Russian Air Force Woes - Time to start again?

"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
...
"Yama" wrote in message
...
I agree with your main point (professional army better for Russia now)
but
honestly, couldn't we put this "conscripts no use in modern warfare"
crap
to
rest? It sort of gets tiresome seeing it repeated everywhere with no
basis
whatsoever.

Apart from the experience of the last 30 years during which
conscript armies havent done terribly well in combat
in comparison with professional forces.

And what relevant experience would that be?

I'll hazard a guess that you refer to for example, Desert Storm. Bzzt,
wrong: main combat force of Iraqi army - the Republican Guards - were a
volunteer professional force. That didn't seem to help them.

Conscripts have their place in large scale high intensity warfare
and an active militia with universal service such as that maintained
by the Swiss or Noorwegians may well have its place but its notable
that even those European nations that traditionally used conscription are
tending
to move to a volunteer military. Its particularly difficult to see
how you can maintain the required standard in techinical services
such as the air force or navy.

Tasks requiring signifant technical expertise are manned by professional
soldiers in both conscript and professional armies. That situation has not
changed a bit since WW2. This does not mean that conscripts do not have a
place in those services in supporting tasks. Even in all-pro forces, most
mechanics etc actually receive pretty minimal training in any case, so from
skill level point it's totally irrelevant whether one is a draftee or
volunteer.

In any event France ,Portugal,Spain and Italy are all in the process
of abolishing conscription and Germany is reducing the length
of military service.

That's because their requirements have changed, not because of some
fundamental change in nature of warfare. If your requirement is to defend
your nation against unwelcome tourists, a conscript army is generally
better. If your requirement is to subdue natives few thousand km's away from
your homeland, professional force is better.