Can General Winter be defeated?

[Raider4]

I expect that both sides would use up men & material at such a rate that there'd soon be a stalemate in conventional military terms.

[Leman]

I do like a fine handkerchief. I find the lacy corners very charming - the Russians? I thought we were fighting the French.

[Westmarcher]

        Anyhoo .......

Would an M1 be capable of fully operating in harsh Russian winter conditons?

Wheeeeeeeee ... !!!

[lowlylowlycook]

That's a wicket Mario Kart mod.  Must be running on an emulator that allows for very high resolution textures.

[urbancohort]

Interesting debate, and I know that the focus of NATO planning is coming back to the European scenario and away from the side theatres.

As someone says, define success but also define war goals: a general invasion/conquest is a non-starter as it always was - nobody is prepared for THAT sort of mass war anymore and as a society I don't think we would or could take it. A limited, 'bite and hold' campaign, perhaps a 21st Century 'Crimean' campaign? A possibility - and the attitude and deployments of Former Soviet Republic's like the Ukraine will have a bearing.

A key factor is not the no of what the Russians have of anything but also quality. I remember the stories we believed about the implacable Russian steamroller waiting to crush us in the 70s and 80s before 1989. We weren't told the missiles would probably rattle apart on their launch pads, the Soviet Navy couldn't put most of their ships to see and the multi-ethnic conscript Soviet Red Army was not trusted by its leaders. I think the outcome outlined by Gen sir John Hackett in his book 'world war 3' was the most likely for that time. It happened anyway, but without the need for war.

As with every major conflict we'd start off fighting the last-war-but-one until we found out what made this one different. I suspect that heavy armour might be the first casualty, and we'd find helicopters were more important than we had realised. We'd still need boots on the ground, which only the US can provide but even they don't have enough manpower to overwhelm and control such vast paces.

But Russia's GDP is less than Italy - how long could the country afford a war? Would China bankroll them for influence? It might go nuclear sooner rather than later unfortunately. How could asymmetric warfare influence any outcome? Should we look to the Boer War as a potential model? Would we see enhanced 'terrorist/guerilla' wars outside combat areas in home states and in back areas?

Let's hope it never happens.

Great discussion peace and though provoking

[urbancohort]

the Soviet Navy couldn't put most of their ships to see

Illiterate fool. Sea

[d_Guy]

I would blame spell check

[Aksu]

I wonder what the modern day EW capabilities of the respective sides would be, even without going into the infrastructure level cyber warfare capabilities? Weren't the cold war era warpac forces quite good at it?

[urbancohort]

Great discussion peace and though provoking

And another one. honestly, in 1980, Brother Kelly would have sent this article back for a rewrite covered in red ink. Piece, of course....