Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus
True. I can see the 6th being built back up to division strength again in light of the Soviet Union's war with China, especially when Moscow starts demanding Warsaw Pact members contribute fighting forces to the war in the East. They could do that fairly quickly, I assume, by recalling reserve/retired/discharged ex-paratroopers back to active duty. It would have only been 6-7 years since the unit was downsized.
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Yep, that makes good sense. There’s enough of a buildup for China that a generalized expansion and recall of high readiness formations would be something that would be tasked out to the NSWP militaries. I don’t think kit is going to be a limiting factor; a recall of the 92 and 93 classes of conscripts, an extension of the 94 class and normal intake of the 95 class would effectively grow the pool of available personnel.
WRT the OT64s, my references show them as alternate transportation in the event the unit was going to be committed outside its normal role. Very easy to add a mechanized/motorized ops workup into the training cycle for China given their likely role as a “fire brigade” and the likely limitations on airborne/air assault ops posed by western supplied MANPADS and SAMs. Kind of like the “airborne-mech” units in 8ID during the earlier era of the Cold War.