Experts "expose" the strengths and weaknesses of the Russian army

Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet. Photo: Getty/AFP

The United States, Russia, and China are considered the most powerful countries in the world when it comes to military might, with the United States unquestionably holding the number one spot. Even so, Russia still has many arrows in its quiver, most notably its massive nuclear arsenal of some 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads.

However, according to Russian military analyst Aleksandr Golts, not to mention nuclear weapons, the US has an overwhelming advantage in conventional forces, including a more powerful air force and navy.

According to Golts, China also has a numerical advantage when comparing conventional forces with Russia. However, in other areas, things are not so clear.

“The Russian Air Force is much stronger than China’s,” he told DW. “The question is about the navy, because China is undertaking a very ambitious shipbuilding program and they are more successful in building a blue-water (global) Navy than Russia.”

Golts added that although Russian warships are old, they are often equipped with state-of-the-art cruise missiles.

However, the military expert warned that ranking countries according to military strength is “more or less useless” because the effectiveness of armed forces depends on the goals set by the country's leaders.

Nuclear submarines are part of Russia's naval power. Photo: Getty/AFP

“It's not always clear where the target is.”

This view is echoed by Russian journalist and military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer, who warns that real-life conflicts depend on many different variables, including geography and the ethnicities involved.

"It's like predicting the result of a football match: It's true that Brazil will basically beat the US in football, but I've seen the Americans beat Brazil in South Africa, at the Confederations Cup. You never know the result until the end of the game," he told DW.

Felgenhauer noted that Russia is lacking in areas of modern military technology, including drone design and production, electronic components, as well as radar and satellite reconnaissance. For example, Russia currently produces surveillance drones under license from Israel, and the country has no capability at all in attack drones.

Russia is also working to modernize its command and control centers, which process information from the battlefield and provide it to the military.

“That’s what the Russian military is saying: Yes, we have weapons, including long-range weapons, but our reconnaissance capabilities are less than our strike capabilities,” Felgenhauer said. “So we have long-range weapons, sometimes precision-guided, but we don’t always know where the target is.”

No more German and French satellites

These problems were exacerbated by the 2014 Crimea crisis, the analyst said. In the years before the conflict with the West, Moscow spent at least $500 million in the United States on so-called “dual-use” items, which can be used for both military and civilian purposes.

“It was electronic components for Russian weapons and satellites, various types of special steel and glass,” Felgenhauer said.

Likewise, “Germany and France were also producing dual-purpose satellites, which were basically military satellites, spy satellites for Russia. And all of that kind of work has stopped.”

A Russian tank on duty in Aleppo, Syria. Photo: pa/dpa

Good Soviet weapons

Facing Western sanctions, Russia is also looking to develop its own drones and narrow the technological gap in other areas, experts say. However, the collapse of the Soviet Union has left Moscow weaker not only in terms of territory and military numbers, but also in terms of military suppliers.

“The Soviet Union had an unwise, but at least logical, economy,” says Aleksandr Golts. “It had nothing to do with the market economy, but the main goal for any enterprise on Soviet territory, whether military or civilian, was to be ready to produce goods and equipment for the army in case of war. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, these systems disappeared.”

However, the Soviet legacy is still very much present in the modern Russian military, as many of their cutting-edge systems are “developments of good old Soviet systems and modernizations of that type of technology,” Golts said.

One such weapon is the decades-old Su-25 fighter jet, designed to support troops in the field. Russia recently announced that the latest version of the aircraft has entered production.

“This plane is very well known to those who participated in the Afghan war in the 1980s, like me,” Golts told DW. “But the designers claim that it only looks like the old Su-25, but all the electronic systems are completely modern… and it has proven itself in the Syrian war.”

20,000 tanks

Aside from nuclear arsenals, there is another area where Russia is clearly number one. The Kremlin recently announced that Russia possesses more tanks than any other country in the world.

“Unofficially, I have seen figures as high as 20,000, which would mean Russia has more tanks than all the NATO members combined,” Felgenhauer noted.

Most European powers reduced their tank capabilities after the end of the Cold War, focusing instead on conflicts with terrorist and guerrilla groups. This, according to Felgenhauer, puts them at a huge disadvantage in the event of a ground war in Europe.

“Germany has only 300 tanks left,” he said. “And Britain, I think, has only 250, and France has about the same number.”

In the event of a European-wide war, Russia also holds a logistical advantage over the West, Felgenhauer said. While NATO would need months to mobilize its forces, Russia would be able to increase its troop presence in a shorter timeframe./.