Date: April 4th, 2015 5:26 PM
Author: Irradiated kitchen
http://cs621929.vk.me/v621929801/1d4e6/jfJQB2WluBs.jpg
The hordes of Asia will come a'knocking. China was the only country with observers at Russia's last sudden readiness drill -- the one that saw the sortieing of the entire Northern Fleet and 140,000 soldiers marched from the Chinese border to the border of the Balts and Ukraine.
The Chicoms are set to begin utilizing the same model of sudden readiness exercises as the Russian. NATO and the US stopped this level of activity 25 years ago. There isn't an army in the West with this kind of intensive training regimen today. NATO is resting on its laurels while the Russian and Chinese armies live in the field full time rehearsing WW3.
If there is a war tomorrow the West is in for a brutal butt fucking.
The training is so intense now its probably becoming harmful. The retention rate of contract soldiers over the 4 year mark has fallen off a cliff even as pay has gone up. The Russian MoD is shedding about 2 brigades a month in mid-level contract soldiers who just arent copping with the war and the training. On the other hand overall recruitment is outpacing demobilizations with the total of contract personnel up 19k in the past 9 months.
https://russiandefpolicy.wordpress.com/2015/04/04/adding-and-subtracting-contracts/
The problem is there are lots of 2-4 year in dudes but not enough 6+ year in dudes at the sergeant level.
Overall though the transition to a professional NATO killing force is ahead of schedule.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2846849&forum_id=2#27620280)