Russia Expanding Submarine Fleet

by JASmius



They're just building, building, building, while we dismantle, dismantle, and scrap:

Russia has increased its submarine fleet, raising tensions with the West as it patrols the Baltic Sea and has fired missiles into Syria, the New York Times reports.

Russia isn't threatening to surpass the United States in submarine power, the Times notes – it has forty-five total attack subs with about two dozen that are nuclear-powered and twenty that are diesel-powered, compared to the fify-three nuclear attack subs the United States has among a fleet of other nuclear submarines.

Here's a little side lesson for the NYT: If one side is building, building, building, and the other side is standing pat or shrinking, then the first side is, indeed, threatening to surpass the second side.  In addition to which is that the Russians - the "building, building, building" side - are in possession of a growing sub fleet that is, by definition, newer, faster, quieter, and better armed with newer, more powerful weapons than our own (the most recent of which - the Virginia class - is over a decade old, and whose big selling point was its "affordability").  We will soon be both outnumbered and outclassed beneath the seas.

In order to even keep up, we're going to have to upgrade and rebuild our own submarine fleet.  That will not be cheap, which is why we will not be able to afford to do so.  Indeed, the Reagan-era Cold War paradigm of using arms races to bankrupt the economically vulnerable enemy into collapse and defeat may well have been turned around on us by the wily Vladimir Putin, with Barack Obama's witting collaboration.  That's if we choose to compete; if we don't....we'll simply be conquered or destroyed, either way without firing a shot that, again, we can no longer afford.

If you want another calling card as to why America faces comprehensive defeat, get a load of the Russkie-symp mindset of O's military braintrust

Western and American officials said Russia fears being hemmed in.

"I don’t think many people understand the visceral way Russia views NATO and the European Union as an existential threat," Admiral Ferguson told the Times.

I've never bought that argument.  Even post-Soviet Russia has the largest land area of any country on Earth.  They control a wealth of natural resources.  They have access to "warm-water ports" in places such as Cuba and Vietnam and Syria.  How any of that can be interpreted as being "hemmed in" is simply baffling.

Does that mean they don't have that irrational mindset?  Not necessarily, although I wouldn't attribute it to Czar Vlad, who as a former KGB spook strikes me as being far too shrewd to succumb to crass paranoia.  Remember, he's playing 3-D chess, while Barack Obama is, in Putin's classic description, "the pigeon [who] knocks over all the pieces, shits on the board and then struts around like it won the game.”  Like his Soviet forebears, he doesn't fear the U.S. or NATO or the E.U., he sees them - us - as overripe fruit just waiting to be plucked, and is building, building, building himself into an impregnable position from which to do just that.

As is typical, leaders of nations face-to-face with existential threats instead of half a planet away from them (Distance is no practical defense in the twenty-first century) do not enjoy the psychological luxury of indulging in complacent delusions, and with that comes a refreshingly blunt, clear- and sharp-eyed sobriety:

Poland's defense minister has said Russia continued to pose a serious threat to NATO and that Moscow was systematically preparing for aggression against the alliance.

Poland, a former Soviet satellite state, fears Russia is seeking to extend its influence beyond its borders after Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014 and continues to support for armed separatists in eastern Ukraine....

"So far, all Russian behaviour attests to systematic preparation for aggressive action," Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz told the Rzeczpospolita daily in an interview published on Tuesday.

"And it's time to talk about it openly."

Indeed.  But for all the whiny little pissant rationalizing and excuse-making you'll get in response from the Obama Regime, you'd be better off talking to your own dupek, Minister.  Because they are irretrievably convinced that there is no situation that they can't talk their way into or out of, and are perfectly oblivious to the mountainous evidence to the contrary.

And besides, we can't afford to resist Russian aggression anywhere anyway.

You shouldn't be on your own, Minister, but Ten Jedyny has made sure you, your country, and the rest of NATO will be.

Niech Bóg ma nas w swojej opiece.