http://www.newsru.com/russia/03nov2005/army.html
2 armor battalions worth of tanks!!! While a lot of sources claim 2006 will be the “year of the air force” in Russia, it looks like land forces and strategic rocket forces are still getting the priority funding while the poor airforce will get 20 more Su-27’s upgraded to SM and some SAM’s but thats it.
The most pressing problem is the continued decay of the helicopter fleet with under 200 functional HIND’s in the entire army, but here Ivanov is talking about tanks. Soviet thinking just refuses to die.
By: Arabella-Cox - 4th November 2005 at 02:49
With the decision to use the Mi-28N as the future replacement for the Hind the Russians have made a very good choice. The Hokum wasn’t bad or even worse than the Havoc, but the Havoc offered the opportunity of upgrading the newer Hinds with components deveoped for the Havoc. Hense rotors, wings, engines, undercarriage and a few items of avionics that add night and all weather capability to the Hind can be added during overhauls. This gives the Russian army experience with maintaining parts for an aircraft not yet in service so they can work out any unforseen bugs out, and tey can reduce their logistics tail and improve the performance of their helos without having to speed up the introduction of their new helo (which makes it cheaper).
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November 3, 2005 at 8:32 pm