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Military Hardware - It looks terrifying, but will they last? Russian tanks T-90M and T-14 Armata practice for the military victory march. EPA-EFE/Yuri Kochetkov

Frank Ledwidge does not work for, consult with, participate in, or receive funding from any company or organization that may benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations other than his academic positions.

Military Hardware

Every year on May 9, the Victory Day parade in Moscow showcases the latest in Russian weapons systems - and this year, of course, it had a special meaning. The weapon looked good on the parade ground - but how well will Russia's high-tech weapons fare on the battlefield?

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As always in a Russian victory, tanks and armored vehicles played a central role. The most prominent of these was the T-14 Armata. Western experts have been somewhat wary of the system since 2015, when the tank first appeared. This is a significant improvement over all previous Russian tanks, which were and are adaptations of old Soviet designs.

From the point of view of the Russian military, the problem is that there are very few of these tanks available. Reliable Russian reports indicate that the program is plagued by production and complexity issues and "is being held hostage by the many new technologies it contains." As if the technical problems weren't enough, the company that manufactures Armata is in financial trouble.

If all goes according to plan—rare enough for any military procurement program—this tank will enter full-scale production this year, too late for the current phase of the war in Ukraine.

Other, less formidable tanks were also prominent, notably the various modernized versions of the T-72, which has been heavily damaged in Ukraine, particularly by anti-tank missiles from the US, UK and other European countries. The first reported combat loss of the T-90M, currently the most formidable tank in Russian combat service, was of long-term concern to Russian generals, which was also featured in the parade.

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Russian unmanned combat vehicle Uran-9 on the ground in May 2021. Reports on the ground say that these autonomous vehicles often fail to find their targets. EPA-EFE/Maxim Shipenkov

Tanks and various armored vehicles were followed in the parade by the Uran-9 automatic combat vehicle. It is designed to operate without an operator on the road or in more difficult terrain as a remotely operated tank.

It also appears to have been tested in Syria, where there were serious problems with the remote control systems apparently unable to locate and engage enemy targets in an otherwise useful area. Uran-9 is probably a decade or more away from being an effective weapons system.

The Victory Day was canceled due to the weather, although the weather was bright and sunny in Moscow that day. So we didn't get to see Russia's so-called "space army" in full. Again, we haven't seen it as dominant in combat as expected either.

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As for the latest models, it appears that Russia's only stealth aircraft, the Sukhoi Su-57, has been used in combat by the Russian space forces at least once. It is the closest match to America's best jet, the Lockheed F-35.

It is significant that it was decided to retire as its slightly older but more formidable brethren, the Sukhoi Su-34 and Su-35 – equivalent to the US F-15 and European Hurricanes – have suffered staggering losses.

Russia's sophisticated and modern Ka-52 "Alligator" attack helicopters, similar to the US and UK Apaches, have suffered the biggest loss of manned aircraft.

Russian precision-guided missiles (PGMs), such as the Iskander-M missile on display at Monday's parade, have not lived up to expectations. A significant fraction misses the target or explodes on contact.

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Equally troubling for Russian planners is that, after firing well over 2,000 PGMs, their stockpiles are running low. As a US defense official said this week:

They have problems with precision-guided munitions, and they have problems with replacing platinum material, and we think that the sanctions and export controls, especially with regard to ... electronic components, have affected the Russian defense industry. . base and their ability to regenerate PGM.

This is bad news for Russia in the medium and long term. As a result, the Russians are using aging ammunition that is less reliable, less accurate and easier to intercept.

A Russian aircraft Kh-47M2 Kinzhal (Dagger) hypersonic missile launched during the 2018 victory parade. VASIL KUZMICHONAK via Shutterstock

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One particular type of PGM has received particular attention. The launched Kinzhal hypersonic missiles were not seen over Moscow this year, but were clearly visible at the 2018 victory parade. Since March, a dozen hypersonic missiles have been fired at Ukrainian targets, the first time such weapons have been fired in combat. week in the attack on the city of Odesa.

It sounds scary, and they are scary weapons, but in reality they are not game changers, being more valuable performance wise than tactically in conventional warfare.

It is worth remembering that many nuclear missiles are supersonic. The difference is that the Kinzhal has some maneuverability, which means Ukrainian air defenses can't actually shoot them down.

The fact that Ukrainian air defenses and air forces still exist is, of course, partly a testament to the failure of the Russian operation, but also to the unique planning and foresight of the Ukrainians themselves.

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No amount of Russian high-tech wizardry, even if it worked as advertised, would have saved its military from its current disadvantage. Russia's problem is not superior performance of advanced weapons. To say the least, there are many recent Western examples of failed, exorbitantly expensive weapons projects. War is the most brutal testing ground - and every country loses huge amounts of equipment in battle.

Russia's problems are ideological, not technical, and lie at every level of the war, from poor military leadership to military unprofessionalism, even before we consider the skills, equipment, and motivation of Ukrainian soldiers. These problems are the cause of any Russian failure, not incompetent weapons, and therefore the Russian military may be defeated in this area. A technician uses a modified Cheetah anti-aircraft gun (L) to move another Cheetah anti-aircraft gun. A tank (R) that once belonged to the Bundeswehr Battle Tank Dismantling GmbH in Koch on April 23, 2014 in Edeleben, Germany. Since the early 1990s, the company has scrapped more than 15,000 tanks and other armored vehicles from the arsenals of Germany, Austria, France and other European countries as many countries reduce their forces under the Convention on European Forces treaty.

Nakamitsu is the United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, a position he has held since May 2017.

Sixty-five years ago, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower lamented the hidden human cost of the Cold War arms race: "Every weapon that is made, every warship that is launched, every missile that is launched is in the ultimate sense a theft from those who starve and cannot eat, from those , who are cold and unclothed."

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At a time as perilous as ours, President Eisenhower recognized that unbridled military spending breeds mistrust, increases tensions, and makes it more difficult to find peaceful solutions to conflicts. Perhaps he was aided in his acquisition of this knowledge by his experiences in two world wars that killed millions, changed lives everywhere and gave the world a universal and intimate understanding of grief, helping to give birth to the United Nations.

But today, the logic of militarism is too often unequivocal. As global tensions rise and conflicts engulf countries such as Syria, Mali, South Sudan and Yemen, ending military operations is a proposition that sounds idealistic and even naive in many parts of the world.

Such thinking is short-sighted. In defense and security debates, perhaps we should ask whether the huge sums we spend on our military actually make us safer. To protect ourselves in the true sense, we should strengthen our anti-poverty agenda and do more to promote education, provide health care, and protect the environment—all security defenses that are more powerful than guns.

According to the Stockholm Institute for International Peace Studies, global military spending in inflation-adjusted dollars has more than doubled since the end of the Cold War, and international transfers of major weapons have grown steadily since the early 2000s.

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It is only natural for policymakers, analysts and taxpayers in any country to ask exactly what kind of "security" they are buying as their arsenal expands. Are they safer before war than if their governments committed to agreements that would reduce excessive military spending?

In our own lives, do the hundreds of billions of dollars spent each year to develop and stockpile weapons make us and our families safer from street violence or unexpected disease? Do they provide assurance that we will have food and comfort in a month, a year, or a decade?

It is an irony in our world that we continue to amass a deadly arsenal ostensibly to protect lives when

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