Revealing the weaknesses of the Russian army

When it comes to military power, the United States, Russia, and China are considered the most powerful countries in the world. However, Russia still has many arrows in its quiver, mainly its large nuclear arsenal, with about 1,500 deployed nuclear warheads.

Su-30MKI fighter jet of the Russian Air Force. Photo: Getty

In addition to its nuclear arsenal, there is another area where Russia is definitely number one. Russian military analyst Aleksandr Golts commented that recently, the Kremlin announced that Russia owns more tanks than any other country in the world. With nearly 20,000 tanks, Russia has more tanks than all NATO member states combined.

According to this expert, Russia has a higher logistical advantage than the West. While NATO needs months to mobilize all its strength, Russia only needs a short time to deploy troops.

Russian military analyst Aleksandr Golts said that, nuclear weapons aside, the US has a huge advantage when it comes to conventional forces, including the air force and navy.

Russian tanks in action in Aleppo, Syria. Photo: DPA

“At the moment, the Russian Air Force is much stronger than China’s. As for the Navy, this is still a matter of debate, because China is implementing a very ambitious program of building its own ships and it is much more successful in building a blue-water Navy (global scale) than Russia,” Golts said.

However, according to Mr. Golts, although Russian warships are old, they are often equipped with extremely modern cruise missiles.

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

Russian nuclear submarine. Photo: AFP

Russian journalist and military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer shares this view, warning that real-life conflicts depend on many variables, such as geography and who is involved. “It’s like predicting the outcome of a soccer match: Brazil always beats the US in soccer, but I’ve seen the US team beat Brazil in the Confederations Cup. You don’t know the outcome until the game starts,” he explains.

This expert emphasized that Russia lacks modern military technology, such as designing and manufacturing drones, electronic devices such as radar and spy satellites.

Russia is currently building reconnaissance drones under license from Israel, and Moscow lacks attack drone capabilities. Russia is also working to modernize its command and control centers, which process information from the field and feed it to soldiers.

Facing Western sanctions, Russia is also trying to develop its own drones and narrow the technological gap in other areas. However, the collapse of the former Soviet Union has not only weakened Moscow in terms of territory and troop numbers, but also reduced its military suppliers./.