On Dec 10, 7:07 am, Bill Kambic wrote:
On Mon, 10 Dec 2007 01:19:44 -0700, Fred J. McCall

wrote:

snipped for brevity because I appreciate not having to read 1000
lines of repeat to get one line of comment

: Not so much. You know airplanes are made out of aluminum, right?
:
:Yes, which is why i used the word "corroded" instead of "rusted".
:
:They also contain significant amounts of magnisium, steel and even a
:good bit of copper.
:
And you presumably think that Russians are too stupid to maintain
their military assets or what?

It's not a question of stupidity but money. For three lustrums former
Soviet assets have been rotting away. Now they've got the money (and
the will at the top) to start a "resurgence" of sorts. Time will tell
how long the money and the will last.

It's also worth noting that during the Soviet era readiness rates were
not all that "red hot" even in some elite units. That's one reason
why they always built fairly simply and in large quantities. I don't
know if this will change or not.

: One more time. There are (at least) 4 aviation regiments attached
: directly to the Russian Pacific Fleet.
:
:With an assigned operational strength of what ?
:25 aircraft ?
:
Pull some more numbers out of your ass. Perhaps you'll get closer to
reality.

Why don't you tell us about internal organization of those regiments?

: You think the Russians don't have minesweepers?
:
:I'm sure they have some hull's with minesweeping gear.
:Can they leave port and actually sweep mines ?
:
Better than the few we have probably can, even if you assume that we
have the minelayers to try to close the place off and that they just
let us.

SSNs make great minelayers. So do some long range aircraft (but with
some pretty obvious limitations).

:I can see why so many folks ignore you around here Fred.
:
Only the idiots, Tanky. It's because they don't like having their
lies, idiocy, and squirming pointed out.

I always thought it was a sign of natural intelligence when people
snipped the needless redundancies from their posts.

Clearly the Russian Republic under Putin aspires to a greater world
role, not unlike the Tsars of old. Can they do it? They've got the
money and it looks like they've got the will. Putin is the Collosus
of Russian politics (at least for now) and system is clearly dancing
to his tune. But politicians come and go (even dictators). Building
a navy is very different from building an army or airforce. They
certainly CAN do it; whether or not there is a national (as opposed to
a person) long term agenda to do it is an open question.

A warmer Arctic with proven oil reserves of great quantity could be a
major force in reshaping the Russia we know now. They have had 70
years of experience operating the Northern Sea Route and operations in
the cold Arctic.