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wastingvaluelesstime t1_j6h6faq wrote

Reply to comment by Indus-ian in US to renew efforts to reduce India's oil, military 'dependency' on Russia by Falls_stuff

For some things though Russian equipment is so far behind that if you want modernity and quality you simply have to shop elsewhere, even if it's not US either

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Indus-ian t1_j6h6vg0 wrote

True, as it became more prosperous as a country it has started buying from France and Israel especially. The earlier weaponry was a holdover from USSR and not so much Russia per se

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perrinlighteyes t1_j6hrg25 wrote

That's not true. We have always bought weapons from multiple sources. Although yes, Soviet Union/Russia make up the big chunk.

We have bought equipment from the UK, France, Spain, Italy, South Africa etc from very early days.

Just as an example, since Independence, there has always been a French Fighter jet serving in the Indian Air Force.

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Indus-ian t1_j6hs6kz wrote

You’re right it was a mix. The UK stuff like Folland Gnat are colonial leftover. Mirage 2000 of course.
But those are very less in proportion and expense than soviet weaponry.

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garlicroastedpotato t1_j6izwa7 wrote

For the most part, 99% of the countries of the world don't need modern equipment unless they're intending to go into a war with their neighbors. They only have to have the same level of military as their neighbors to maintain peace. If one neighboring country got more advanced weapons it'd become an arms race. It's why Pakistan and India both got nuclear weapons around the same time. Pakistan sources most of its equipment from Russia and China. India manufactures most of its equipment with permission from the country that developed it.

Which is why a country like India is hesitant to take on US equipment. The US rarely allows other countries to manufacture their equipment.

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wastingvaluelesstime t1_j6jbedb wrote

There's already an arms race with China though so if India stays with Russian designs it will be increasingly outclassed

Russia itself is going to have to choose sooner than it would like whether to become dependent on China or the West for key systems. The way it is going, they will depend on China as they cannot make modern tanks or aircraft in sufficient numbers - their next gen T-14 tank and Su-57 aircraft are just prototypes and already behind what US and China have in quantity.

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garlicroastedpotato t1_j6jo4uc wrote

In terms of Russia they only need hardware that is strong enough to bully their neighbors. They have nuclear weapons, they're not going to war with China or America any time soon.

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wastingvaluelesstime t1_j6jt864 wrote

Russia can't bully neighbors any more, not with how far behind they are. They are about to lose an war to ukraine and in a year or two the whole western border will be NATO. I guess they can try to bully azerbaijan, but, seem to be deterred from trying this in the last few years. If they go after Georgia it would get western weapons to defeat them. I doubt China would permit them to bully kazakhstan or north korea. So, they are outclassed by all neighbors.

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garlicroastedpotato t1_j6jy3ay wrote

Hopes are not reality. It would be nice if Russia lost a war soon. But the reality is Russia can sustain this war for a very very long time, Ukraine cannot. They're not about to lose anything other than their position in the world.

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wastingvaluelesstime t1_j6k3s38 wrote

Ukraine will go for as long as needed. If needed, if it came to it, the west will just put in foreign volunteers with next gen weapons. The whole thing is basically a trap which convinced russia to use up all its equipment and bleed itself white. When Russia was trying to rig our elections five years ago, no one could dream we could trick them into throwing a whole generation into a meat grinder with basically zero cost to the west.

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garlicroastedpotato t1_j6nwade wrote

There's already western soldiers in Ukraine. A lot of them returned home because they became really disenfranchised with just how badly the operations were run.

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