re: One thing is evident: Russia’s Air Force is weak

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I think Russia just doesn't want to go full ape here. They haven't gotten the response they wanted internationally. They can't really occupy Ukraine without going full ape, the population won't allow it. They can't really pull back without looking stupid.

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Putin's dumbass obviously didn't think about this very hard. Now Russia is fricked on his behalf. Fool

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 by lsusteve1 ? ? on 2/26/22 at 1:57 pm to CharlesLSU

Seems they're better at Cyber bullying than actual bullying

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I'm beginning to think they outsource this to the Chinese. Russia be completely inept. Great salesmen tho.

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So I've been thinking about this, given how young the captured Russian dudes look and how dilapidated a lot of the tanks etc appear to be.

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Most of the Russian tanks I’ve seen in coverage of their invasion are the T-72B3M….

… which is an updated version of the T-72s I was turning into road flares 30 years ago during Desert Storm. And even then they’d been around close to 20 years.

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If you were Putin, and knew your forces were going to absorb a lot of Javelins, NLAWs, etc...would you send in the A-team first to take the hits? Or would you send in the obsolete gear and rejects/conscripts to absorb the hits, since those assets get expended either way...

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The Russians also had the T-80

Basically a T-72 with a little more armor and better fire control system.

T-90

An even more updated version of the T-72 with added armor and ATGM jamming system.

T-14 Armata

Thr first really new Russian tank since the 70s. It’s just coming into production and I don’t think it’s been deployed yet.

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Nukes are their only deterrent or they would lose the entirety of that huge country to many in a HTH fight.

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Nuclear weapons require extensive maintenance to keep from completely deteriorating. Russian's use solid rocket fuel in their ICBMs. It gets old and unreliable like that old box of .22 ammunition that you found in your grandpa's dresser drawer when he passed away and you were cleaning house. Most of the box doesn't fire.

Nuclear warheads must be detonated by a precisely aimed conventional explosion compressing the mass of the radioactive material tighter on itself to attain the critical mass necessary to cause the nuclear explosion. Those primary detonators have to be maintained on a regular and frequent basis in order to ensure that provide the intended results.

Russia can't even maintain its navy at this time. A huge chunk of its navy lies tied up at the docks and rotting and rusting away due to insufficient funds to maintain it.

Look through the videos and gifs that you see posted from Russia with regularity on youtube, tik-tok, and other social media platforms. Take notice of the buildings, the roads, the civilian automobiles, etc. Russia is POOR. Their lifestyle doesn't even approach that of lower middle class Americans.

Our own government has presented them to us as a great booger-bear to be feared because of their very large and capable military and their ability to reach out with weapons of war across the seas and polar ice caps to target America. But it is becoming evident that it was a ruse to keep the American people concerned about what was going on over there that might affect our freedom and liberty instead of seeing how those that we put in office are the ones draining families of income and filling their own pockets while pretending to care about our liberties, livelihoods, families, and well being.

Sorry for the long-winded response that has nearly become a novel. I'll stop here and let y'all think about it for awhile. I know... tl;dr.

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Look through the videos and gifs that you see posted from Russia with regularity on youtube, tik-tok, and other social media platforms. Take notice of the buildings, the roads, the civilian automobiles, etc. Russia is POOR. Their lifestyle doesn't even approach that of lower middle class Americans.

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Yes

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Russia can't even maintain its navy at this time. A huge chunk of its navy lies tied up at the docks and rotting and rusting away due to insufficient funds to maintain it.

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The nadir was probably the early 2000s, and that captures what it was like. Beyond maintenance, they’d lost the ability to build large surface warfare ships.

They’ve been rebuilding since 08 or so.

The army and aerospace forces are still higher budgeting priorities though.

I just don't see how this lemon is anywhere near worth the squeeze.

Even if they do occupy Ukraine how is this worth becoming a global pariah?

They have a legitimate Air Force and haven’t put even close to half of its strength towards Ukraine but compared to our AF they don’t stand a chance. The majority of their aircraft are from the 70’s and 80’s, some being even older. They have some new age aircraft as well but not 1/10th of what we have. If we were to ever go head to head they would be blown out of the sky in short order.

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I wish the Ukrainians had American made planes.

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Could you imagine if they had a dozen or so A10s..

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If we were to ever go head to head they would be blown out of the sky in short order.

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I don’t even think they have a true stealth capability. The SU-57 Felon is barely operational and I doubt that’s even stealthy. Our F-22’s, F-35’s, B-2’s, and 4th Gen standoff capability would wreck them.

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Russia is probably more outdated than people realized coming in

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They have good designers. Their newest weapon systems are pretty good but they have neither the money nor the industrial technology to mass produce them. Their new Armata tank could shrug off those javelin missiles just like our Abrams can, but apparently they're not much more than the prototype stage yet.