Russian and Chinese Military working together has to have American Military people staying up at night…….
The amount of troops involved is reported to be a quarter of a million troops….
image…. Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Tass
image….Alexei Nikolsky/AP
The headline figures for Russia’s Vostok (or “East”) military exercises, which began yesterday, are dramatic: 300,000 soldiers, 36,000 tanks and other vehicles, 80 ships, and 1,000 aircraft operating across more than half the country. That’s double the size of the British armed forces. It’s also twice the size of the last Vostok war games, held back in 2014. As if that weren’t enough, some 3,200 Chinese troops and 30 aircraft are also involved, along with a small Mongolian force.
Vostok will take the form of a week-long clash between two sides, fought on land, in the air, and in the waters off the Russian Far East. The drills will include staging parachute jumps, conducting “anti-terrorist operations,” and shooting down cruise missiles. The exercise will conclude with a review of the forces in the field, a photo opportunity featuring row upon row of tanks, troops, and miscellaneous hardware. In a way, that’s the whole point. Vostok is not just a big military-training drill—it’s a massive psychological-warfare operation and a geopolitical gambit, being undertaken by Russia as it regains much of its martial mojo and its ability to mount and coordinate complex operations.
That said, there’s a difference between showing off your hardware and testing your new tactics, and actually going to war. We shouldn’t assume that Russia actually wants to fight some major conflict. If nothing else, while Vostok’s scale shows that Moscow has regained the capacity for a continental-scale operation, it could hardly afford to fight one for real. It would have a hard time mustering this kind of army during wartime, when railway lines and communication hubs would be primary targets….
Aren’t you feeling nostalgic for that old Sino-Soviet Bloc (1949-62) ? Ah, memories !!!
This is probably more of a nightmare for North Korea (which borders both Russia and China) than it might be for Western countries or for neutral ones such as India, Indonesia or Viet-Nam.
¶ For comparison’s sake, here are the rough, rounded numbers for U,S. military personnel on active duty in 2017 (according to the 2018 World Almanac):
325,000 each USN & USAF
185,000 USMC
470,000 U.S. Army
Overseas deployment:
64,000 East Asia & Pacific (40,000 Japan & 23,000 S. Korea)
64,000 Europe (of which 34,000 Germany, 12,000 Italy & 8,000 U.K.)
35,000 N. Africa, Near East & S. Asia (10,000 Afghanistan, 7,000 Kuwait, 6,000 each Iraq & Bahrain)
5,000 Western Hemisphere (outside U.S.) and sub-Saharan Africa
Domestic postings:
1,132,000 U.S. & possessions
Ok?
Let me explain why I believe this is worrisome ….
That is a LOT of troops…
As the piece points out the massing of that many troops would be noticeable and take time…
But they ARE available…
The Russian and Chinese troops are not gonna be a proficient as Western armies and military….
But the sheer numbers ARE attention getting…
Biggest worry?
For some crazy assed reason if the two countries have a common goal?
Then they COULD put together a HUGE fighting group that would entail a massive US/Allied response in East….
That while Russia could cause trouble back in Europe….
So if I was The American Defense establishment?
I’d be making sure I have guys on the ground as ‘observers’ and have ‘Keyhole’ satellites parked over the area….
These guys do NOT need surprises…
Hence the worry I feel…
I agree. Just because I think that North Korea has the most to worry about from her Frenemies in Moscow and Peking does not mean that I don’t also find this rather worrisome for Japan, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Viet-Nam and many nations in Central Asia (e.g. Afghanistan), Southwest Asia (e.g. Turkey) and Eastern Europe (e.g. the Ukraine) — as well as for traditional Western projectors of world power (and defenders of world order) such as NATO, the EU, the US, Britain and France.
Such huge, concentrations of military force in one place haven’t been seen since World War II.
Yes DSD….
THIS is a BIG thing….
In putting the piece together you would HAVE TO BE VERY WORRIED….
China is working to unseat America as the worlds biggest economy ….
Trump is correct in his view on trade…
But wrong in how to fight the efforts of the Chienese who have the ability one might think to wait out the Americans while moving their consumer’s to internal product’s…
This while American companies LOSE market share and go out of business….
This while American consumers see rising product prices from things from China that American companies either don’t make anymore or charge HIGHER prices…..
On the Military front?
China doesn’t have the ability YET…
But is moving it seems to strectch American form the West, while Russian grow more aggressive in the East….
Remember Russia?
Like China does NOT have a military as strong and well trained as America and the West…
But there leadership does NOT have the democratic issues our does…
Americans’s have no stomach for long wars…
Afghanistan and Iraq have been going on for over a decade…
But they are invisible ….
The Pentagon HAS TO BE worried…
But I see a problem there also…
With the increase military spending?
The US Defense effort has NOT had a comprehensive audit EVER….
They just spend money…
How efficient are they?
Are America troops and units up to their readiness goals?
The Air Force is STILL trying to get the F-35 working…
And you have a President as Commander-in-Chief who is clueless…
Who doesn’t understand the infrequent national security briefing he gets form people he doesn’t like and trust…
And is probably attached financially to Russian money people….
Shit YEA!
I’d be fucking worried if I was Mattis and Joint Chief’s….
Although they could legitimately disagree about its size and function, both left and right could agree on making the U.S. military more efficient, more effective, less wasteful and more responsive to its own members in the missions assigned by the democratically-elected civilian branches of government (Congress and the Executive).
But I think that Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I., West Point & Army Rangers) — and maybe Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC, USAF JAG) — are the last prominent members of a once-influential military effectiveness caucus that, formally or informally, once included members so diverse as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz., USNA & USN), Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb., US Army enlisted ranks), Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY, US Army enlisted ranks) and Rep. Ron Dellums (D-Calif., USMC enlisted ranks; ranking member & chairman of Armed Services).
And of course Donald J Trump who went to. Military college and must have hated it because he has no respect for the nations military….
As usual, James, you’ve completely missed the point, which has almost nothing to do with the President’s military record.
I was responding to your point about Defense budget waste by saying there no longer seems to be the powerful (or at least influential) bipartisan Congressional lobby for a more efficient and more effective military.
For example, commissioning, building and buying weapons, craft, bases, hardware and systems that actually help military operations, rather than ones that please powerful domestic lobbies,
The Defense budget IS a political lifeline….
The supplies to the military are spread around the country and outside the country…
The bases are around the country….But primarily in the SOUTH…
THAT is no coincidence …
THAT runs against the efficiency and cost benefit point that I was making …
If you have money to lobby lawmakers in Washington?
You get money coming your way….
On Trump’s military record?
Here’s my point…
Someone who had a some military experience, or would at least LISTEN to conflicting info would be likely to confront and question some of the haphazard spending…
Who better to ask hard question than someone who HAS some information?
Certainly NOT a Trump who could care less????
Spending waste actaully WEAKENS the countries defense….
I bet that if he got the really impressive military parade that he wants (better than Bastille Day or May Day, nyah! nyah!), Donald Trump would feel certain that he’d finally Made American defense Great Again.
And he’d consider the personnel, money and resources diverted to the parade from actual military operations and preparations to have been resources and opportunities very well spent.
He, he, he…..
Could he put any of it in his pocket and take it home?