Russia’s Military
Ralph Peters on Russia’s Military [Fred Schwarz]
You have to say one thing for the Russians: They’re good at being spontaneous. Georgia shocks them with a totally unexpected invasion of South Ossetia, and within a few days Russia has an overwhelming counterattack underway, complete with a naval blockade, meticulously planned air attacks, armor, infantry, supply lines, and everything else a dictatorship needs to squash an uppity neighbor. Amazing how they can throw something like that together so quickly. It’s almost like they knew in advance what was going to happen.
But as Ralph Peters writes, the invasion has also revealed some flaws in Russia’s military, particularly the air force:
RUSSIA’s military is succeeding in its invasion of Georgia, but only because Moscow has applied overwhelming force.
This campaign was supposed to be the big debut for the Kremlin’s revitalized armed forces (funded by the country’s new petro-wealth). Well, the new Russian military looks a lot like the old Russian military: slovenly and not ready for prime time.
It can hammer tiny Georgia into submission - but this campaign unintentionally reveals plenty of enduring Russian weaknesses.
The most visible failings are those of the air force. Flying Moscow’s latest ground-attack jets armed with the country’s newest precision weapons, pilots are missing far more targets than they’re hitting.
All those strikes on civilian apartment buildings and other non-military targets? Some may be intentional (the Russians aren’t above terror-bombing), but most are just the result of ill-trained pilots flying scared.
They’re missing pipelines, rail lines and oil-storage facilities - just dumping their bombs as quickly as they can and heading home.
Russia’s also losing aircraft. The Kremlin admits two were shot down; the Georgians claimed they’d downed a dozen by Sunday. Split the difference, and you have seven or more Russian aircraft knocked out of the sky by a tiny enemy. Compare that to US Air Force losses - statistical