re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Russia is obsessed with being perceived as a "great power." But what does that mean? Having the most land? Having the biggest missiles?

The economy is small and anemic. Its people's standard of living is way below first world (not just Western) standards.

I think what Russia fears most is being ignored, which is precisely what Ukraine has been doing for the last few years.

I agree. They have a grandiose national self-image that they ultimately can't back up.

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The Syrians are not allowed to use their modern air defense systems against Israeli aircraft. Per Russia. The Russians have threatened to end that understanding.

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True test for F-35 stealth incoming?

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Considering the Russians are using 1970s era tanks I can only imagine how arse the "air defense system" they gave a random country would be

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Syria has the most intergraded air defense system in the world

It’s insanely congested and the SA systems are no joke

A lot depends on the operator though, which probably isn’t of the best quality from Syria or Russia

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I would be fascinated to see the results

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To hear the Israelis tell it they fly all over Iran and Syria in F22s and F35s.

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The Russian put their money into electronic warfare and air defense systems.

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Do they? or is it just more overhyped junk.

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would be fascinated to see the results. We bet on stealth. The Russian put their money into electronic warfare and air defense systems.

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Both those are dependent on comms infrastructure

Russia is dog shite at comms

If you suck at comms and logistics you will never win

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It's honestly sad what happened to Russia because of Putin. Ya, the oligarchs would still be an issue, and many other problems would still have to be resolved, but Russia was legit moving towards being a member of Europe as opposed to trying to maintain their "superpower" status the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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My thoughts exactly. The last 22 years should have seen further integration of Russia and the EU. Instead Russia is now destined to a decade or more of economic stagnation, cultural isolation, and a political system that has no capacity to peacefully transfer power from one regime to the next.

In the end Putin will go down as one of the true disaster’s in Russian history. It’s just incredible how much further apart Russia now is to the western world order than it was in May 2000.

Regression is the name of the game. Yeltsin pooched this all to hell. Nemtsov would have been so much better as leader, and there would have been like 6 or 7 democratically elected Presidents PMs by now.

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I still remember seeing the first photos of us conducting military exercises with the Russians and thinking what a time to be alive.

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So I'm wanting to expound on this thought, and how it plays in to why we conduct training exercises not only with our NATO allies, but other nations like Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, etc. So pardon my ramble while I try to sum up what I learned over the course of multiple Army schools where I trained with students from multiple nations, then four years of pretty much non-stop training with European allies...and why I brought up training with Russia, and what could have been.

People tend to question why we spend so much time and money on training exercises with these other nations. I mean it makes sense for NATO of course, but it goes beyond that. When you train with other nation's military forces, you come to know them as people. You come to understand their culture, what drives them, what they find important. And vice versa. You quickly realize we have far more in common than we usually think we do.

I still have friends that I've made from multiple nations that I talk to via various social media.

Why does that matter? Because your friend from Mongolia you made while in SOBC might in thirty years be the Mongolian Chief of Staff, and you a senior flag officer. That matters when tensions become strained between nations. It stops being "Chief of Staff of Mongolian Forces" and instead becomes "Arban, the dude I had a hell of a time drinking with in downtown Augusta and still catch up with time to time, who knows all about my family and I his". Think of the impact this could have had if we had kept up the mutual training we did with Russia prior to Putin taking the hardliner approach after coming to power.

Sorry for the rant, just get irritated when I see people question the value of spending the time and money conducting training with foreign nations. And consequently this is also why I'm so vested in Ukraine's fight against Russia. I met some great Ukrainians during my time participating in Rapid Trident, and I wonder if those officers I made friends with are even still alive.