Would the Soviets risk taking an aircraft carrier into the Black Sea back then? With a NATO country controlling the lone passage in and out, they would run the risk of never getting the thing out of there. If something would have escalated to where the carrier was needed, the straight could be blocked and the carrier deemed useless in the Black Sea.
Probably not, the Soviets didn't really have a full sized carrier til after the cold war ended.
the Carriers that they did have were posted to the med fleet and their Atlantic Fleet.
For the most part the Black Sea Fleet has been a heavy ASW fleet built around frigates and destroyers with a cruiser command vessel.
Dumb question, but has an American submarine actually shot a missile at an enemy in the last 20 years? Seems like a huge waste of money (unless Iraq has a navy that I don't know about)
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I say we build up the German army. The Russians have always feared the Germans, and what better way to put Russia in it's place, than to start up a US-backed Fourth Reich...
Military Defense Spending and Budgets
USA - $515,400,000,000
China - $59,000,000,000
Russia - $43,200,000,000
Aerial-Based Weapons
USA - 18,169
China - 1,900
Russia - 3,888
Navy Ships
USA - 1559
China - 760
Russia - 526
Aircraft Carriers
USA - 12
China - 1
Russia - 1
Destroyers
USA - 50
China - 21
Russia - 15
-----
I say the USA should not overreact to Russian aggression in the Ukraine. However, if Russia starts to build up it's forces in the Baltic, and threaten Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, the USA should threaten full-scale war with Russia.
"The United States will on Thursday send six additional F-15 fighter jets to step up NATO air patrols over the Baltic states, mission host Lithuania said as West-Russia tensions simmered over Ukraine.
“I have had confirmation that the air police missions will be reinforced by six additional F-15 fighters,” Defence Minister Juozas Olekas told reporters.
The move is a response to “Russian aggression in Ukraine and additional military activity in the Kaliningrad region,” Russia’s exclave bordering Lithuania and Poland, he said.
“We have witnessed increased military activity in Kaliningrad. Today it is lesser than three or four days before,” he added.
The jets will land on Thursday at 9.40am local time at the Zokniai Air Base, once the home of Red Army troops near the northern Lithuanian town of Siauliai, ministry spokesman Vaidotas Linkus added.
President Grybauskaite told reporters in Brussels that the jets are a sign that “NATO is responding promptly and fast”.
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Good job. We cannot do much about the Ukraine, but if Russia threatens the sovereignty of the Baltic states, and Poland, then #### will hit the fan.
Military Defense Spending and Budgets
USA - $515,400,000,000
China - $59,000,000,000
Russia - $43,200,000,000
Aerial-Based Weapons
USA - 18,169
China - 1,900
Russia - 3,888
Navy Ships
USA - 1559
China - 760
Russia - 526
Aircraft Carriers
USA - 12
China - 1
Russia - 1
Destroyers
USA - 50
China - 21
Russia - 15
-----
I say the USA should not overreact to Russian aggression in the Ukraine. However, if Russia starts to build up it's forces in the Baltic, and threaten Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, the USA should threaten full-scale war with Russia.
Putin isn't stupid. He'll back down.
The only thing that matters in full-scale war is we all get nuked.
I say we build up the German army. The Russians have always feared the Germans, and what better way to put Russia in it's place, than to start up a US-backed Fourth Reich...
Ah, let the Germans build up to put Russia in its place. That did not work out that well the last time....
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This is going to come off as incredibly ignorant, but I have no clue what's happening in Ukraine, nor do I know how it began. Is there a recap somewhere?
This is going to come off as incredibly ignorant, but I have no clue what's happening in Ukraine, nor do I know how it began. Is there a recap somewhere?
I say the USA should not overreact to Russian aggression in the Ukraine. However, if Russia starts to build up it's forces in the Baltic, and threaten Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, the USA should threaten full-scale war with Russia.
Putin isn't stupid. He'll back down.
He's not stupid enough to think the U.S./NATO would actually do it either though.
The only way Russia backs down is if they actually start to lose something.
Breaking them financially isn't easy these days because it's such a global economy. Europe, Asia and even North America would feel it.
