The United States Army Breaks Down The Operational Variables

Lets start out with the good things that Russia’s economy has. Russia has an more than enough natural resources. They have plenty of timber, precious metals, oil, gas, and coal. Those resources being exported could easily benefit their economy if it wasn’t for other countries who produce more of the resources taking their potential

The history of force reductions after the Cold War era and Operation Desert Storm proves the reliance on contract support to America’s fighting force was important to accomplish the mission. (CGSC, 2015). The Army should maintain its level of contract support relative to the current budget constraints and force reductions. Contract support with oversight from Army Material Command is a force multiplier but will require several mitigation measures in order to be effective in future campaigns.

Between 2000 and 2012, Russia's energy exports fueled a rapid growth in living standards, with disposable income rising by 160%. However, these gains are unevenly distributed as 110 of the wealthiest people in the country were found to own 35% of all financial assets held by Russian households. Moscow has been named the "billionaire capital of the world" by Forbes since 2008. Russia also has the second largest volume of illicit money outflows, having lost over $880 billion between 2002 and 2011. The Russian Economy consists of high-income mixed with state ownership in strategic areas of the economy. In the 1990’s market, reforms privatized much of Russian industry and agriculture, with notable exceptions in the energy and defense-related sectors. Russia is among one of the major economies in the world because it relies on energy revenues to drive economic growth. The country has an abundance of natural resources such as oil, natural gas and precious metals, which make up most of Russia's exports. In 2012 as surveyed was done and found out that the oil and gas sector of Russia accounted for 16% of the GDP, 52% of federal budget revenues and over 70% of total exports. Russia has a very sophisticated and large arms industry, capable of designing and manufacturing high-tech military equipment, such as fifth-generation fighter jets. The value of Russian arms exports totaled $15.7 billion in 2013 second only to

Russia’s imperialistic actions over the Southern Tier nations have not just been a nostalgic attempt to salvage its old empire. The Caspian Sea, the world’s largest landlocked body of water bordered by Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran, may sit on as much as 200 billion barrels or oil which would be 16% of the Earth’s potential oil reserves. (Sciolino, 1998, pg. 16) A 1998 New York Times article estimated that at that time this amount of oil would add up to $3 trillion. (Sciolino, 1998, pg. 16) It is obvious that Russia would like to exploit a considerable share of this wealth. The exploitation of the Caspian Sea depends on pipeline transport of oil and Russia would like to see these pipelines run through their land on their way to international markets to harness some of the profit. (Akiner, 2000, pg. 146) This profit, as well as economic control over the Southern Tier region, is another important motive in Russia’s resurgent scheme.

The challenge for some of the periphery states is that they get the majority of their energy resources from Russia, which opens them to potential coercion to Russia’s national interests. However, one of Russia’s

Russia’s energy security depends largely on the global demand and international energy market price. Thus, Russian energy security is vulnerable to market forces and benefits from economic stability, particularly that of the European countries, with whom Russia conducts the majority of its energy trade. Let us see the history trend of Russia’s energy trade during the financial crisis.

Russia is the largest country in the world. It borders two oceans, spans two continents, and its landscapes range from Arctic tundra to subtropical beaches. Much of that land is undeveloped and uninhabited. Russia’s borders encompass twice the surface area of the United States, but has a third of the population. Natural gas and oil are abundant in Russia because of its sheer size and the variety of climates. West Siberia is Russia’s main oil-producing region and has several large oil fields, one of which has been producing since 1969 (EIA). West Siberia’s population is mainly concentrated into a couple cities, leaving much of the land untouched. This is the prime

The multifunctional nature of Operations Management requires a high level of process- and system-based synchronization across many different departments and divisions to be successful. The structural organization of the US Army is heavily dependent on Operations Management for missions to be accomplished, and long-term strategic visions to be attained (VanVactor, 2007). The intent of this analysis is to evaluate how the five areas of accounting, industrial engineering, management, management science and statistics, in conjunction with critical path analysis and linear programming, are used extensively throughout the US Army's supply chain operations.

