A T-50 prototype for the Su-57 flies at the MAKS 2011 air show. Wikicommons/ Alex Beltyukov . Some rights reserved.
Russia’s massive Vostok-2018 military exercises from 11-17 September are receiving much attention in the western media, all too easily conjuring a spectre of the Russian bear once again ready to pounce on a weakened west. The involvement of neighbouring China adds an extra frisson. The height of this coverage lies in tabloid reports in Britain that the wargames include the deployment of 36,000 tanks: quite an achievement when authoritative sources put the Russian army's total at 2,700 (see The Military Balance, IISS, 2017).
Some of the figures mislead: 36,000, for example, refers to each item of army equipment, whether small or tank-sized, which somewhat alters the scale. That said, Vostok-2018 – the word denoting "East", as in the city of Vladivostok – is indeed an exceptionally large operation, about twice the size of the last such exercise in 2014. But is this a display by a global military superpower, a retread of its Soviet predecessor? In considering this question, a degree of perspective is essential.
