@SocomhunterX-o4x October 1, 2024 at 11:02 pm

Russia is the definition to fake it till you make it :p I've been saying this for decades but everyone blindly believed the nonsense of a corrupt politician. Nations as corrupt as Russia can never run well.

@mikeg3439 September 30, 2024 at 2:18 pm

Corruption and incompetence are part and parcel of Communism, when grift and influence and power over others remain the only commodities that really matter.

What a lot of people do not understand is maintaining a formidable military requires a MASSIVE amount of funds, discipline, work, continuing education, pivoting as the world changes, R&D, upkeep, upkeep, feeding, logistical maintenance and mastery, upkeep, upkeep, and also upkeep.

What is upkeep. Let me give you one example: vulcanized rubber. Lasts 10-15 years. That includes in storage. You have no idea how much it is used in heavy machinery. Here is another fun one: pest control. You have no idea how much pests can wreck equipment, including wiring. Here is a fun concept: having your support industries go away because they are outmoded. Yet the equipment they maintained is still sitting there, needing the support industries. The for-profit world is not going to keep these things going just out of the kindness of their hearts.

Don't even get me started on corruption and what it does to undermine operational capability.

Meanwhile the concept "it's hard to find good help these days" might as well be the mantra of Gen Z, and not just in America. It's the most "I'll do as little as I have to and demand as much as possible generation ever. That would not be so bad were it not really the sum TOTAL of a lot of them. So these are the people, more and more, "upkeeping" these machines of war, these infrastructures, these logistic lines, these warehousing. It's even worse due to morale among them in Russia being rock bottom. They are told they are freeing the people of Ukraine. What they are finding out is they are conducting one of the most unpopular invasions in the last century.

Summary: a formidable tank is only formidable if it can be turned on and competently used by a disciplined force that operates with rules and laws. This is the disaster facing Russia more and more, worse and worse, every year that passes.

1980 USSR terrified me. 2020 Russia, not so much.

@sampalermo9472 September 29, 2024 at 4:59 pm

Yeah, Watch out for those dangerous Russian Bi Planes they have hidden away- that is their next secret weapon. That will be followed by the Russian secret Zeppelins. Ukraine will be on the run then.

@tomholroyd7519 September 28, 2024 at 2:29 am

It is cool to learn about how poor Russia's weapons are. Have you noticed that the war is still going on? There might actually be a problem with their brains, not the guns