Inevitably, diminishing oil prices weaken Russia’s GDP and will continue to pull its economy in a downward direction following each drop in price. Moreover, the value of Russia’s ruble has experienced a decrease in value since the fall of 2014 weakening exchange rates (). As of today, one Russian ruble is only worth 0.017 USD. Along with the country’s weak economic growth, Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of war in Ukraine have contributed to the devaluation of Russian currency ().

There are several factors in Russia’s economy that may contributed to many trade opportunities being created for the United States. The US will likely be greatly affected by any shifts in the demands of Russian consumers along with any import needs the country has to maintain its society and infrastructure. One of the key considerations for examining Russia’s resource needs must be the fact that the US’s core competency as an energy producer cannot be leveraged in this scenario due to Russia’s own dominance as a producer of oil (Lavrov, 2013). The loss of the strength of the Russian ruble has caused Russia to experience a trade deficit, which has contributed to an increase in the demand for imports (Beck, Kamps, & Mileva, 2007).

The operational environment is the framework the military uses to define a how we will create a concept to defeat an enemy. To help paint the picture of the operational environment the Army uses the acronym PMESSII-PT. PMESSII-PT stands for Politics, Military, Economic, Social, Information, Infrastructure, Physical Environment, and Time . I do not believe there are one or two areas that can be focused on and have a successful outcome in combat. GEN David Petraeus stated, “there are no purely military solutions in Afghanistan.”1

Private capital investments have slowed, Russia’s market environment is weakened by the presence of a continued state-run model, and a significant lever within the Russian economy remains oil (Kudrin & Gurvich, 2015, p.54). In 2015, Russia was a key exporter of oil to both Europe and Asia, and nearly 50% of the country’s revenue comes from oil and gas. That type of dependence, when oil prices decline can have a massive negative effect on the economy of a nation (Andrianova & Khrennikova, 2016).

Russia’s economy is largely based on the production of oil, natural gas and metals like steel and aluminum. Swings in global prices on these exported goods make the economy vulnerable to boom and bust cycles. Although Russia underwent a 2-year recession from 2014 to 2016, the global growth and trade started to strengthen at the end of 2016 and the economy showed signs of overcoming the recession caused by the shocks of low oil prices and economic sanctions. The economy is mostly based on a market-based system after the collapse of the Soviet Union. With a high concentration of wealth in officials’ hands due to a mostly privatized industry with notable exceptions in the energy, transportation, banking, and defense-related sectors.

High flying oil price benefited oil producing countries past 5 years until recent petroleum price plunge. Russian was the one of beneficiaries who has enjoyed the high oil price. The Russian economy stabilized without much of restructuring the economic system or economic growth by developing new industry. High oil price created budget surpluses and keep Russian economy afloat; However, increase of the US oil production, oil price war between Saudi and Kuwait, debilitating European economy, and decreasing oil consumption in Asia contributed to drive oil price down quickly and substantially. Russian GDP signals that its economy gets pounded and affected hardest among major oil exporters. The Russian budget has been in balance with small portion of public debt in comparison to national GDP. Falling price of petroleum drastically reshaped the Russian economy. Financial forecasts and analysis predict that economic recession could come back to Russia. Crumbling Russian ruble and dwindling exports slashed 2014 Russian GDP, and its GDP will fall lower than Spain or South Korea. Without serious police changes or development of technology, already battling Russian economy will be much worse place than 2014. The Russian economy suffers from three severe blows: debilitating structural policies and strict financial sanctions from the West, and continually falling oil price.

The oil industry is one of great power that countries are invest in. Russia is one of the leading contenders in producing oil and exports the goods to various countries. With great resources comes great strength. Oil is of the utmost important to every country therefore, Russia has an upper hand in some respects. Moreover, the history behind the oil pipelines and how Russia connects to different countries allows for insight into the power they withhold politically and economically, and on the improvements that need to be made to continue growth in this industry.