Posted on 04/24/2016 5:28:26 PM PDT by 4FreeSpeach
When asked two weeks ago in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee whether the Army was “outranged” by any adversary, U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley said: “Yes … the ones in Europe, really Russia. We don’t like it, we don’t want it, but yes, technically [we are] outranged, outgunned on the ground.”
Given Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, this is sobering testimony. But is it accurate? Unfortunately, yes: Nearly two years of extensive wargaming and analysis shows that if Russia were to conduct a short-warning attack against the Baltic States, Moscow’s forces could roll to the outskirts of the Estonian capital of Tallinn and the Latvian capital of Riga in 36 to 60 hours. In such a scenario, the United States and its allies would not only be outranged and outgunned, but also outnumbered.
(Excerpt) Read more at warontherocks.com ...
Well, RT was tweeting that George Soros and his Blackwater mercenaries pulled the trigger. Later, George was seen piloting an APC.
RT is about as truthful as the NYT. Soros did fund the protests by most accounts but no one knows about the snipers.
There ya’ go. RT is the NYT on steroids.
For the last many decades in every so-called war we have fought, we have enjoyed unquestioned air-superiority. I don't know that it is a foregone conclusion we will have air superiority over an area that the Russians decide to invade. It will certainly be a hotly contested issue.
“A plan worth considering. Similar plan works/worked for Switzerland............”
Exactly. The Russians still aren’t happy about what happened the last time. It took them 8 years to largely pacify the Baltic States and almost 20 to really crush resistance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Brothers#Decline_of_the_resistance_movements
These are tough people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C4%81nis_P%C4%ABnups
It isn’t a matter of being outgunned, NATO has been outgunned in terms of numbers all along. Its a question of a will to fight. I doubt there is a will to fight among western Europeans, particularly for the Baltic states. And if the Russians use the same strategy they used in Ukraine, sending in the army while denying they are sending in the army, the west will be completely unmanned. They will wring their hands but they will not fight.
The A-10 is a tank killer and close air support weapon, not an air supremacy weapon. It flies low and slow to support troops and kill tanks with it’s cannon and bombs. It would be useless in a dog fight with high performing jets.
The Russians will then be a liberating army for the few non Muslims left alive.
The Russians will be fully justified in the attack.
That is my point. It’s effectiveness presumes you have established air superiority.
Russians would get their asses kicked on Poland, as the Poles would have home field advantage, and more motivation. Russians would surrender in droves.
The notion that we would fight Russia over the Baltic states is absurd.
As is NATO, which has not existed in any meaningful sense in 25 years.
True...for the most part. I wouldn't expect the Germans or the Brits or, for that matter, the U.S. to raise a finger.
However, I would also expect the Poles to respond forcefully -- likely the Czechs and the Hungarians, also.
These Eastern European states have an intimate knowledge of Russian aggression and realize they would be next...
Doomed, I tells ya!
Of course, with the F-22 we will have air supremacy.
Not enough of them
....well, Obama, Jarett and Pelosi can always draft a few thousand women and send them over there to fight the Russkies!
Baltics have quite a lot of anti-tank missiles, but the RAND wargame had Russia’s short-warning attack with 27 maneuver battalions so my calculation says 800-1000 in tanks alone. That is quite overwhelming if there is no allied presence.
Fortunately we SPEND MORE MONEY on our military than Russia spends, much more money. Therefore there is NO THREAT from Russia (and China). All those big, heavy, missiles, tanks, and planes are really cardboard cutouts, because if they spend so little, there is NO WAY they could afford threatening weapons.
[I kid you not, this is virtually what the Ukraine-sters, right here on FR, were claiming when they DEMANDED we start a war with Russia to stop the fighting there]
I think many aspects of what you say are true. To me, the single largest and most effective weapon this country has is its reserve of combat trained and tested veterans.
For the last 15 years, the US has not only been using its active duty forces in the combat conflicts, it has been (through necessity) cycling through guard and reserve units. The result? Millions of combat experienced veterans. A definite plus against any nascent conflict.
Where does it lag? It lags behind all the conventional arms and materiel to fight that conflict on a widespread sustained basis.
Sure, F-22s, A-10s (the leftover ones), and that brand spanking new troublesome F-35, F-15s et al could sure do some damage, but artillery and tank-supported ground forces in the hundreds of thousands? Not since GWI. Certainly not now. Bombs, bullets, guns, even decent hand weapons. Tanks, carriers, supply vehicles....most of what’s left from Afghanistan or Iraq is still being reworked and rehabbed.....
But there are still the nukes and the subs if it has to get to that - but you lose all control after the first one.
NATO? Don’t expect much help from them. They’re still stretching it beyond the pale trying to explain why they had to bomb Libya to protect the North Atlantic.
New Russian Tanks like the (now obsolescent) T-90 and brand new T-14 Armata have anti-air missiles and radar guided heavy machine guns purposefully designed for just such a situation - the A-10s would be all shot down in the first 15 minutes.
Most of our weapons are no match for the Russians - outranged, outgunned is no joke - our PC top brass likes very expensive weapons that do everything but nothing well, so we lag behind in building new weapons while upgrades are at the mercy of the expensive new toys (aka F-35, littoral combat ships).
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