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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: average joe who wrote (17049)	9/13/2000 12:47:36 PM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

ROFL! Must be kiddin': (excerpt from your linked article) The Kursk submarine disaster was a direct result of underfunded maintenance programs. Kursk, moreover, was an operational ship. Such formerly closed ports as Sebastapol are crammed with laid-up submarines, on which the only sign of activity is a lazily flapping ensign. Even in reserve, the rusting fleet consumes money. As it dribbles away, there is decreasingly enough to spend on the forces that really require funding -- the armoured divisions, fighter squadrons and, above all, the strategic nuclear force. [...] ...As things are, the Russian army remains stuck between memories of Red glory and current ineptitude. No doubt a way out will be found. Among all historically large European armies, Russia's has no record, as do the German and French, of illegality or disobedience. It was as loyal to Stalin as it was the czars. Its tradition is of grandeur but also servitude. [snip] ________________________ No record of illegality or disobedience, really? C'mon! The withdrawal of Soviet garrisons from East Germany from 1990 on was notoriously the "lifetime chance" for their field officers to wheel and deal with military hardware.... Same with the personnel assigned to nuclear facilities --ever heard of nuclear weapons smuggling?? Now, the following statement is right: "The Kursk submarine disaster was a direct result of underfunded maintenance programs." However, it fails to point to the Russian navy's weakest link: personnel, again! Sure enough, the Russian navy lacks money.... but not so much as to maintain the hardware as to decently pay its submariners! The average salary of a Kursk submariner was reportedly about $100/month. An "underpaid" computer will never betray you whereas exploited "elite" officers working in a submarine sweatshop will....