the "Last Person to blah blah blah" thread is now old enough to vote (in the US)

It says in that article:
"Speed: In excess of 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)"

Woo boy is that true!! I was in the US Navy in the 70's and on a destroyer in the Mediterranean one time, during the daytime, we were doing 28 knots, mine was a just post WWII destroyer that was trying to shake itself apart so couldn't safely go any faster. Anyway we saw a nuclear US aircraft carrier coming up behind us, everyone went out to watch as it caught up and ZOOMED on by us like we were sitting still! We were in fricking AWE of how FAST they can go!! Those things are enormous to be going that fast!! I later heard it takes 7 miles to do a normal safe u-turn in a carrier. Seems they need to go fast enough to still have a headwind of X knots across the bow, even when going downwind. We later found out that during the daytime a ship could NOT go full speed because the Russians, Cold War times, could physically see the ship, but at night they had to use sensors, so full speed runs were always done at night time. When my destroyer did a 30 knot run at night it broke a bunch of stuff, but it did it for over an hour! As a welder, plumber and carpenter at the time I was kept busy for DAYS fixing all the broken stuff. I always hated those runs!!

Could have caused a "diplomatic incident" by getting them a bit flushed and sending them round the bend :-))

But of course in all seriousness, the Russian Navy, Army, and Air Force constantly "test" the West's defences by skirmishes of this sort. Firstly to ascertain what technical advances have been made, and secondly to give their chaps training and something to do. I read an article somewhere that said if they didn't it was estimated that 50% would defect in 5 years.

And in any case they won't win any war. NATO is an Alliance that consists of 28 independent member countries, one of which is the USA. Faced with that lot they have no chance and they know it. Mind you you can never trust them, the BAOR was only stood down in 1994 and was still replaced by the BFG with 25,000 men.