Air Weapons: Known But Not Seen In Use

[Valin]

Strategy Page:

September 8, 2016:

 

When Russia sent its most modern warplanes into Syria in August 2015 the West was able to observe these aircraft, missiles and electronic system operate in combat for the first time. The results were interesting and a year later it was clear that a lot of the new Russian stuff looked better on paper than in reality. Turns out that most of this new stuff developed during the 1990s didn’t start reaching Russian troops until much later. Initially the new stuff was mainly for the export market. Customers who were unlikely to use these weapons in combat were preferred because any failure by a new weapon hurts future sales, even if you can convincingly point to user error as the problem. Thus Russia was careful in how and where it used these new weapons and equipment in Syria.

 

At first most attention was on Russian missiles and guided bombs. Two things were noted. First was that not all Russian warplanes in Syria used Russian smart bombs and air-to-ground missiles and even those that did more frequently used unguided (“dumb”) bombs. A year later it was noted that Russian fighters equipped for air-to-air combat usually didn’t carry the latest air-to-air missiles. Rather they carried older models using tech and capabilities similar to American missiles in the 1970s.

 

After some investigation it turned out that Russia never bought a lot of the most advanced weapons for their own forces and, especially after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, exported most of the newest weapons they had on hand and nearly all the ones still being manufactured in the 1990s. It wasn’t just smart bomb, it was also air-to-air missiles and new electronics. It wasn’t until after 2000 that Russia was able to begin buying these advanced systems for their own forces and then not very many of them. Another problem, which was not really unknown, was that a lot of the most modern Russian weapons performed poorly. The U.S. had already learned this from the new Russian missiles and smart bombs (and electronics and so on) they were able to buy in the 1990s, when many former Soviet allies (or parts of the Soviet Union, like Ukraine) were willing to sell these “wonder weapons” to anyone who could pay. The U.S. could pay, bought lots of them, actually used them under realistic conditions and found these weapons less reliable and effective than their American counterparts. The U.S. later found out from India (a long-time customer for these Russian weapons) had the same experience in combat. What remained unknown until 2015 and 2016 in Syria was how few of the most modern weapons the Russian troops themselves had and how inexperienced they were in the use of this stuff.

 

(Snip)

[Geee]

Well, that's some good news (unless they are saving the 'good' stuff for us )