I’m learning about control systems/controls engineering and the Soviet Union was way ahead of this time in this domain.

Essentially, western control theory was focused on communication as it was born, and got to use a couple shortcuts that work well in that context (the “frequency domain”, which focuses on 1 input and 1 output).

I dunno what the Soviet Union was doing controls for (certainly military, almost certainly automating industrial production), but they were the only people who stuck with big ass systems of differential equations.

The latter is known as “modern control theory” and, while much more arduous/computationally demanding, is way more widely applicable.

My point is just that I totally believe Russian science has some areas where it’s just way more successful

I would like to subscribe to Soviet metallurgy facts

Do you have any good links or even book recommendations that discuss this history?

Thanks for sharing, super interesting! My initial reaction was one of cynicism, but then I remembered the west’s tendency to lose its ability to use advanced technologies itself developed, let alone adopting those outside of its orthodoxies:

• https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-big-problem-americas-stealth-f-22-raptor-america-cant-19420
• https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/05/fogbank-america-forgot-how-make-nuclear-bombs/
• https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/39537/the-air-force-needs-to-reverse-engineer-parts-of-its-own-stealth-bomber

It’s amazing how deep the propagandised idea of western superiority/invincibility can run, but then gradually falls apart under inspection, like an F-117A over Serbia

There's considerable question whether any missile defense systems actually worked in the first place.

Yeah, if the missile itself can fly at twelve times the speed of sound while making evasive maneuvers, air defence is now obsolete. Unless you're planning to use lasers to take out the missiles, but that technology is still far away. But yeah, nothing anyone can do to stop this kind of missile attack, conventional or nuclear. And the west has no equivalent as of now.

It also gives the target much less time to react and retaliate, if they can even retaliate before the missile hits.

Just FYI, missile defence systems were never good. Their capacity to shoot down incoming cruise missiles has always been a last ditch effort. They've always been most effective against infantry scale anti-tank weapons which have to balance payload, range, and missile speed.