Russia is full of hornets nest though (Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Tatarstan, etc...), and if the U.S. and allies start to disturb those nests, they will have no choice but to reflect their projection of power inward.
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Russia is full of hornets nest though (Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Tatarstan, etc...), and if the U.S. and allies start to disturb those nests, they will have no choice but to reflect their projection of power inward.
The USA already tried this in Afghanistan in the 80s. The end result was Al Qaeda, 9/11, and Osama Bin Laden. I'd stick to threatening Russia with full scale war. It worked during the Cuban missile crisis...
Military Defense Spending and Budgets
USA - $515,400,000,000
China - $59,000,000,000
Russia - $43,200,000,000
Aerial-Based Weapons
USA - 18,169
China - 1,900
Russia - 3,888
Navy Ships
USA - 1559
China - 760
Russia - 526
Aircraft Carriers
USA - 12
China - 1
Russia - 1
Destroyers
USA - 50
China - 21
Russia - 15
-----
I say the USA should not overreact to Russian aggression in the Ukraine. However, if Russia starts to build up it's forces in the Baltic, and threaten Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, the USA should threaten full-scale war with Russia.
Putin isn't stupid. He'll back down.
Those numbers don't mean much when your fighting in someone else back yard. And this isn't like a game of C+C where you zerg rush all of your forces. It would take time for the American's to build up their forces there, and in order to do that they would have to be aware that Russian forces in the Region who know how American's fight would attempt to take the initiative.
Realistically the biggest advantage with the American's which is naval could be the biggest disadvantage in that the American Carrier groups would be in a limited area getting attacked by forces from multiple sides and being the focus of a lot of weapons.
Make no mistake, the American's are formidable.
but does the American government have a desire to take on another modern force because its going to be bloody and its going to be in the Ukraine.
And can they get the forces across the sea in enough numbers to get the minimum 3-1 correlation of forces that an attacking force needs to overwhelm a dug in well equipt defending army.
The Russian's have invested a lot of money in modernization, they represent a enemy that several times better trained and equip then the Iraqi's or Al Queda or the Taliban.
The Russians will throw the kitchen sink at them. The Russians are masters of the combined armed stuff.
Its a battle that I wouldn't fight because the Russians have the initiative right now, the shorter logistics line and they're built up in the area.
They also have a superior air defense and mobile air defense network then any enemy that the American's have fought since Vietnam. the standard opening move by the American's is a massive air campaign, they will take a lot of casualties there.
but does the American government have a desire to take on another modern force because its going to be bloody and its going to be in the Ukraine.
.
I'm actually referring to the Baltic Sea area, not the Ukraine. The Us would not stand a chance fighting in the Crimea. However, if a war was about to break out in either Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, etc, the Us would have the advantage of placing all their bases in Germany, which is technically closer to the region than Moscow is.
Except that the American heavy formations are not in Germany or Poland or in other European bases.
Any troops there are more of the light variety which get chewed up in great numbers in a modern battlefield.
The American's and other allies would have to build up and bring over heavy formations and specialized units and that's going to take some time, and its something that the Russians have probably planned around denying or thinning out.
Putin won't back down. He will stay in Crimea as long as he wants and there is nothing the West can do about it. If he pushes his incursion, then things change, but until that happens, Crimea is Russian.
Except that the American heavy formations are not in Germany or Poland or in other European bases.
Any troops there are more of the light variety which get chewed up in great numbers in a modern battlefield.
The American's and other allies would have to build up and bring over heavy formations and specialized units and that's going to take some time, and its something that the Russians have probably planned around denying or thinning out.
History is on the American/European side. Russia is not as strong as it makes itself out to be anymore. The population is in decline. They do not have the money the US and Europe do to spend on defense. Pound for pound, the Germans, British, Canadians, Americans, Australians, and French were much better fighters than the Russians.
It would not take long for the Americans to build up strategic military bases in Germany, UK, and France. And the Jets just scored. Jokinen!
Putin won't back down. He will stay in Crimea as long as he wants and there is nothing the West can do about it. If he pushes his incursion, then things change, but until that happens, Crimea is Russian.
I'm talking about the Baltic states, where Russia has already started trouble. The US cannot do too much in the Crimea.
