How Russia's Revamped Military Fumbled the Invasion of Ukraine

[dalton99a]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-putin-revamped-military-ukraine-invasion-11647469602

How Russia’s Revamped Military Fumbled the Invasion of Ukraine
Moscow spent years upgrading its capabilities, only to see the armed forces fail their first major test, confounding earlier Western assessments and giving Ukraine a boost
By Thomas Grove and Stephen Fidler
March 17, 2022 10:34 am ET

...

Before they saw it in action, Western analysts had been largely impressed by Russia’s effort since 2008 to modernize its military. The overhaul emphasized a shift from large static units of a mainly conscript army to smaller, combat-ready groups of contract soldiers. It went alongside a modernization of equipment for land, sea, air and nuclear forces.

But the analysts overestimated the impact of new weapons such as battle tanks and jet fighters, said Phillips O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. “Having weapons is only going to take you so far,” he said. “They have never had to operate these complex systems in this kind of conflict since at least the end of the Cold War, and you might actually say really since World War II.”

Russia — whose economy before the invasion was about the size of Italy’s — may have spread its efforts too thinly and the modernization effort also appears to have been undermined by fraud and corruption, said analysts including Michael Clarke, a former director of the Royal United Services Institute, a London think tank, and now associate director of the University of Exeter’s Strategy and Security Institute, citing estimates that some 25% of the invading force are conscripts.

Weapons systems haven’t performed well and commanders pretended they had capabilities that weren’t there, Mr. Clarke said. Of Russia’s effort to create a “large, modern army,” he said: “The part which is modern is not large, and the part which is large is not modern.”

[underpants]

1. Damn pay wall. Looks like a good article.

Corruption hasn’t been discussed much in the TV shows that I’ve seen.

[Gore1FL]

2. Here you go.

It's been archived:
https://archive.ph/vJPYD

edited -- copied wrong link originally

[underpants]

3. 👀

Thanks.

[dalton99a]

4. +1

[Igel]

5. Imagine that they hadn't trained and exercised for a month or two ahead of time.

This is the army at peak form. Perhaps a bit tired, but they had down-time between exercises and invasion, so it's about as good as it gets. Lots of prep time for supplies, lots of planning time.