Nice post Austin.
Only 150+ Mig-29 left in the inventory, Sounds about right.
Here is a possible forecast, if true, which procurments program will get put on hold, delayed or simply canceled?
In an ideal world, Russia would continue with its planned modernization of the army and boost its ability to project power. But this isn’t an ideal world and its finances are far less healthy than even a few years ago. Thus, military funding will be cut by 1,000 billion rubles ($15.7 billion), or by approximately 30 percent,*according to the Kommersant newspaper, which is relying on data from the draft federal budget the government submitted to the State Duma at the end of October.*
In the revised calculations, overall spending on national defense in the federal budget for 2017 is envisaged at 2,840 billion rubles ($44.69 billion), or 3.3 percent of (nominal) GDP. Nevertheless, Moscow hopes to implement further reductions over the coming years and force it down to 2.8 percent of GDP by 2019.*
Why now?
So, why is Russia suddenly doing this? Well, there are three reasons. First, a Presidential election cycle is just about to kick off here, and Putin’s advisors may fear how maintaining the military largesse in the face of across-the-board cutbacks could become unpopular.
The fact that social spending will be be the only area to see an increase in 2017, and a sharp rise as it happens, backs up this argument.*
Read more
US special forces demand more resources, fewer missions from next president
Then there’s the lesson of the Leonid Brezhnev years. The last time Moscow found itself in a situation where resource prices collapsed was during the 1970s. Back then, the former Soviet Premier made the fatal mistake of becoming embroiled in an arms race with NATO, just when he could least afford it. And we all know how that ended: Defense spending reached 15-20 percent of GDP by the early 1980s and the USSR imploded a few years later.
While the Russian elite might enjoy the odd bit of sabre rattling, they are also not suicidal. Most of them grew up during the Brezhnev era and are fully aware of his mistakes. As a result, it’s clear how they are unlikely to repeat them.*And this bring us to the third likely reason.
Perhaps the Kremlin has simply had enough of all the tensions of recent years and wants to dial them down. What better way to destroy NATO’s over-bearing anti-Russia messaging campaign than by completely undermining it?*
this article is for good laugh. Russia interest is to increase tension with west not decrease. The more Russia deploy weopons against west the less West can intervene in Middleast and Asia. there will be slow down in procurement depends on Syria experience and how quickly new technology is incorporated into the weopons.
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