Friday, May 26, 2017

Is Russia Now Strategically On Par With NATO?

© Photo: Russian Defense Ministry

Defense News/AP: Russia boasts of arms upgrade, 'strategic parity' with NATO

MOSCOW — Russia's defense minister says the military has received a steady flow of new weapons, allowing it to maintain a "strategic parity" with NATO.

Sergei Shoigu said in a Wednesday speech before lawmakers that Russia's nuclear forces have been equipped with the new Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles with an enhanced capability to penetrate any potential missile defense.

The Navy has commissioned three new Borei-class nuclear submarines armed with the Bulava ICBMs, and Shoigu said their number will reach seven by 2021. He said that after 2021, the military will also start receiving a modernized version of the Tu-160 long-range bomber.

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WNU Editor: If nuclear weapons are exempted from this assessment ..... Russia has not reached strategic parity with the U.S.. But if they are included .... they may have a case. But bottom line .... because Russian defense spending cannot match what the U.S. and China are now spending, this objective of maintaining strategic parity against NATO will become more difficult with time .... a fact that has even been acknowledged by Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu himself .... Russian Defense Spending 11 Times Less Than US', One-Third of China's (Sputnik).

2 comments:

Young Communist said...

There another aspect to consider: the waste of money.

Even with a great amount of founds, if a fifth of this is wasted on bad project or endless war, this can impact more heavily on a great military system spread in the world.

B.Poster said...

YC: While I will admit to being in disagreement to ehat you post here, however, in this case there's not really much to disagree with.

Within the US there is massive waste and by all appearances out and out fraud, endless deployments on fruitless missions around the world that do NOTHING to advance American security or economic interests, misallocation of funds on weapons platforms like the Zf-35 that don't work and likely never will, morale among US troops is low, training is substandard, the basic equipnent is in poor shape, leadership is incompetent, and the various "Intelligence" services are managed and staffed by a combibation of incomptent boobs and political hacks.

In contrast, the Russians appear to be among the best led, best trained, and most motivated forces on earth. For example, during the Georgian War Russian the Russians moved men and material faster than the US could have and early in the Syria War US "experts" expressed shock at Russian capabilities. I'd also add that in contrast to the utter incompetence and uselessness of US "Intelligence" in all areas. Russian Intel is world class in terms of HUMMINT and cyber warfare capabilities.

At a minimum, Russia is on par and an equal to NATO and may be superior to NATO and the United States. Cold War 2 is sonething we lack the resources in terms of competent personnel to carry out, we cannot afford it, and even if we had all this we DO NOT need it.