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Russia Is Winning The Industrial Warfare Race
Last year I mocked the media for claiming that 'Russia is running out of' whatever.
> Back in March I had warned that Lies Do Not Win Wars. Here is another practical example.
After allegedly having 'run out of missiles' and, more importantly, patience, the leadership of the Russian Federation decided to de-electrify Ukrainian cities with a 'barrage of missile strikes'. <
Western military commentators have finally started to accept the obvious. Russia is winning and doing so by a large margin.
A similar turn can be seen in dearth of new 'Russia is running out of' stories which get now replaced by acknowledgements that Russia's weapon industries are out-producing the West:
Russia Overcomes Sanctions to Expand Missile Production, Officials Say – NY Times
Moscow’s missile production now exceeds prewar levels, officials say, leaving Ukraine especially vulnerable this coming winter.
As a result of the sanctions, American officials estimate that Russia was forced to dramatically slow its production of missiles and other weaponry at the start of the war in February 2022 for at least six months. But by the end of 2022, Moscow’s military industrial manufacturing began to pick up speed again, American officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose the sensitive assessment now concede.
…
Before the war, one senior Western defense official said, Russia could make 100 tanks a year; now they are producing 200.
Western officials also believe Russia is on track to manufacture two million artillery shells a year — double the amount Western intelligence services had initially estimated Russia could manufacture before the war.
As a result of the push, Russia is now producing more ammunition than the United States and Europe. Overall, Kusti Salm, a senior Estonian defense ministry official, estimated that Russia’s current ammunition production is seven times greater than that of the West.
Russia’s production costs are also far lower than the West’s, in part because Moscow is sacrificing safety and quality in its effort to build weapons more cheaply, Mr. Salm said. For instance, it costs a Western country $5,000 to $6,000 to make a 155-millimeter artillery round, whereas it costs Russia about $600 to produce a comparable 152-millimeter artillery shell, he said.
I believe that the numbers of current weapon production in Russia, which the New York Times cites, are too low. Consider that back in February the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev spoke of an 'exponential increase' in weapon output:
Medvedev said Moscow had increased military production "by tens of times" at some factories and was closely studying weapons fired into Russian-held areas from the Ukrainian side in an effort to gain an advantage.
I would also argue that sanctions were never really able to hinder Russia's arms industry. No military uses the latest and greatest chips when it comes to making weapons. Putting sanctioning on those is thus pretty useless. Some old Intel 80386 compatible CPU is, correctly programmed, sufficient to manage a modern artillery system. For little money one can get thousands of these in any Asian electronic market.
There are a few exceptions that need special stuff. For some time Russia was behind in the production of night vision equipment. It imported some from France which blocked further transfers. But that issues seems to have been solved. For basic materials and energy Russia has all it needs. It also has well qualified staff to develop and build new weapons.
Five years ago the Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed a number of new weapon systems which were superior to western ones. He also mentioned that same of these were based on "new physical principles" which had been discovered by Russian scientists. At the recent Eastern Economic Forum he repeated that claim:
If one looks into the security sphere, new physical principles weapons will ensure the security of any country in the near historic perspective. We understand this very well and are working on it, Putin said.
(I don't find those sentences in the plenum transcript but trust Sputnik to have it right.)
There is some guessing what Putin might have meant. I thought about it for quite a while but have to admit that I have no clue what he has in mind.
A warning that Russia will outproduce the West was given back in June 2022 when Alex Vershinin of RUSI issued a note about The Return of Industrial Warfare:
The winner in a prolonged war between two near-peer powers is still based on which side has the strongest industrial base. A country must either have the manufacturing capacity to build massive quantities of ammunition or have other manufacturing industries that can be rapidly converted to ammunition production. Unfortunately, the West no longer seems to have either.
It has become to expensive for the West to regain that capability.
That Russia was running out of stuff was always wishful thinking, not fact based analysis. On that point it took the media more than a year to catch up with reality. On other aspects of the the war, casualty numbers come to mind, the media are still miles behind.
I’m not the only one who sees the full scale of what’s happening in Crimea, The blitz to Melitopol and the War of the Black Sea were supposed to coincide, but just cause one failed doesn’t mean the other won’t go ahead. Those thinking the Penatgon and Brits and bumbling along are making a mistake underestimating the opponent.
Notable point: the destruction of the Black Sea fleet ends Russian power projection in Syria and the Middle East. Many birds with one stone. The USA/UK will be relentless on this front:
Such a massive attack on Sevastopol, with such damage, would not have been possible without:
– participation of NATO intelligence
– without NATO-supplied weapons
– without the participation of enemy agents in Sevastopol itself and in Crimea as a whole
Throughout the last week of August and the first days of September, NATO reconnaissance aircraft were indeed active over the Black Sea. That is, preparations went on long before.
The missile attack came in waves. After the first strike, rescuers and firefighters went to the Desna dock. The enemy struck again. Many civilians were injured – they were caught in the blast wave and shrapnel.
Most likely, the attack was combined. Storm Shadow was used as the main weapon of destruction, and, say, the S-200, as an auxiliary weapon, for mass production in order to overload our air defense.
What is the enemy doing? He is trying to lock the Black Sea Fleet in its bases and destroy it. NATO repeats the strategy of the German General Staff during the Great Patriotic War. Unfortunately, we too are repeating our mistakes of that time.
