Quote:
Originally Posted by Bestbrian
One of the most interesting aspects of the current war in Ukraine is that it gives a window into what Western aid to China in 1995 would've looked like (on a vastly larger scale, and with the "Chinese Tank Breaker" scenario already having played out in the analogue of St. Javelin), and the larger issue of supplying weapons and gear that the Chinese would've already had familiarity with. Does the West just throw open the armories and dump Garands/Enfields and stockpiles of WWII gear? Or do they scour the Third World for Soviet gear that can be sent to China in exchange for upgraded western tech (I can see Egypt being a substantial source of this supply). In any event, a lot of cool gear would've been fed into China long before the war spread west, let alone the TDM.
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That's a really good point. I think what we're seeing with aid to Ukraine since February strongly suggests that the US and its allies are going to be sending pretty much everything they can spare, or get their hands on from willing third parties. Like with Ukraine, this would result in an eclectic mix of the ultra-modern (eg "Tank Breaker" ATGMS), obsolescent stuff pulled from storage mothballs (eg Redeye MANPADs), and nearly everything in between. I'm following a "Ukraine Weapons Tracker" on Twitter that does a good job illustrating the point.
https://twitter.com/UAWeapons?ref_sr...0408%2Fpage-10
All kinds of stuff, some of it rather antiquated (eg. Swedish recoilless rifles) is showing up there. Yesterday, the account posted a pic of 155mm artillery shells made in Pakistan.
At the same time, I think the Chinese might reject some "donations", like, for example, M1 Garand rifles, as being not-worth-the-trouble to field. Ukraine has essentially rejected some proffered military aid- fairly recent reports are indicating that the Ukrainians shot down US offers of A-10 Warthogs as they continue to press for more modern multi-role Western fighters instead.
Besides Egypt, in a v1 T2k timeline, I can see Pakistan being a third party supplier to the Chinese. The US has some sway there, and a lot of Pakistani weaponry from that era originated in China.
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