Originally Posted by
Less Hair
Soviet stuff back then was throw away stuff. They used mass produced APC guns for fighters with no replaceable and repairable parts. Jet engines with low hours until replacement. Compare this to western fighter guns or engines. Every bit like barrels can be replaced and repaired. The soviets had strategic fronts. If one was used up they moved the next into the theatre.
Eastern stuff is expendable and not made to last. It is cheapo mass produced and will be replaced instead of being repaired.
Remind me again just how long some Soviet weapons have lasted?
On topic with regard to Ukraine, when, exactly, were the majority of the T-72s (and even T-64s and T-54s) they are using in Ukraine made? The T-72 is the most widely used MBT in the world. It's now over 50 years old. Most of those deployed in Ukraine are Soviet era and decades old but still bloody effective as we've seen (more effective than their newer T-80s and T90's). Same goes for the venerable AK-47 (first produced in 1947). The most widely used assault rifle in the world.
I'm not disputing the fact that Russia (as distinct from the Soviet Union) has fallen into the same trap as many other countries including the UK. Being reliant on cheaper imported technology impacts them just as it impacts us. We are now beholden to China for a great deal of the technology we rely on. We gave up mandating multiple sourcing decades ago for some stupid reason. At least Russia can still get what it needs from China, and as we've seen the stuff they are getting from Iran works OK.
What I saw first hand of Soviet electronics in the 1970's was that they were at least 20 years behind in technology. They did know how to make best use of what they had though. The stuff I saw was ingenious, robust, well designed and almost infinitely repairable. Easy to laugh at how crude a lot of it was but the bottom line was that it worked rather well. They designed their kit to be operated by idiots and repaired under field conditions. Wish we had done the same as much of our kit was bloody near impossible to keep serviceable without a well equipped first line workshop.
Another thing they excelled at was never replacing stuff that still did the job OK. Seemed they had an "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality. In the 1970's they were still using WWII era kit. No reason to replace it as it still did the job OK and had the big advantage that everyone knew how to operate it and keep it going.
The contrast between the Russian approach and our own is stark. We issue people with rifles that will most likely jam before firing a full mag. Rifles that need to be mollycoddled and kept spotless to work. Rifles with receivers made by a tin can company, that bend if you look at them the wrong way. Sure they are accurate when they work. Way more accurate than a rattly old Kalashnikov. Bugger all use having a super accurate rifle if the bit of **** jams if it sees the slightest bit of dirt. Once saw a guy proving how robust an AK-47 was. He poured a bucket of sand over it, picked it up, shook it and fired off a full mag without a hitch.