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They haven't been able to modernize due to budget. This document from 2017 was written by the US military and analyzes and points out weaknesses in the Russian

They haven't been able to modernize due to budget. This document from 2017 was written by the US military and analyzes and points out weaknesses in the Russian BTG (Battalion Tactical Group) doctrine and has some excellent points that make a lot of what is currently occurring fall into place. https://www.benning.army.mil/armor/earmor/content/issues/2017/spring/2Fiore17.pdf https://www.benning.army.mil/armor/earmor/content/issues/201... >Current Russian state net revenues from energy cannot fund the same modernization period as before. Basically they can't modernize. It then goes into the current Russian BTG doctrine and how it leaves armored groups exposed due to a lack of supporting infantry and air. >The BTG’s may be vulnerable to raids, counterattacks and other surprise movements because reliance on analog C2 limits subordinate units’ ability to understand and react to changes of circumstance. >A BTG had the entire brigade’s support and enabling resources, but it had only one mechanized-infantry battalion >According to Russian Army manuals, in the field as many as 50 percent of infantry soldiers can be required for local security and routine administrative tasks. This leaves relatively few infantrymen available for mounted squads. Squads are usually organized ad hoc and are less than fully manned,which makes them less effective and less independent. For opponents, it also means that it requires fewer casualties to neutralize the Russian squads. >The lack of infantry causes BTG commanders to prefer to isolate urban infantry strongpoints for prolonged sieges instead of assaulting The document also goes into supply issues that BTGs will likely face. Basically the current Russian doctrine is ridiculously ineffective. It involves lots of independent battalions of almost pure armor. Which get destroyed consistently due to a lack of supporting infantry. To the point where it's quite possible they'll lose this war. The Russians thought it was effective in Chechnya and Syria and the 2014 war with Ukraine since they simply didn't face significant resistance. All of the above weaknesses are now very apparent however. One last thing >The current military and political leaders are the same leaders who introduced the BTG structure; their reputations and careers are closely tied to its success. Instead of moderating BTG rollout and keeping a portion of the Russian Army in a divisional structure to train for high-intensity CAM, Russia’s leaders are accelerating the rate that units convert into BTGs.

tablespoon 5y ago
> To the point where it's quite possible they'll lose this war. Not fast enough. My understanding is the current Western military analyses still predict the Russians will eventually win, it'll just cost them more. IMHO, if we want to Ukrainians to win, it'll require either some kind of direct military intervention, or giving them control of much more advanced equipment (e.g. cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, etc.)
- jmnicolas 5y ago
  Have you thought about what happens if Russia looses? Ukraine is a red line for them.
  - phatfish 5y ago
    What happens when Finland becomes the "red line" or Poland etc. Both parts of the Russian "empire" at one time or another. It has to stop somewhere. Now is as good a time as any, especially as Russia has proven they are militarily weak.
  - Ourgon 5y ago
    The longer this war is allowed to continue, the weaker Russia will become. A weak Russia both increases the risk of nuclear weapons being used as well as that of other states - China in particular - using this weakness to try to grab some of that enormous, resource-rich area called Siberia. So, let this war be finished soon in the same way that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan or the US intervention in Vietnam were finished: in defeat without obliteration. Let Putin loose face and be deposed so that a new generation can take over in Russia, preferably one which is not controlled by some globalist loon nor one which has dreams of reinstating some former Russian empire. Let Ukraine become the European nation it claims to be which means they need to rid themselves of corruption. Let the mistakes which were made in the de-sovietification of the former USSR be corrected, get rid of the oligarchs and their cronies. Smoke out Lukashenko from White Russia so that that nation can also learn to stand on its own feet once the Putinistas have been purged. And for the love of ${$deity} stop with the stupid, braindead anti-everything-that-is-Russian attitude that I see growing around me. I see a Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky concerts being cancelled in the Netherlands, Russian-language children's reading hours in the library in Sweden are cancelled, a university in Italy wanted to ban Dostoyevsky from its curriculum and more of such stupidity. Just stop it already, realise that Russia is part of Europe and will remain so after this war is over. Realise, also, that Dostoyevsky was imprisoned by the then-version of Putin, that Ukrainians are just as enamoured of Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky as Russians and others are, that those Russian-language reading hours in a Swedish city would most likely get the children to dislike Putinism more than that it would encourage them to follow him. If Clancy is to believed one of the bigger insults you could make to a Russian was that he was uncultured - некультурный. Let's show that we are not while making clear that it is Putin and his ilk who represent the barbarians at the gate.

tablespoon 5y ago

> To the point where it's quite possible they'll lose this war. Not fast enough. My understanding is the current Western military analyses still predict the Russians will eventually win, it'll just cost them more. IMHO, if we want to Ukrainians to win, it'll require either some kind of direct military intervention, or giving them control of much more advanced equipment (e.g. cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, etc.)

jmnicolas 5y ago
Have you thought about what happens if Russia looses? Ukraine is a red line for them.
- phatfish 5y ago
  What happens when Finland becomes the "red line" or Poland etc. Both parts of the Russian "empire" at one time or another. It has to stop somewhere. Now is as good a time as any, especially as Russia has proven they are militarily weak.
- Ourgon 5y ago
  The longer this war is allowed to continue, the weaker Russia will become. A weak Russia both increases the risk of nuclear weapons being used as well as that of other states - China in particular - using this weakness to try to grab some of that enormous, resource-rich area called Siberia. So, let this war be finished soon in the same way that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan or the US intervention in Vietnam were finished: in defeat without obliteration. Let Putin loose face and be deposed so that a new generation can take over in Russia, preferably one which is not controlled by some globalist loon nor one which has dreams of reinstating some former Russian empire. Let Ukraine become the European nation it claims to be which means they need to rid themselves of corruption. Let the mistakes which were made in the de-sovietification of the former USSR be corrected, get rid of the oligarchs and their cronies. Smoke out Lukashenko from White Russia so that that nation can also learn to stand on its own feet once the Putinistas have been purged. And for the love of ${$deity} stop with the stupid, braindead anti-everything-that-is-Russian attitude that I see growing around me. I see a Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky concerts being cancelled in the Netherlands, Russian-language children's reading hours in the library in Sweden are cancelled, a university in Italy wanted to ban Dostoyevsky from its curriculum and more of such stupidity. Just stop it already, realise that Russia is part of Europe and will remain so after this war is over. Realise, also, that Dostoyevsky was imprisoned by the then-version of Putin, that Ukrainians are just as enamoured of Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky as Russians and others are, that those Russian-language reading hours in a Swedish city would most likely get the children to dislike Putinism more than that it would encourage them to follow him. If Clancy is to believed one of the bigger insults you could make to a Russian was that he was uncultured - некультурный. Let's show that we are not while making clear that it is Putin and his ilk who represent the barbarians at the gate.