Russia Faces An Aging Defense Industry

SU-30, armed

From The L.A. Times:

A plane, hailed as having the latest in aircraft technology, is only an upgrade on a 20-year model. It symbolizes a sector that needs an overhaul.

ZHUKOVSKY, RUSSIA -- At a once-secret airfield outside Moscow, test pilot Sergei Bogdan proudly introduces reporters to what was billed as the latest in Russian military aircraft technology, the Su-35 fighter jet.

But the plane is only an upgrade of a 20-year-old model -- and it can't match the speed and stealth of the latest U.S. fighter, the F-22 Raptor, which entered service in 2005.

Former President Vladimir V. Putin, now Russia's prime minister, has boasted of new weapons systems and of strengthening the armed forces, raising fears in the West of a Cold War-style military buildup. Flush with oil money, the Kremlin is in the market for new weapons.

But Russia's state-run defense industries, experts say, face a crumbling manufacturing base and pervasive corruption; they have produced little in the way of advanced armaments in the Putin era.

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My Comment: A brain drain of the best scientists, corruption, an absent R&D program, no strategic direction, and declining moral .... the Russian military complex is not what it once was.

Even if the Russian government throws tons of money into weapon programs .... it will be decades .... if ever .... that they will be able to catch up with the military forces of Nato, the U.S., or the Chinese military. The manufacturing and electronic infrastructure is just not there.

I read a comment a few weeks ago that sums up perfectly the state of Russian weaponry. Russian weapons are the best weapons in the world .... but when they face American systems they will always lose.