This really shouldn't be a call to arms for the American defense establishment, anyway. I view this as more of a shot across the bow to the feckless Euros with whom we are mortally tied. Many (most?) have been spending less than the NATO-required 2% of GDP on defense for decades (while we've been spending 4 - 5% virtually every year). Frick them.

Libya, I think, was pretty damn illustrative for those who follow these things. The Euro side of NATO really drove that strategically, but when push came to shove, they still needed Daddy USA to come to their help with even a very minor operation like that, and I think that scared the hell out of many here.