Russian Air Force Woes - Time to start again?

"Alan Minyard" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 13 Feb 2004 12:35:25 +0200, "Yama"
wrote:
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 today's US military everyone receives extensive training. Those
"mechanics" that you disparage receive significant training, as
virtually every system is high value/high tech.

A Finnish pilot who was in F-18 training in USA told that most USN (I don't
recall whether it was an USN or USMC base) mechanics receive surprisingly
little overall training, by Finnish standards. Basically they have
relatively short course during which they familiriaze with one specific
subsystem of the plane. From our point of view this is awfully wasteful
system, but I guess it suits for all-volunteer military.

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.

Wrong. A conscript force will be unable to operate its combat systems.

And this amazing piece of knowledge comes from...where? Funny, we were
perfectly able to operate all our equipment just fine.