Yeah but they make the best weapons. Just ask 'em.
Most of all highly advanced aircraft, engines, and avionics. Just ask 'em. Of course there is no free press in Russia and no way to independently verify their claims, "which almost always turns out to be malarky".
Besides the price of oil is playing havoc with their economy. Its not like they build anything anyone actually wants to buy, other then a few military customers who want cash and carry with no strings attached.
Much of this is true, but there are exceptions. When western folks got a hold of the AA11/R73 Archer from the German Mig29s after the reunification, it was a huge, huge shock to analysts and Air Forces in NATO how much more capable it was than the Aim9L/m. We had been thinking the entire time in the 80s during the height of the cold war we had by far the best IR missile in the world, the weapon responsible for most of the a2a kills in jet aircraft. Well, we didn't, the Archer was a far, far better missile, faster, more maneuverable, better seeker head, far longer range, off axis shooting ability, all of it. We didn't catch up until the Aim9x and other newer IR missiles came on line.
Now, I realize one example doesn't make all their stuff "superman weapons", as they tried to play off in the 80s in the Cold War, but there was some things they built, like the Su27 at the time, the Archer, and other systems, that were as good or even better than Western weapons of the time. Underestimating them, and declaring all of their data lies and media friendly fabrications is dangerous, had there been war in the 80s, a lot of our fighter pilots might have eaten Archers far outside of the parameters we though it was capable of in the opening days of war, because the consensus was that their data and selling points we discovered were lies and exaggerations when they tried selling the Archer to Soviet allies. It was declared inferior at the time, when it was in fact the best IR missile by leaps and bounds in the world at the time.
