Its really a tossup between “the west isn’t providing enough weapons fast enough and Ukraine can’t learn the weapons we need to give them” and “Russia has vast untapped non-nuclear modern combat capability it could deploy in Ukraine if it wanted with no strategic penalty , but it’s happy shredding new and old gear at the same time” for narratives that don’t pass the smell test. Yup, Russia just left a Pantsir SAM on snake island because they can build new better ones asap.
Last edited by dunfree ; 07-03-2022 at 03:09 PM.
For me, the last pre-escalation hope was that Russia would consider the significant strategic risk of being embarrassed by Ukraine and what that would cost. It seemed like a rational consideration, even if the probability was deemed low. And now maybe they're holding back their best equipment for the same reason. But with hindsight, the only way that makes any sense to me is if they have basically no confidence at all on that equipment. Even if they're really desperate to keep those assets from going up against NATO, what's the difference?
I just don't see the rationale. Most likely they know exactly what paper tigers they have in reserve.
To paraphrase some lost tweet: the only people who overestimate Russia are the ones who don't study Russia. (Obviously us non-experts get to decide for ourselves.)
There are some Russian military hardware customers who would like to see if their supplier has anything in stock that actually works.
The biggest problem with Russians is: Get more than 2 of them in a room together, and one of them will start calling himself "General"...
I have a little theory that PootyPoot may have been sucka'd into this Z-invasion by purposely inaccurate intelligence of Ukraine, and of Russian strength. Same way they told him supply trucks were ready to roll and T72 reactive armor will stop a missile...
If you're gonna be an Eye in a Tower [Brain in a Vat], you best have good ways to sense the world around you.
Apparently that doesn't extend to Belarusians.
https://youtu.be/1JNtiO7nhmo
I think that’s probably right. But I don’t think it’s like they we trying to trick him into doing it just in this particular instance. Guys like Putin won’t abide hearing the truth when it doesn’t match what they want to be told, so they’re left surrounded by only those who will tell them what they want to hear.
In this case, Putin wanted to know he could easily win a war against UKR, so that’s what those surrounding him told him would happen.
Similar to how the United States withheld capabilities in our last two decades experience in the Middle East and Central Asia Adventure Zones, Russia doesn’t need to use everything in Ukraine as neither are fights for survival. Russia is still a country if they lose this war.
Basically they are holding back the capabilities they feel risking would expose them to aggression from NATO or China. Primarily strategic air power as well as the majority of their precision and rapid response artillery. Shit that’s expensive and not easily replaced. . They have made minimal effort to dominate the Ukrainian sky. Most of their fighters and bombers are staying outside of Ukraine. Ukrainian artillery is getting all day to fire and jump. Yes they are still getting hit with counter battery but it’s relatively unresponsive. To me that says they aren’t deploying their doctrinal artillery to ground unit ratios. Even while withholding significant artillery capabilities Russia is still outshooting Ukraine. They just have more.
EW capabilities they don’t want us to sniff and collect intelligence on. Ukraine continues to talk and use radar effectively and accurately. They aren’t getting spoofed of jammed with the effects Russia has previously demonstrated capacity. Once they use these systems in a battle field like Ukraine they become exposed for us to collect on and start developing technological and tactical counter measures. Same with China.
This makes sense WRT whole different weapon systems and anything that represents a huge escalation. But is there anything in that set of tools that has any chance to be deployed in Ukraine? Is there a grey area between what they're willing to sacrifice and either strategic deterrent or just much more expensive weapons that they hope not to use but might decide to in a pinch?
It seems like there's a very different answer to some of this than is imagined by those who think everything we could do leads directly to WWIII.
Thank you, that was illuminating. And a wee bit depressing.
Forum Cross Pollinator, gratuitously strident
Russia is holding back its Air Force because of all the manpads nato has sent. Same with Javelins. Very effective but as in any war they’ve adapted and changed tactics.
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demonstrably false, with evidence, but you gotta sell your narrative and you ain’t gonna change. Russia has used most of their demonstrated nonnuclear toolbox, but sporadically and thus ineffectively, and the question should be if they even could deploy effectively (do they have these systems en masse with trained personnel?). Anyways, we’re up to over 10% of their modern combat choppers lost so far.EW capabilities they don’t want us to sniff and collect intelligence on. Ukraine continues to talk and use radar effectively and accurately. They aren’t getting spoofed of jammed with the effects Russia has previously demonstrated capacity. Once they use these systems in a battle field like Ukraine they become exposed for us to collect on and start developing technological and tactical counter measures. Same with China.
Cringe.
The US has been essentially fighting guerilla bands who shoot RPGs at helicopters, rather than near-peers capable of blunting a mass offensive the way Ukraine did with Budget Barbarossa.
Russia has lost much of their tech in this war - entire EW/ECM platforms designed to jam synthetic aperture radar and other remote sensing as well as log NATO signals - captured intact and shipped to the US and other NATO countries for reverse engineering, shitloads of mil drones, entire unexploded Kalibr cruise missiles, etc
Russian reactive armor has also been shown to be a joke, and their turret-popping main battle tanks and their tank doctrine in its entirety has been shown to be obsolete.
Same goes for their combined arms in general - fucking joke. Probably because someone stole all the radios...
Russia as we knew it for the last few years is already gone. Russia might be a country after getting their peepee whacked in Ukraine, but Putin will have gone too far and the propaganda bubble will burst. That will be the end of Pootie Poot, who was always just a pretentious actor playing a role anyway.
Beautiful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner by Ukraine.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/com...eb2x&context=3
"We don't beat the reaper by living longer, we beat the reaper by living well and living fully." - Randy Pausch
A take on the German army, how it became weak, and the reforms it needs to become effective.
Counterpoint:
https://twitter.com/iaponomarenko/st...usysREJik1QPcA
RU ammo dumps are being destroyed at a ridiculous pace.
https://twitter.com/iaponomarenko/st...usysREJik1QPcA
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