The Russians have introduced a new main battle tank at the annual WWII Victory Parade, the T-14 Armata. The tank is a marvel of 21st Century innovation. It has a crew of only three with a fully automated turret, advanced autoloader, 125MM smoothbore computer stabilized main gun, and with fin stabilized main gun ordnance.

The Armata has computerized optics that can out-range our outdated M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank. The reduced crew in the T-14 allows a vehicle that is smaller, faster and more survivable. Having no crew members in the turret allows the turret to be almost three feet lower, reducing the silhouette and increasing the survivability of the T-14 on the modern battlefield.

Depending on the variant, the T-14 has one or two 30MM long range anti-aircraft guns, radar controlled and designed to counter our A10 Warthogs and AH64 Apache attack helicopters. A self-guided main gun fired anti-aircraft missile adds long range anti-aircraft capability. The reduced crew cuts the need for logistical support, giving the Russians more bang for the buck. Fewer crew members equate to less food, water, vodka, clothing and equipment. A reduced crew also equates to less fuel, greater speed and range.

The T14 is a first step in an entirely new family of Russian Federation combat vehicles, armored personnel carriers, weapons carriers, logistical vehicles, engineer vehicles and anti-aircraft systems based on the T-14 chassis.

The United States has nothing that can outrun, out gun, out range or out survive the T-14. The Russians have the lion’s share of the world’s titanium. When we couple the titanium with a sandwich of ceramic, fabric and other high-tech sloped armor components with complete reactive armor coverage, our armored forces are in deep crap.

Our M1A1 Abrams Tank was an outstanding vehicle when it was designed in the late 1970s; however, some of the tanks are operated by the grandchildren of the first crew members.

Let’s take a look at the weapons with which our military are going into battle. The M16/M4 rifles were designed in the 1950s and first fielded in the 1960s. The F18 Hornet, our main line fighter aircraft, first flew on 18 November 1978. Some of the Air Force transport aircraft date to the 1950/60s. The Bradley fighting vehicles (armored personnel carriers) were designed in the 1970s and fielded in 1981. The Blackhawk helicopter dates to the early 1980s and the list goes on.

Our military has less than 2,350,000 and is smaller than a number of our potential adversaries; China 6,927, 000, Viet Nam 5,522,000, Russian Federation 3,275,000, North Korea 7,679,000, and others. As a percent of the population Switzerland has greater than three times the number in the military as we have. How do we offset the numbers? With advanced weapons; however our systems are getting less advanced every day.

Our military is also deployed around the world and could not concentrate all our forces in one battle as many of our adversaries could do. So how have we maintained superiority on the modern battle field with fewer available forces? With our superior training, leadership, logistics, tactics and equipment; but we are rapidly seeing our advantage evaporate. The Russian Republic’s T-14 Armata Main Battle Tank, advanced Chinese drone fighters, and many other advanced systems have seen our edge in weapons not so slowly slip away.

The cry of the left wing liberals is that we spend an obscene amount on national defense (19% of our total budget, yes my liberal friends, social welfare spending counts) and it is a crime to spend money on the military when so many Americans are in poverty. Perhaps we need to ask them to fight a determined enemy with outdated weapons while being out numbered better than 6 to 1; if we did the population of Canada would increase by 70%.

We need to elect a new President Reagan; a Commander in Chief who will modernize the military and restore our sense of nationalism. This nation needs a president who understands we are not evil we are not our own worst enemy, we are not the world’s problem, we are the solution. Alas the hate America first and always Socialist left will advocate disarming what they believe is the most horrendous evil in the world: the American military.