CDX_EIRE
Vital Football Legend
I either watched a video or read something recently that the Soviets built their army to be defensive. They analyzed what happened after WWII and pledged to prevent that from happening again. The plan was to just overwhelm European armies with numbers. That's why they have so much equipment and why they have so much old rubbish in reserve that they've started to throw at Ukraine.No fuckin chance. The Russian don't have to be fought in Europe. When and if Europe gets it's arse into gear and properly funds it's military Russia will melt away. Not even Putin, as barmy as he is, would go up against a united Europe backed by the US. If Putin did push into a NATO country we are duty bound to commit troops in that scenario, but under no circumstances otherwise.
Its not necessarily built to win a war it's built to stop US reinforcements landing in ports in Western Europe. The Soviets knew they couldn't beat the States in a conventional war, hence the allowance in their military doctrine to use "strategic" nukes on the battlefield. They wouldn't have had the time to regroup and repair equipment, they needed something else ready to go and take over. Same with the military conscripts, they needed to know simply things that they could easily remember. All just designed to be a meatgrinder.
The big issue is the Russians are not the Soviets, they're woefully inadequate and I am sure Stalin and the boys are rolling in their graves. Russia has basically rolled this doctrine out on a small scale in Ukraine and its basically a match in land warfare but add in 5th generation US airpower and its game over. The US hasn't even given Ukraine its best stuff.
I think the Soviets said they had to get to France or Spain within 72 hours or the US would be able to land troops and push them back.