Quote:
Originally Posted by Olefin
FYI
One way you could have Mexico have MBT's would also fit right into those who love Red Dawn type scenarios and Harold Coyle books, which you can clearly see in the Texas module - how about they get them from Nicaragua, either with Nicaraguans manning them or just buying them?
The Soviets delivered 20 T-54's and 136 T-55's to Nicaragua and 22 PT-76B's and considering the time frame of the game they should still be fully operational.
Thats a lot of potential armor for Mexico - and better yet, since Cuba operates those vehicles as well they could have bought parts for them from Cuba.
So lets say they buy 120 of them from Nicaragua in late 1997 as planning begins for the invasion - they can be delivered very easily and the spares come from Cuba as well as Nicaragua. They use Nicaraugan and Soviet trainers to get their guys up to speed and organize them into three 40 tank battalions and assign one to each army going into the US.
Or they use Soviet Division Cuba for tank support in Texas and put one battalion going into Arizona and two going into California.
Bingo - instant MBT's for the Mexican Army - and a great way to bring the Nicaraguans possibly into the invasion for those who want to do Red Dawn.
Raellus FYI- the Henschel HWK-11s were all manufactured and plant shut down by 1966. I highly doubt by 1996 that many of those workers and techs are even alive, let alone able to assist in getting a MBT plant up and running.
Again I dont see them making MBT's in Mexico - but don't underestimate the ERC-90, especially the improved version. The French have been very successfully using it as a light tank for a long time - and given the nature of what the invasion would be like they could be very very effective as tanks.
And for the record - I would totally be in agreement on Mexico getting licensed to make the ERC-90 Lynx or Sagaies and increasing their number of them significantly prior to the invasion - they already have 120 of them and almost 20 years of experience operating them - and for Mexico it makes just about the perfect AFV
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Some interesting ideas there. Without giving up on the idea of having Mexico build AMX-30 under license, I’m willing to explore the idea of acquiring tanks from other sources and the idea of boosting numbers of Lynxes. Certainly, they would be purchased by China if the AMX-30 is going to be purchased by China.
Before agreeing that the Lynx can do the job of supporting a Mexican thrust into the US, I would want to figure out how
Second Mexican Army deals with a counterattack by 40th Infantry Division. The division draws a number of MBT when it reforms. The M60 outranges and outguns the Lynx and has better protection. The M1 is even more so. Conventional wisdom says that any encounter between American MBT and the Lynx is going to be as lop-sided as the Operation Desert Storm. It’s hard to imagine that the Americans make no serious effort to expel the Mexicans from Southern California. Yet the disposition of forces in July 2000 indicates that either there was no real effort or that the Americans failed. This needs some explanation. Or a rationale for the Americans making no effort has to be devised. I’m at a loss in this regard thus far, though I’d welcome some ideas to get me thinking.