Is the potential of Russia using nuclear weapons something to lose sleep over?
Nuclear weapons take sustained maintenance to be in operational condition.
Maintenance requires trained professionals doing their job.
Russia’s military performance, the conditions of Russian equipment, and the dynamics of employment in Russia’s economy in the last decade suggest that – even in areas the Russian government prioritizes…like its military – not even minimal maintenance standards are being achieved nor the pay necessary to sustain a cadre of trained professionals.
The most analogous way to look at the Russian economy and government-sector employment for the past decade is to look at the USSR in the late 1980s when workers stripped their offices and factories of lightbulbs to use in their homes, since otherwise they couldn’t get replacement lightbulbs.
An example of the state of Russia’s high priority weapons systems: Russia only has one aircraft carrier – the Admiral Kuznetsov – which was originally
launched 37 years ago. It has not been in operational order since 2018 suffering from damage from 1) a crane falling on it in dry dock and 2) the dry dock it was in sinking due to a power outage. It is not expected to be in operational order again until at least 2024.
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