by Billbo on Sun Nov 16, 2008 7:07 am
Training wouldn't help them much for two reasons- one, most models don't have the muscular strength and body mass to properly use the weapons and two, there was nothing superb about anything manufactured by the former Warsaw Pact. Great on paper and in magazines, most were junk in the field. Consider that the Afghan tribesmen were able to improve on them and make Soviet weapons with village foundries. AK-47s, mortars, SAMs, other rockets, Maks, etc. The stuff on Actiongirls looked like it was pre-1989 trash. The best thing about Soviet-era weapons was that they were cheap and many more nations could afford them than the better made U.S., European, South African, Brazilian and South Korean weapons. Ironically, most of them that were made for export were made in Slovakia, which seceded from The Czech and Slovak Republic after Vaclav Havel promised to close the arms factories. (Which made up most of Slovakia's jobs). As Saddam found, a T-72 or T-80U was no match for a M-1a, Challenger, or even the old M-60s and Chieftans, even though he had 10,000 T-72s and T-80Us. Air superiority was one factor, but even when it wasn't present and the Iraqis outnumbered the Coalition Forces in armored vehicles, they still got creamed in short order.