Here at we’ve compared
the military might of Russia to the
military might of the United States before.
But now that we’re on the eve of the
inauguration of the 46th US president, we thought it was a topic worth
revisiting. Currently, the USA is still ranked number #1
when it comes to military power and Russia is number #2. This year, both
countries increased the number of active personnel with the US going from
approximately 1,281,900 serving in 2019 to 1,400,000 currently
serving. Russia went from 771,000 serving in 2019 to
1,013,628 currently serving. The US’s number of reservists increased from
811,000 to 860,000 while Russia continued to maintain
2,000,000 reservists. Based on population, the US continues to have a much
larger pool of applicants available for military conscription. However,
due to Russia’s forces continuing to be a majority conscription service rather
than professional volunteers, Russia still holds an
advantage for conscription and mobilizing its
citizens for the first year of a
war before morale issues and training would impact troop numbers. In 2019, The US spent about $731 billion in
military expenditures and is projected to spend $750 billion in 2020. Russia spent $65.1
billion in 2019 and is projected to spend $66.3 billion in 2020. Russia still has
the most combat tanks 12,950 versus the US’s
6,289 and a stronger land based artillery
system than the US. Of course most of those
nearly 13,000 tanks are currently
mothballed cold war models which would require weeks of refurbishing
to get operational, and would not fare well on a modern battlefield. Both
countries are currently undertaking massive, multiple
year projects with the object of streamlining
and modernizing their fighting
forces. In the spring of 2020, the first batch
of upgraded T-90M ‘Proryv’ battle
tanks were delivered to Russian troops. The tanks have been fitted
with a new multi-channel sighting system that enables weapons to be employed at
any time of day and night and can now also exchange data with
other vehicles in real time. In June, an improved Project
955A or Borei-A strategic nuclear-powered missile-carrying submarine entered
into service with the Russian Navy. The 4th generation sub had
initially been planned to be delivered at the end of
2019. It features improved maneuvering, depth
and armament control systems. All Borei-class submarines
have the capacity to carry 16 Bulava
ballistic missiles and boast 533 mm torpedo tubes. However, the US continues to dominate in
naval and air power. Also in the spring
this year, the US placed an order for 78 new F-35
Fighters, at a cost of $4.7 billion.
These aircraft will be split between the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and
Marine Corps. In November the Navy
modified its contracts with Newport News Shipbuilding to speed up
the build and delivery of the John F.
Kennedy. This second of the planned naval carriers is now slated for delivery on June 30, 2024 and
will have the necessary equipment to operate
the F-35C fighter instead of being upgraded later. Russia continues to test the Su-57
Stealth fighter, their answer to the
US’s F-35 aircraft. However, the first “operational” Su-57 aircraft crashed during a test flight in
December of 2019. They’ve experienced
several developmental problems, especially with creating the second
generation engine for the aircraft.
Currently the Su-57 is delayed until the mid-2020s at the
earliest. At the end of 2019, the US gained a new, separate, military
service branch when President Trump
signed the Space Force into being. As of now, the US
is the only country with an independent
force meant to protect its interests in space. So America
has an advantage if aggressive aliens come
calling at the same time it’s fighting Russia. Over the last year or so, the relationship
between the US and Russia has continued
to deteriorate. Due to Russia's deployment of SSC-8
missiles, the US officially withdrew
from the INF Treaty on August 2, 2019. The INF Treaty had banned US and Russian land-based nuclear ballistic
and cruise missiles as well as missile
launchers with short medium-ranges of 500–1,000 kilometers
(310–620 mi) and intermediate-ranges
1,000–5,500 km (620–3,420 mi). Currently, there
are no plans to revive this treaty. In 2021 New START (Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty) is set to expire. The treaty limits
both nations to deploying 1,550 nuclear
warheads over 700 delivery systems; this includes intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched
ballistic missiles, and bombers. It also
allows for 18 on-site inspections every year that allow each side
to keep a close eye on each others'
capabilities. Currently Russia and the Trump administration
have held a number of talks to extend
the treaty by up to 5 years, but haven’t yet come to an
agreement. In the last year, several incidents have occurred between
troops, highlighting the tensions between
the US and Russia. A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber was
harassed by Russian fighter jets while flying
over the Black Sea and international waters. Six Russian
warplanes flew so close to Alaska that
Air Force F-22s scrambled to intercept them. Seven U.S.
soldiers were injured when a Russian armored
vehicle deliberately rammed an American patrol in northeast
Syria. A Russian military intelligence
unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants
for killing coalition forces in
Afghanistan, including targeting American troops.
