Russian Soldiers in Syria

I had to look up the size of the Russian military in the CIA Factbook but it wasn't there.  The BBC came through with the fact that the overall size is classified [see Russia boosts military might despite sanctions from May] but revealed that the loss of manufacturing capability in the Ukraine was hurting them and about 90-100,000 men was all they could put into the Ukraine, even if they were to invade.  That is a lot of people, but nobody around there can match it.    We will see if they can fight a war in Ukraine and Syria at the same time.  That might prove more difficult.

The CIA Factbook says roughly 10% of the military is of draft age, which is compulsory.  Conscripts can be sent to combat zones after 6 months of training, though military will remain in the Reserves until they are age 50.  In 2014, half of Russian males got legal deferments.  Reuters Most of Russia’s military still ‘rubbish’ despite Ukraine, Syria deployments speculates that, in spite of deployments of Russian troops to the Ukraine and Syria, the quality of the Russian military is not very good.  We might be skeptical of that claim.

The Russians showed off their cruise missiles and their fighter-bomber aircraft, some of which are very capable platforms.  The maintenance trail of these kinds of hardware is long, but they seemed to be maintained well.  The airplanes are flying multiple missions and not dropping out of the sky.  They seemed to have slowed down their use of cruise missiles, so they either ran out or they didn't find them very effective against the targets.  That puts more burden on the aircraft and crews.

Sometimes it amazes me to see an aircraft carrier launching aircraft into a war zone and bringing them home in all kinds of weather, far from home.  The Navy seems to do it effortlessly, but it takes an army of Navy people to do it.  Ordnance, aircraft technicians, mission planners, cooks, logistics managers, et al go into an area and stay there until relieved by another aircraft carrier.  It must be scary to see us do that.

We don't want to underestimate what the Russian soldier can do, because they have done quite a bit, with very little, for a long time.  Now Putin is building up his forces and giving them modern weapons, increasing his cyber capabilities, and using that force to occupy territories in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. He isn't sitting around waiting for some ragtag bunch of fighters to join in his wish for how political events will unfold.  Russia's military may be more formidable than we think.