3 ms·

After a year of losing the war and firing all kind of random munitions, if Russia had aircraft which it thought could survive against Ukrainian air defenses, I

After a year of losing the war and firing all kind of random munitions, if Russia had aircraft which it thought could survive against Ukrainian air defenses, I think it would use them. They certainly are not scared of losing people or equipment. It seems like the Russian air force can't carry out large operations with sophisticated aircraft, whereas NATO air forces have lots of practice at that.

cpursley 4y ago
The Russian Air Force is carrying out large operations with sophisticated and intentional payloads on a weekly basis as widely reported by even western media. But they haven’t been flying far into Ukrainian airspace - likely due to all the old and very capable S-300s that are still operational (and that’s the old stuff, Russia is already fielding S-500s not to mention Buk 3 and Pantsir). Fear of losing people and equipment is precisely why they’re using stand-off ballistics from a safe distance instead of doing bombing raids. There’s a reason Ukraine is asking for Patriots and other air defense systems (their air defense is degraded).
- risyachka 4y ago
  >> Fear of losing people and equipment Everyone knows russia doesn't fear to lose people. They haven't been flying to Ukraine because their pilots and "advanced" planes can be easily shot down with a regular Stinger system that costs like $40k.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - cpursley 4y ago
    You’ve buying too much into the twitter/Reddit version of how things are going. Russian mothers love their sons just as much as American ones. Consider balancing your sources with actual military experts (and not ones on the boards of US defense contractors or journalist with liberal arts degrees).
    - mopsi 4y ago
      > Russian mothers love their sons just as much as American ones. It doesn't matter at all what they think, average citizen has absolutely no influence on how the government is run in Russia. Russia is a colonial power: security apparatus chiefs, billionaires and their servants in Moscow and St Petersburg form the elite, and together they plunder rest of the country. Typical things that a person from a free country would think of don't work: elections are rigged, no point in participating. Civil society and non-governmental organizations (eg NRA, ACLU) barely exist and have no influence. Media is under full government control, no way to publish anything to wide auditorium. Courts are utterly corrupt. If you stage a protest, then the loudest ones will be dragged into a police van and beaten and raped on the spot, with screams heard by others outside on the street[1].They'll go home and do nothing, or they'll get the same treatment. So many people in the west see Russia as "just another country", while it differs fundamentally: it never developed much beyond slavery. It never developed a free multipolar society where everyone's voice mattered through elections and all sorts of public organizations from book clubs to church groups. It never had freedom and its elite never had to listen to the people. There is simply no tradition of everyone participating in how the country is run. Putin has sent a hundred thousand to death, and nobody will do anything if he sends a million more. He can mow down those mothers with a machine gun, and the default reaction from brainwashed population will be "I suppose they had it coming". [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/CrazyFuckingVideos/comments/xmza9r/in_moscow_police_detain_a_girl_and_take_her_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CrazyFuckingVideos/comments/xmza9r/...
  - pas 4y ago
    There's already a difference between how the Russian armed forces values pilots, recently mobilized rookies, and then there's how the Wagner group values the recruited prisoners.

cpursley 4y ago

The Russian Air Force is carrying out large operations with sophisticated and intentional payloads on a weekly basis as widely reported by even western media. But they haven’t been flying far into Ukrainian airspace - likely due to all the old and very capable S-300s that are still operational (and that’s the old stuff, Russia is already fielding S-500s not to mention Buk 3 and Pantsir). Fear of losing people and equipment is precisely why they’re using stand-off ballistics from a safe distance instead of doing bombing raids. There’s a reason Ukraine is asking for Patriots and other air defense systems (their air defense is degraded).

risyachka 4y ago
>> Fear of losing people and equipment Everyone knows russia doesn't fear to lose people. They haven't been flying to Ukraine because their pilots and "advanced" planes can be easily shot down with a regular Stinger system that costs like $40k.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- cpursley 4y ago
  You’ve buying too much into the twitter/Reddit version of how things are going. Russian mothers love their sons just as much as American ones. Consider balancing your sources with actual military experts (and not ones on the boards of US defense contractors or journalist with liberal arts degrees).
  - mopsi 4y ago
    > Russian mothers love their sons just as much as American ones. It doesn't matter at all what they think, average citizen has absolutely no influence on how the government is run in Russia. Russia is a colonial power: security apparatus chiefs, billionaires and their servants in Moscow and St Petersburg form the elite, and together they plunder rest of the country. Typical things that a person from a free country would think of don't work: elections are rigged, no point in participating. Civil society and non-governmental organizations (eg NRA, ACLU) barely exist and have no influence. Media is under full government control, no way to publish anything to wide auditorium. Courts are utterly corrupt. If you stage a protest, then the loudest ones will be dragged into a police van and beaten and raped on the spot, with screams heard by others outside on the street[1].They'll go home and do nothing, or they'll get the same treatment. So many people in the west see Russia as "just another country", while it differs fundamentally: it never developed much beyond slavery. It never developed a free multipolar society where everyone's voice mattered through elections and all sorts of public organizations from book clubs to church groups. It never had freedom and its elite never had to listen to the people. There is simply no tradition of everyone participating in how the country is run. Putin has sent a hundred thousand to death, and nobody will do anything if he sends a million more. He can mow down those mothers with a machine gun, and the default reaction from brainwashed population will be "I suppose they had it coming". [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/CrazyFuckingVideos/comments/xmza9r/in_moscow_police_detain_a_girl_and_take_her_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CrazyFuckingVideos/comments/xmza9r/...
- pas 4y ago
  There's already a difference between how the Russian armed forces values pilots, recently mobilized rookies, and then there's how the Wagner group values the recruited prisoners.