Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Is Russia's Military A Paper Tiger?

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu provided details of Russia's latest snap exercise at the National Defence Control Centre in Moscow on 16 March Source: Russian MoD

National Interest: Not So Scary: This Is Why Russia's Military Is a Paper Tiger

While Moscow’s military adventure in Syria shows that its forces have improved markedly since their near collapse in the mid-1990s, Russian military forces still have many weaknesses.

While select portions of the Russian military—most notably the Strategic Missile Forces, airborne forces and naval infantry—have been extensively modernized, other forces still rely on ill trained conscripts and dilapidated hardware held over from the Soviet-era. In other words, Russia’s military modernization has been uneven at best.

WNU Editor: I am sure that when Russia has completed their current goals for modernization that there will be deficits in some of the armed forces .... but I am also sure that they will be addressed in the future.

4 comments:

Daniel said...

Thing is, it's not like we need ALL of our army to work. Nowadays we just need a few elite units to do well. The rest are unlikely to see combat unless something goes horribly wrong.

Stephen Davenport said...

Yep, they are overrated, with good a PR department.

Daniel said...

A good, cheap PR department, considering how much of it is various Western media outfits and alarmist military types.

Bob Huntley said...

The American army, well trained and armed with up to date equipment, huge technical support and with a tendency towards losing wars, seems a bit paper tigerish.