Imagine what the classified equipment was. Imagine russia and to fight an emery with the upgraded stinger
Indeed.
USA military budget = 770 billion USD per year*
Russian military budget = 180 billion USD per year (PPP metric)**
*Over 50 billion USD is diverted for Black Projects.
Americans are relatively better funded and equipped for black experiments and creating new technologies by extension.
They will disclose and apply game-changing technologies when up against a well-equipped force. They did this in 1991 (vs. Iraq) and 1999 (vs. Yugoslavia) respectively - won both wars.
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**Details in following source:
Gresham’s Law states that bad money drives out good money, but anyone who has spent time around Washington, D.C., knows that this law can safely be
warontherocks.com
Forget all the arguments. If you want to know about the future, watch the Simpsons. They always get it right.
Americans have surprises in store for others even in case of a nuclear war. These include unspecified advances in the EMSO regime. They are developing different technologies to fight a nuclear war if necessary. This matter is no longer limited to use of ICBMs. Many are sold to Cold War era notions in this regard.
For perspective, they complain about Russian (and Chinese) ASAT options but they do not tell much about their own and how they can defend their assets in space:
Space based jammers? Kinetic kill vehicles? Ground based lasers? The Pentagon has a space weapon it's ready to show, but it's not clear exactly what it will be.
breakingdefense.com
An advanced and proper military strategist wud never have kept 200k invasion force near the Ukraine border to raise alarm and let the enemy prepare their defences.
They had their forces standing for god knows how many months near enemies border doing absolutely nothing.
Russian military strategists are either bullshitters or Putin thought the same as Hitler and began to think being a politician and a military strategist are one and the same.
An army wud only wanted to do what Russia did in the buildup if they wanted to take a beating from their enemy on purpose.
Not just that, giving Ukraine all the time in the universe to shore up defences and put strategic forces where required but they also let them be armed with thousands of anti tank missiles as if they didn't matter.
WTF is this. This is the worst military blunder post WW2 and Iran wudve done 100x times better than the Russians. What a goddamn shame. Letti g ur enemy be armed to teeth with javelins and manpads and expecting an easy invasion. Politicians shud heed to the advise of talented generals and not think of themselves like godly. This is all Putin's fault.
If he were to listen to his generals I'm sure Russia was never let Ukraine be armed with those shipment and launch preemptive massive airstrike before a full fledged almighty SURPRISE blitzkrieg invasion with 300K men. Then Kiev wud have fallen within a week.
Don't get me wrong... I really really like putin. He's one of my favorites. But there's a difference between him and Ceasar. Caesar was a military leader who was well versed on every offensive and defensive tactics ever employed in a battlefield. His campaigns and strategic maneuvering against the Gauls and the optimites will make even the best military men of today's head spin.
He acted one cold tactical reasoning and left nothing to chance. Not even the morale of one single man among his units. Nothing was ever left to chance and exploited every advantage and then acted very very BRAZENLY. This is Gaius Julias Caesar. There can't be a man like him. I know exactly how Caesar wudve taken care of Ukraine.
You might consider military buildup (for a military operation in a neighboring country) deep inside your territory but you will have to move these forces to the relevant border at some point and it will draw attention at this stage if not earlier. This strategy will add to your costs as well - lot of fuel will be consumed in the process.
Military buildup near the border is cost-effective approach on the other hand. Much of the fuel is preserved for military operations inside another country in this manner.
Russian force composition in Ukraine is already substantial: 200,000 Russian regular troops are involved along with an undisclosed count of irregular forces such as the Wagner Group and Chechens. These forces breached Ukraine from 6 different directions including through Belarus. Russians have also used hundreds of cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to strike at high value targets inside Ukraine to minimize losses to its Air Force. Russian military operation in Ukraine is well-executed in theory.
Ukranian resistance efforts are commendable on the other hand. Putin assumed that Zelenskky administration is a puppet regime and will fall apart when Russian forces will enter Ukraine and approach Kyiv. He was proven wrong. Not only Zelenskyy decided to stay in Kyiv, he motivated Ukranians to fight and many answered his call. Putin needs to get rid of his current crop of advisors if anything.
Ukranians were relatively underprepared for the war in fact. Ukranian leaders were taking Russians lightly. Misreading of this situation costed Ukraine much since 2014. Zelenskyy administration was also taking Russian military buildup in Belarus and around Ukraine lightly. Zelenskyy probably realizes this error and decided not to abandon his country when Russian forces approached Kyiv.
I have seen some members making fun of Zelenskyy for being a comedian but this man has more spine in him than supposedly well-groomed leaders of numerous countries around the world. Credit where due.
You cannot stop supplies from one country to another unless you are willing to conduct a military operation to this effect. This is time-consuming initiative and will add to your costs as well.
Few countries have sufficient resources to subject another country to military occupation and/or fight increasingly hybrid methods of warfare in another.