Did the USSR ever develope any Spy planes?

reply to post by Ponderosa


The USSR never needed Spy planes like the Blackbird etc.
They never were about Projecting there Power around the world by Military Force. There Satellites ground Intelligence gave them all they needed. They only ever wanted to know what could be a threat to them.

They had reconisance Planes the last of which were the M-55 - a very advanced new Plane but Practiacl and cheap compared to say the Blackbird. This is now used mainly for Weather Research etc.

There Mig 25 Interceptor was a Mark3 Plane with the most advanced Avionics and Missiles at the time. The Reconisance version was unstoppable at the time and did have a very good Range.
It still holds many World Records and Altitude Records etc.

The above Planes gave them all the reconisance they would need if ever they did end up in a War. It did not give them Global supremacy but that was not what they were about.
They left Global Supremacy to somebody else who does not seem to be happy unless they have that Supremacy and the World agrees with them on everything.

They never tried to built a big Aircraft Carrier Force to Project Power - they simply developed a very Superior long range Anti Ship Cruise Missile that finishes its run at Mark3. Still can't be reliably stopped as far as I know.
They also developed there very superior Torpedo capable of Travelling at something like 500k/hour.

Despite all the Propaganda we were fed it is now obvious they spent most of there money on Defence or Balancing things up.
Very little of there expenditure was about Projecting Military Power around the World.

When considering Russian technology this always has to be considered.

In this area of Defence the are very good in many areas.

Rkapo7 - Australia.

reply to post by Rkapo7

They never were about Projecting there Power around the world by Military Force.

That’s not entirely correct.

Soviet mechanized forces were the most powerful in the world, and their paratrooper capabilities simply dwarf anything to this day.

They could literally airlift entire armies to anywhere in the world with in 8 hours, complete with artillery, BMP, SAM, light tank support, etc.

Even though it was structured as a reactionary force, one simply can not ignore immense offensive potential of such power, thus the nuclear stalemate.

reply to post by bidonpseudo


Ajax uses MHD system, while Aurora is reported to have a pulse detonation system

Originally posted by iskander
reply to post by Rkapo7

 

They never were about Projecting there Power around the world by Military Force.

That’s not entirely correct.

Soviet mechanized forces were the most powerful in the world, and their paratrooper capabilities simply dwarf anything to this day.

They could literally airlift entire armies to anywhere in the world with in 8 hours, complete with artillery, BMP, SAM, light tank support, etc.

Even though it was structured as a reactionary force, one simply can not ignore immense offensive potential of such power, thus the nuclear stalemate.

Eight hours to anywhere in the world? Who are you kidding?

Yeah, they were the most powerful in the world. Fat lot of good that did them in the Afghan mountains, eh.

What's that got to do with anything? The Russians were not the first to fail to subdue the Afghan mountain fighters, nor were they the last. In fact the whole of military history is littered with similar examples from various countries, the Germans in Yugoslavia being another one. It does not mean iskander was wrong.

Originally posted by DeltaNine

Eight hours to anywhere in the world? Who are you kidding?

Russia spans 11 timezones, and the USSR spanned more. I don't doubt they were 8 hours away from essentially anywhere they wanted to be, providing they were based correctly to launch the strike.

Russia didn't need force projection through a large sea power, they had it through land based forces.

Originally posted by DeltaNine

Yeah, they were the most powerful in the world. Fat lot of good that did them in the Afghan mountains, eh.

See how well the current military offensive by the current most powerful nation is going in exactly the same terrain. Not well.

reply to post by RichardPrice


Sorry to burst your bubble but we are fighting two wars at once and we have troops helping other countries out all over the world. We are fighting it the smart way. Send out hunter killer special ops and take down the important bad guys while letting the Afghan people try to rebuild with our help. Now if you want to put a standing army in our way then we will send in ours and lets see who wins. The only reason Iraq is being dragged out is because we try to be nice and not kill Innocent civilians unlike some countries. We could have made Iraq and Afghanistan a big waste land and came home but we didn't.

Originally posted by Sky watcher
reply to post by RichardPrice

 

Sorry to burst your bubble but we are fighting two wars at once and we have troops helping other countries out all over the world. We are fighting it the smart way.

Yeah, and we are *still* getting our collective asses handed to us by the same people that did it to the Soviets. Only this time, those people don't have our backing (remember all those Stinger systems that found their way into Mujahadeen hands? The CIA advisors? etc etc etc).

And we also chose to fight two wars at once, so its not a valid excuse. Hell, it wouldn't be a valid excuse anyway, since the US DOD works on the principle of 2:1 - the ability to fight two minor wars (Afghanistan, Iraq) and one major war (USSR? China?) at the same time.

Or at least thats the bullsh*t they have been selling Congress for the past several decades to get funding. And since both wars are an international effort, it should be even easier, shouldn't it.

We could have made Iraq and Afghanistan a big waste land and came home but we didn't.

And the USSR could have done the same thing, your point is what exactly?