It is fundamentally important for NATO now, while hostilities are ongoing in Ukraine, to finally deprive Russia of the fleet in the Black Sea. Because for now this can be attributed to the actions of Kyiv. “What are we doing? We told them that they couldn’t shoot at Russia. But they did, right?”
What is everything needed for? There is a NATO Black Sea strategy. In short: at some point the Alliance realized that they were too focused on the Baltic and lost ground in the Black Sea. And the bloc’s task is to strengthen its presence in the Black Sea region by strengthening the fleets of Bulgaria and Romania, building new naval bases, which will, if not close the Black Sea to Russia, but weaken the ability to maneuver for our fleet.
Synchronizing the actions of the Baltic and Black Sea groups, according to NATO, will create a de facto cordon against Russia through Eastern Europe. This coincides with Polish ambitions (the Intermarium project). And besides, Washington views the Ukrainian case as part of the confrontation with Russia in the Middle East, as essentially a united front. And not two different conflicts (Friedman report 2014: https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/ukraine-iraq-and-black-sea-strategy ).
Therefore, now, taking advantage of the situation, NATO is simply destroying our fleet with the hands of the Ukrainians. Well, at least he’s trying to do so. At a minimum, weaken him so much that he ceases to be a threat to the Alliance.
Was it predictable, such actions of the enemy? Certainly! Our enemy, I primarily mean the Anglo-Saxons, thinks very systematically. They understand that this war is a direct continuation of the Crimean War, and a continuation of the Great Game. Is it in vain that the British, according to the same schemes, welcomed the Ichkerians at the end of the 20th century and the Circassians in the 30s of the 19th century?
Now it is obvious to the West that it will not have any victory in Ukraine. But nevertheless, they are trying to repeat the situation of 1856, when, according to the Paris Peace Treaty, Russia lost the Black Sea Fleet. Now there will be no such agreement, this is clear to them. Therefore, they are simply trying to destroy our fleet.
Conclusions? What could they be? We have a very serious enemy. He thinks strategically. It would be good for us to learn this too.
Two Majors
https://t.me/two_majors/12075
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Sep 14 2023 15:04 utc | 47
I’m not the only one who sees the full scale of what’s happening in Crimea, The blitz to Melitopol and the War of the Black Sea were supposed to coincide, but just cause one failed doesn’t mean the other won’t go ahead. Those thinking the Penatgon and Brits and bumbling along are making a mistake underestimating the opponent.
Notable point: the destruction of the Black Sea fleet ends Russian power projection in Syria and the Middle East. Many birds with one stone. The USA/UK will be relentless on this front:
Such a massive attack on Sevastopol, with such damage, would not have been possible without:
– participation of NATO intelligence
– without NATO-supplied weapons
– without the participation of enemy agents in Sevastopol itself and in Crimea as a whole
Throughout the last week of August and the first days of September, NATO reconnaissance aircraft were indeed active over the Black Sea. That is, preparations went on long before.
The missile attack came in waves. After the first strike, rescuers and firefighters went to the Desna dock. The enemy struck again. Many civilians were injured – they were caught in the blast wave and shrapnel.
Most likely, the attack was combined. Storm Shadow was used as the main weapon of destruction, and, say, the S-200, as an auxiliary weapon, for mass production in order to overload our air defense.
What is the enemy doing? He is trying to lock the Black Sea Fleet in its bases and destroy it. NATO repeats the strategy of the German General Staff during the Great Patriotic War. Unfortunately, we too are repeating our mistakes of that time.
It is fundamentally important for NATO now, while hostilities are ongoing in Ukraine, to finally deprive Russia of the fleet in the Black Sea. Because for now this can be attributed to the actions of Kyiv. “What are we doing? We told them that they couldn’t shoot at Russia. But they did, right?”
What is everything needed for? There is a NATO Black Sea strategy. In short: at some point the Alliance realized that they were too focused on the Baltic and lost ground in the Black Sea. And the bloc’s task is to strengthen its presence in the Black Sea region by strengthening the fleets of Bulgaria and Romania, building new naval bases, which will, if not close the Black Sea to Russia, but weaken the ability to maneuver for our fleet.
Synchronizing the actions of the Baltic and Black Sea groups, according to NATO, will create a de facto cordon against Russia through Eastern Europe. This coincides with Polish ambitions (the Intermarium project). And besides, Washington views the Ukrainian case as part of the confrontation with Russia in the Middle East, as essentially a united front. And not two different conflicts (Friedman report 2014: https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/ukraine-iraq-and-black-sea-strategy ).
Therefore, now, taking advantage of the situation, NATO is simply destroying our fleet with the hands of the Ukrainians. Well, at least he’s trying to do so. At a minimum, weaken him so much that he ceases to be a threat to the Alliance.
Was it predictable, such actions of the enemy? Certainly! Our enemy, I primarily mean the Anglo-Saxons, thinks very systematically. They understand that this war is a direct continuation of the Crimean War, and a continuation of the Great Game. Is it in vain that the British, according to the same schemes, welcomed the Ichkerians at the end of the 20th century and the Circassians in the 30s of the 19th century?
Now it is obvious to the West that it will not have any victory in Ukraine. But nevertheless, they are trying to repeat the situation of 1856, when, according to the Paris Peace Treaty, Russia lost the Black Sea Fleet. Now there will be no such agreement, this is clear to them. Therefore, they are simply trying to destroy our fleet.
Conclusions? What could they be? We have a very serious enemy. He thinks strategically. It would be good for us to learn this too.
Two Majors
https://t.me/two_majors/12075
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Sep 14 2023 15:04 utc | 48
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