Looking at the situation as objectively as possible, they are absolutely right. These losses are crippling to any first world nation. It's not just the outright cost of the equipment itself, it is the untold amount that went into it. A modern soldier dies it is not just a single tally in a single list. A single soldier costs so much to maintain and train. Extrapolate that across five digit numbers and you have enormous lost costs in expenditure. I remember hearing that it took the US government close to a $1MM for me from the day I stepped on some yellow footprints to the day I stepped onto foreign soil the first time. And I was just a line grunt with some additional spicy training in anti-armor and demolitions. I have zero reason to disbelieve that figure.PJYoung said:*The 40km range is for the Switchblade 600 and it's not confirmed if Ukraine is getting those or the Switchblade 300 (range 10km), but either way, Russia has no effective counter to these systems
— Neil Hauer (@NeilPHauer) March 17, 2022
No first world nation can absorb those losses without feeling it. This modern equipment isn't mass produced either. Those sexy Ka-52 scout helos? Less than a 100 operational in the entire Russian inventory before the war even started. T14? Less than a dozen last time I checked. Su-57? Their answer to our fifth gens? FOUR.
Russia stuck it's whole head in a blender and honestly? Good. Our Vietnam vets deserve some payback.