When officials briefed President Trump
regarding the bounties, he opted to accept Putin’s denial
of the matter and not take further action. In 2020, Russia continued its
military actions in Ukraine and its occupation of Crimea. Also
Russia sent troops to prop up the Assad
regime in Syria, as well as provided aircraft and personnel to Libya. Russia is currently working on a
deal with Sudan to build a naval base in the
country as part of its strategic bid to
gain military and economic influence in the Red Sea
region. In return, Russia will provide
free military equipment to Sudan to establish an air
defence system protecting naval
facilities at Port Sudan. Most recently
Russia brokered a cease-fire treaty
between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed separatist
region of Nagorno-Karabakh while NATO
declared itself neutral and opted to stay out of the
fray. In November, Russia deployed some
2,000 troops to the region for peacekeeping. If the
Russian brokered treaty holds in
Nagorno-Karabakh, it will be a diplomatic coup
for Russia and strengthen their
influence and position in the region. On the other hand, President Trump has
continued to pursue “America First”
trade policies. He withdrew the US from the Paris climate
agreement as well as verbally attacked
NATO and the World Health Organization. Over the objections of
NATO allies, in July, President Trump
announced a plan to remove some 12,000 troops from
Germany, claiming that Germany and NATO
were using America while underfunding their obligations.
The troop removal will be an expensive,
multiple year process. Also this fall after several
contentious wars of words, the US
withdrew thousands of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Trump’s
isolationist doctrine has put the US at
odds with NATO and various allies. Many leaders are hoping
that with the Biden administration comes
a global minded, comprehensive foreign policy. Both
countries focused on and improved cybersecurity in 2020. President Putin
continued to deny that Russia used cyber
techniques to attack elections in the United States
and other countries as well as hacking
into emails from the Department of Defense and
undertaking political and social
disinformation campaigns. While many officials urged action, President
Trump has seemed to take Putin’s denials
at face value. In the fall, President
Putin issued a written statement for a
cybertruce, even outlining a four-point plan for what
he called a “reboot” in the relationship
between the United States and Russia in regards
to information security. However the
proposal ignored previous incidents. Furthermore,
some academic experts think that a cyber
treaty isn’t feasible. Arms treaties have worked because
access to nuclear weapons is very
limited. However, cyberweapons are controlled by countries, criminal groups, activists and
teenagers. States can conduct cyber activities through
black ops using proxies, including
criminal groups. It would be nearly impossible to enforce
such a treaty. President-Elect Biden has
signaled that he will have a harsher stance in regards to Russian cyber operations. Covid-19 has had an effect on both the US and Russian militaries. In the US,
the Defense Department issued an order in late
March prohibiting the deployment of
service members for 60 days to prevent the spread of the
coronavirus. Later revised guidelines
were issued mandating troop testing for COVID-19 and a 14-day
quarantine prior to deployment. The
Defense Department also canceled, postponed, or significantly reduced previously planned major military
exercises. Additionally Navy ships have been kept
out at sea longer and are making fewer
port calls to minimize the risk of infection. A
four-tier testing program for the entire
US force was established. The
program prioritizes strategic and
fielded forces, followed by forward deployed troops and then
the rest of the force. A similar program
will likely be created when a vaccine becomes available.
After a few new recruits tested positive,
all the military services paused
basic training for new recruits to
implement new safety procedures. A 14 day quarantine
period was added as well as a program
where new recruits are continuously tested for COVID-19 and monitored with daily health assessments during
basic training. Class sizes have been
reduced and some training exercises limited. These tactics and others have gone a long
way to slow the spread of coronavirus in
US forces. On October 22, the US military had a rate of
2,387 cases per 100,000 personnel, a
slightly lower rate than the overall US population which at the
time was 2,527 cases per 100,000 people.
The military continues to remain vigilant about
limiting Covid-19 infections whenever
possible, realizing that the virus is a threat to national
security. Russia also implemented plans to slow Covid infection.
On March 12th, the Kremlin created a
highly centralized operational-level headquarters headed
up by the First Deputy Minister to oversee
the Covid-19 response in the armed forces. Among
other duties, the headquarters manages
medical equipment and supplies for the forces, as
well as monitoring rates of infection
and creating health guidelines for troops. A 3-day readiness assessment for Covid-19
was carried out across all Russian army
branches in late March. This allowed the general staff to
tweak the duties and areas of
responsibility of the armed forces in terms of emergency
preparedness and response, medical
support and other tasks. Also 16 prefabricated temporary medical
centers were built in underserved
military districts. New safety rules and an aggressive testing
regime was installed across Russian
military bases and compounds. Meanwhile, combat training continued as usual across all forces. The draft for some 135,000 conscripts was temporarily delayed from April 1 until
April 13th while a testing and 14 day
quarantine process was implemented for
new conscripts. Up until early May, the
Russia government claimed that Russia
troops were officially COVID-19 free. State media reported that in
the thousands of tests conducted since
mid-March, no servicemen tested positive. However,
when soldiers began to leak eyewitness
reports, only then did the Ministry of Defense reluctantly admit to a few cases. Even now, information is limited as to the
spread of Covid-19 in the Russian
forces. From March 1 to September 15, 2020, there were 12,066
confirmed coronavirus cases in the armed
forces and another 1,509 cases among civilian personnel making
for an estimated 1.6% of the military
and 0.2-0.25% of civilian personnel contracting COVID-19. It
will be interesting to see the long terms
effects the pandemic has on both
the US and Russian militaries, the
allocation of funds for military budgets and strategic doctrine.
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