Comments by "Geoff Lepper" (@geofflepper3207) on "Why have Russia’s Arms Exports Collapsed?" video.

  1. In the 1950s Canadian engineers designed the Avro Arrow which might have been the best interceptor/fighter in the world at the time given that it could fly at or above Mach 2 and had stealth characteristics and could reach high altitudes and reach them very quickly probably better than any other jet in the world. And then in 1959 the Canadian government suddenly cancelled the Arrow program entirely possibly partially for undisclosed suspicious reasons and for undisclosed political reasons and partially 🎉because in the era of Sputnik and intercontinental missiles an interceptor was no longer of use but also because the program was incredibly expensive and without any foreign orders the Canadian government did not think it could continue to justify the cost of development. If Russia isn't getting orders for its military equipment from abroad it's going to be hard for the Russian military to justify spending vast amounts of research dollars to develop new military technology (especially as the country's store of foreign reserves keeps shrinking quickly) which is a huge problem for Russia when its current military technology is clearly very much second rate compared to western technology. Then add problems such as the vast reparations Russia may be expected to pay to Ukraine and to poorer countries struggling with high food prices due to the war if it doesn't want to stay a pariah state and that Russian fossil fuels are selling at a vast discount on the international market and that likely over a million of the youngest, brightest Russian citizens have fled the country and more will do so if they have a chance - it all adds up to very little chance that Russia will catch up to the United States and the rest of Western countries in military technology.
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  2. ​@triadwarfare Wikipedia mistakingly defines a hypersonic missile simply as a missile that can travel at Mach 5 leaving out the other important part about being able to maneuver in flight. That confused me until I looked at other sources especially as it suggests that Intercontinental missiles from almost 70 years ago were hypersonic missiles and even that the V-2 rocket from almost 80 years ago was a hypersonic missile which made me think "What's the big deal then with hypersonic missiles if they've been around since WW2?". Maybe Wikipedia should fix that.
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