Thumpalumpacus
Lieutenant Colonel
An excerpt from an op-ed in my morning newsfeed:
And this isn't a one-off. Russia's "wonder weapons" have a habit of flopping. Take the T-14 Armata tank, unveiled in 2015. Russia planned to build 2,300. They've made fewer than 20, and exactly zero have been deployed to Ukraine, even as they've lost over 4,000 tanks in combat. Or the RS-28 Sarmat "Satan II" ICBM, which has now failed four straight tests. The September 2024 test left a 200-foot crater where the launch site used to be. Putin admitted just days ago it's still "not yet deployed." Even the newer Oreshnik missile exists only in tiny numbers — Ukraine has already destroyed one of the three known systems.
The pattern is clear: Putin's nuclear blackmail depends on theatrical demos of weapons that either don't work, can't be mass-produced, or barely exist outside propaganda videos. When your top tank never deploys, your missiles keep failing, and your economic envoys are pitching military tech, deterrence starts to look like theater.
And this isn't a one-off. Russia's "wonder weapons" have a habit of flopping. Take the T-14 Armata tank, unveiled in 2015. Russia planned to build 2,300. They've made fewer than 20, and exactly zero have been deployed to Ukraine, even as they've lost over 4,000 tanks in combat. Or the RS-28 Sarmat "Satan II" ICBM, which has now failed four straight tests. The September 2024 test left a 200-foot crater where the launch site used to be. Putin admitted just days ago it's still "not yet deployed." Even the newer Oreshnik missile exists only in tiny numbers — Ukraine has already destroyed one of the three known systems.
The pattern is clear: Putin's nuclear blackmail depends on theatrical demos of weapons that either don't work, can't be mass-produced, or barely exist outside propaganda videos. When your top tank never deploys, your missiles keep failing, and your economic envoys are pitching military tech, deterrence starts to look like theater.