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Russian weapons that are critically dependent upon Western electronics have resulted in the deaths of thousands of Ukrainians," Jack Watling, a land warfare specialist at RUSI, told Reuters. While many of the foreign components are found in everyday household goods such as microwaves that are not subject to export controls, RUSI said a strengthening of export restrictions and enforcement could make it harder for Russia to replenish its arsenal of weapons such as cruise missiles.

They’re not Gen Five but they’re fast, agile and Russia has about 100 of them,” says Justin Bronk, an expert in air power at the Royal United Services Institute. So how do Russia’s pilots stack up against ours? “Generally worse across the board,” Bronk says. “One of the advantages that the RAF and particularly the US air force have always had is that they fly a lot. It takes hours in the air to maintain an edge. RAF frontline pilots get fewer hours than they used to but it’s still 20 to 50 per cent more than the average Russian pilot.”

If Taiwan is unable to stop the first waves, its forces will gradually fall back into the mountains and cities to draw the Chinese military into a violent and bloody prolonged conflict, all in the hope that US intervention will bring the war to a close or tilt the balance of forces in their favour. Whatever the outcome, a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be unimaginably violent, and greater in scale than any amphibious assault conducted to date.