How was the Soviet Union as a whole more powerful than modern-day Russia when the economies of the Soviet Socialist Republics were a fraction of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic's?
Why would Russia limit itself to small chunks of countries when they'd already taken all of Ukraine? The resistance offered by those countries would look like a walk in the park in comparison.
Their anti-ship missile capability certainly isn't. And their raw numbers alone could also end up being enough. I think we're going to end up defending Taiwan with everything we've got in our Pacific fleet short of nukes or end up not defending Taiwan at all.
Expert's warning to US Navy on China: Bigger fleet almost always wins | CNN
January 17, 2023
"The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) surpassed the US Navy in fleet size sometime around 2020 and now has around 340 warships, according to the Pentagon’s 2022 China Military Power Report, released in November. China’s fleet is expected to grow to 400 ships in the next two years, the report says.
Meanwhile, the US fleet sits under 300 ships, and the Pentagon’s goal is to have 350 manned ships, still well behind China, by 2045, according to the US Navy’s Navigation Plan 2022 released last summer."
And they won't need to if they're able to use Taiwan itself as a base for its naval fleet and they gain full control of the Taiwan Straight and the South China Sea.
That we agree on. Which is why they'd try to take Taiwan very quickly. Unless we've already told China Taiwan is all theirs an attack would start with massive missile bombardments of our military facilities in Guam and Japan. Which is why it's good that we're cutting deals with the Philippines right now.
Eyeing China, the Philippines agrees to a larger U.S. military presence : NPR
February 2, 2023
"The U.S. will expand its presence in Southeast Asia with access to more bases in the Philippines, the two countries announced Thursday.
"American commitment to the defense of the Philippines is ironclad. Our alliance makes both of our democracies more secure and helps uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific," U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said during a press conference on Thursday afternoon in Manila."