Can Russia not just be tight lipped?

[Big-E]

I think it is wrong to say because they had accidents - do you think US had none throw entire cold war.
But it is only by succes by whitch we measure somewhone tehnological advance.

I totally forgot about this thread. First off let me say that you need to go back and put my accident citations into context. We were discussing Russian hype and coverups, the US is not blameless in this but Russa is 10 times worse. Just look at the Kursk incident as an example. Secrecy and pride got those men killed. Secondly I fully agree with measuring technological advances by putting paltforms to the test. I give the US example of the Gulf War. I give the Russian example of the first Chechen War. US tech and especially integration is far ahead of Russian weapon systems. Most of those platforms on your list are still untested and I firmly beleive that their capabilities are hype. It's just that the US military is subject to public scrutiny from the press and the Russian military is not. Therefor US desingers can't get away from mess-ups when they need to report to Congress and it gets plastered all over the nightly news. If Russian tests fail you never hear it unless it leaks.