They don’t always excel in combat. The earlier MIG’s were very good but never up to par with us. Russia has always ascribed to the tenet “Quantity has a quality of its own” which works if you have an endless amount of resources.
“Russia has always ascribed to the tenet “Quantity has a quality of its own” which works if you have an endless amount of resources.”
Historically true, but there is something of a reversal recently. The Armata tank is designed with a lot of concern for crew survival, almost as much so as the concepts for the Israeli Merkava. The mass doctrine is being applied in robotics, however. Makes sense with a relatively small population with hungry Chinese on one border, and degenerate EUniks and their Moslem pets on the other.