Shadowalker said:I was just wondering this as the new members of the EU and NATO have to upgrade a lot of there equipment or replace it. Some countries such as the Czech Republic are upgrading there equipment and are buying in new stuff like the JAS39 Gripens. They seem to be under pressure from western governments to buy modern western equipment, but could they still buy russian weapon systems, such as BTR-80/90 and BMP-3 and still comply with NATO standards. Thanks
Russian crap isn't comply with NATO standards but some of that are quite good in right use. All MBT:s can be forgotten except for infantry support, but some of the APCs and IFVs can fill their job well but they aren't desinged to be used many years.
Russian electronics is technically much worse than western but all mechanical equipments such as infantry weapons are working quite well. Russian quality is piece s**t compared to western due ancient manufacturing systems and control of quality. Some good russian equipments i know are machineguns 7.62 PKM, 12.7 NSV and the reliable construction of AK.
In Finland Russian or actually from Germany origin equipments can be found in two armor brigades wich are going to be dispanded until 2008 because unit such as armor brigade has proven to be too sluggish unit in finnish terrain.