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Redemption – Military planes you were wrong about in hindsight!

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Old Wombat:

--- Quote from: M.A.D on April 23, 2023, 08:05:33 PM ---
--- Quote from: GTX_Admin on April 19, 2023, 02:26:11 AM ---At the risk of going down a rabbit hole, dare I say we are seeing some of the outcomes of that comparison in Ukraine, especially given some of the vintages of the weapons on each side.  Mind you, I suspect a full on Cold War gone hot scenario in Central Europe that had reached a semi-stalemate like the currentUkraine conflict would have resulted in Soviet use of NBC weapons ... something we hope won't happen in Ukraine.

--- End quote ---

Why would it have to be the Soviet's mate, given the demonstrated shortage of weapons/ammo of the U.S./NATO.

MAD

--- End quote ---

Largely, it's because of the immense wind-down of military forces in the West since the end of the Cold War to a tiny fraction of what they were in 1990(+/-).

Then there's the Western belief that a war with a near-peer was never going to happen post the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact (or, at least, not without a long lead-in), & the inevitable "fighting the last war" syndrome which, despite being aware of it, all militaries & governments seem to fall victim to; & the most recent wars we've fought have been quick, decisive invasions followed by long drawn-out guerilla conflicts with the West (having the technological superiority) vs local insurgencies (using effective low-tech solutions). Which has led to the "the tank is dead" mythos & the idea that low numbers of small, precision weapons are superior to large numbers of field artillery, AFV's & properly trained combat troops.

Then there's the idea that, should the unlikely event of a major near-peer war break out, it would go from conventional to nuclear long before stocks of munitions became an issue.

The Soviets & Russians have long held the strategic importance of stockpiling old equipment, so that as reservists & old conscripts are called back into service they can use equipment that they are/were familiar with, thus reducing re-training times.

The Americans do this to some small extent with aircraft but, overall, Western nations don't consider calling up ex-service personnel from 10, 15, 20 or even 30 years ago as a standard contingency plan, so all that old equipment is sold on to 3rd tier nations or scrapped.

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