Putin is desperately wanting some wonder weapon that scares everyone. His problem is that nepotism, cronyism and corruption just can't produce.
Look at the Sarmat missile he likes to brag about. A multi-stage, liquid fueled ICBM, which is 1950s tech. The past few test launches failed. No way they will be launching at Mar-a-Lago any time soon like in that one video. And there was that nuclear "torpedo". They tried a couple of tests of whatever their Project Pluto variant is earlier, which failed.
Hitler loved his wonder weapons, too. Of which, the V1 was the closest to being successful, and it wasn't that much of a factor. Those things are a hail mary in the best of times. A huge problem is they often are tricky to produce, even if your manufacturing is up to snuff, by definition they are beyond the bleeding edge, which Russia simply doesn't have the manufacturing ability to pull off.
After say, 1970 or so, the USSR started to fall behind in technology. For maybe a decade or so, that wasn't a huge deal, they always prized quantity over quality. However, Afghanistan showed them the error of their ways. And they bankrupted the Soviet Union trying to catch up.
Now, Russia isn't even a shadow of the USSR. Just look at the T-14 and the Su-57. Neither system has entered serial production and both exist only as a handful of prototypes. And the Su-57 is desperately needed. If they were truly stealthy, even the dozen or so existing airframes would make a huge difference in Ukraine. Ukrainian air defenses have squashed any and all attempts at Russia gaining air superiority, which is crucial in a war. Without it, things quickly regress to WWI era fighting with trench warfare, static lines and no man's land where anything that moves, dies. |
