Were the S-300Vs DDR assets or were they a Soviet unit like Madgeburg’s S-200 and most of the S-125s?

[color=red]This has degenerated fairly quickly, and since it’s about to hit the 20 page mark, it’s done. Start a new one if you want, but try and keep it to the conflict. How health care inside the US is even remotely related is beyond me.[/color]

the U.S Army does not take its forward area air defense systems of its battlefield units seriously

Not necessarily true. Consider the Army from, say, 1960 to 1990. The mission in life was to deal with repelling a Soviet invasion of Europe. NIKE, HAWK, and PATRIOT batteries deployed in Europe were positioned to deal with the Soviet air threat to rear areas (look at Germany, there was a line of HAWK batteries right down the center of the nation from top to bottom). Air defense of the battlefield was to be handled by USAF and NATO air superiority tasked aircraft which could alternate CAP locations to follow the battlefield and therefore deny a loss of capability if ground-based tactical SAMs were destroyed by advancing Soviet units.

The main issue is that the US Army relies on the USAF to provide most of its air cover. The Soviets couldn’t plan on having static SAM coverage for an invasion into Europe, so they developed a zillion SAM systems designed to follow the army units around a battlefield. Static strategic SAMs evolved to defend key facilities and Soviet territory as well.

the West and mostly the US has a clear upperhand here.

In terms of what? EW assets? Likely, as they have to keep adjusting to face new threat systems whereas Russia has had to concern itself primarily with PATRIOT for the last 25 years or so (Kh-31). In terms of ECCM? Inconclusive, as nobody except a designer or operator can detail the exact ECCM measures employed by the modern Russian radar sets.

Yes but brochure wont tell you how it will work in real warfare and skills of the people manning it should also matter.

Skill does matter yes, and brochure figures count the same for any weapon system.

Look at PAC-3 for all its faults its the most combat proven and effective SAM out there , proven to work in the most dense AD and threat environment

What dense threat environment? I know you don’t mean Iraq, that was a joke unless they had dedicated SEAD and EW assets trying to spoof the system that I’m not aware of. The batteries weren’t exactly overwhelmed by the number of targets either.

US has built upon that experience and leadership to build the likes of THAAD/SM systems , there is no catching them there

The US is finally catching up with THAAD, Russia had decades of ABM and ATBM research and development.

I am certain that US is not loosing its sleep over S-300/400 types around

Well, you’d be wrong. The double digit SAM systems are very highly regarded.

Well, Russia appears to be going back to its old ways……………..just look and the countries you listed as not having a problem with what Russia did in Georgia. Please………..

Nice job totally avoiding the question.

Start reading more about political science. Russia does what it does because of fear. Fear for the survival of the nation itself.

Ok, Scooter clearly has something against Russia, and India is clearly not a relevant part to the Russia vs. Georgia conflict, but I have to call BS on the logic of what you just wrote.

Russia has no business fearing for its survival for two reasons: a ton of nukes, and what they did to the Germans in WWII. Motivated Russians are not a smart enemy to irritate. They’re quite proud of what they did to the Germans, and rightfully so. They’re not insecure, they’re pissed that the West is rapidly reducing their influence in Europe.

So, Russia a former communist country with leaders like Stalin is your best friend.

That is a retarded argument. Let’s say that Iraq becomes a stable and thriving nation in the Middle East. Will anyone who befriends Iraq be judged for having relations with a nation once ruled by Saddam? That’s just ludicrous.

India is allowed to have relations with whomever it pleases. They don’t appear to be fazed by what Russia did to Georgia and maintain their ties. So the answer to your question as to how the conflict impacts that relationship is clearly: it doesn’t. Malaysia, Peru, Venezuela, Belarus, to a degree China, Kazakhstan, Iran, Yemen, Algeria…they all enjoy some sort of relationship or military ties to Russia.

Why therefore did you single out India, especially since they do not seem to care one bit about what the West thinks about what happened in Georgia?

TACIT BLUE was declassified after the B-2 as well. I’d say that it was more significant than the BoP, but that’s my opinion.

Yeah right. It would not suprise me in the least if it was in the 7-10% range given the enormity of the Black Budget.