Quote:
Originally Posted by burn_baby_burn
I was just reading an article on the weekend (can't seem to find it now) how the US Military was still by far number one in the world. The only military in the world that can strike from anywhere in the world virtually overnight, and how it can be ready to launch a full scale invasion in a couple of weeks. They have thousands of military bases spread out to every corner of the globe. China on the other hand does not have active military bases outside of its own borders. They have 11 active air craft carriers, campared to one each for China and Russia. Long range nuclear warheads are more than double what China has (not sure what the Russians have, or what the number might be combined with China). I don't think any nation in the world really wants to piss them off.
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Sure, I can get with that.
Except these military bases aren't like what the American's had set up in the Cold war where they had heavy formations and equipment and mountains of bombs and shells and bullets and food in every corner of the world.
Right now most of the american heavies are sitting at home in the States and it will take a while to get over to Europe. They have light formations at these bases and those get chewed up quickly in a modern battlefield.
they can launch bombing raids from these bases or from America itself, but the flight time is murderous on its crews and the aircraft themselves and these bases usually only have a day or two worth of ordinance and fuel on site and that's an exaggeration because the calculations are always wrong on that.
America's mode of operation is to bomb the crap out of things while they gather a favorable correlation of forces and supplies, then they launch a devastating punch. We saw that in Desert Storm and Desert Storm two where they built up and built up and then blammo they came over the border in mass numbers.
The Russian's already have that build up well under way and a short distance to move it if they make a move on the Ukraine.
The Russian air defense strategy and equipment is also better then what the American's saw in Libya and Iraq by several hundred orders of magnitude.
If Nato made it clear that they were going to try to push the Russians out. The prudent Russian Strategy would be to hit every nato base with planes and cruise missiles, they would probably also send in their excellent Spetsnaz troops to drop bridges and mine strategic road crossings. On top of that they would move to disrupt communications.
Now part of the Russian SIOP is to use chemical weapons on NATO bases, but they won't go that far because the U.S. looks at any attack using Weapons of MASS destruction as Nuclear.
On top of that the only way that America can get those heavy formations over (Armored Cav, Mechanized Brigades) is by sea, it takes too long to move the equipment and supplies needed by air. If they go by sea then the Russians smartest move would be to go after transport convoys with Subs, and the Russians have really focused on Anti Convoy duties which is what the Oscar type Cruise Missile sub was designed for. The Russians also have 10 available advanced Akula submarines of their improved class that are fairly equivalent to the 688i in terms of quieting and sonar.
If the Russian's feel threatened by a Nato buildup, they'll surge an army group, and they'll mine the crap out of the black sea, and they'll surge their subs You'' see the Russian Aircraft Carrier (which is more of a heavy missile cruiser with a flight deck) and the Ushankov (formerly Kirov) and the Velilky (Nuclear battle cruisers) detach from their current assignments and form a battlegroup to threaten the American's in the black sea.
Given time the American's would win, but pushing the Russians our of the Ukraine and neutralizing their navy could be costly.