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Originally Posted by Raellus
I was thinking, though, that the reunified German army would stay segregated for a while, with former E. German army units keeping their Soviet-Bloc weapons and vehicles. It wouldn't be too hard to keep such homogenous units supplied. Such and such a division gets 125mm tank shells, 7.62mm S ammo, 122mm arty rounds, etc. while the other ones get standard NATO.
I don't see the Germans scrapping all of the former E. German army's Soviet made artillery tubes, rocket launchers, trucks, etc. for the sake of creating ammo commonality as it would take time and money to replace it all with standard NATO gear. It just seems that the war moves too fast (up to '98 or so) for that to happen. Those T-72s would be needed at the front.
Later in the war, as attrition mandates blending of W. and former E. German units, supply would become more of an issue. Perhaps there would be time and the facilities needed to retrofit NATO guns to Soviet-made tanks shortly before the TDM. After that, it would probably be too late to manage such a large scale refitting.
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I do believe you're right that the unified Germans aren't going to can all of the Pact gear they inherit. In some ways, having East German troops in the mix simplifies the matter of what to do with captured Pact gear. Later in the war, decentralized decision-making no doubt will be the order of the day. Where possible, Pact gear might be refitted; where not, captured or locally manufactured stocks might be made to work. By 2000, there aren't going to be many easy solutions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus
Also, many Israeli commando units (Sayeret Golani, for example) used AKs captured during the '67 war during the '73 war. Israeli rifle squads customarily included an RPG gunner as late as the '82 war in Lebanon. This, of course, in addition to their western and locally made weapons. If the Israelis could handle the supply and identification issues, I'm sure the Bundeswher could too.
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Special operations types have their own way of doing business. The RPG is a good example of using the enemy's gear. The logistical chain becomes additionally burdened when some units are using the RPG, others the Carl Gustav, and still others the B300 (to pick three loosely comparable systems). If everyone is using the RPG, then an RPG shipment can go to any unit anywhere.
Webstral