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Old 06-03-2021, 08:44 AM
Olefin Olefin is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Greencastle, PA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 3catcircus View Post
I dunno. Technicals (i e. Hilux with machine gun) do have their uses. Chad figured out that if they drove them over 100km/hr they could drive right through Libyan minefields without setting them off... That and it's very easy to procure them with aid grants from western nations when sanctions prevent military imports. The only way I see museum pieces being viable is in portions of the former USSR or in western nations. In the ME, Africa, SW Asia, they're too valuable as scrap to become pieces or they are too costly to do anything but abandon (like multiple African nation's airports currently hosting mouldering aircraft husks).
Keep in mind that in the 90's Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East were loaded with still very active "museum pieces" - the list of armies that still operated old WWII and early Cold War tanks and armored cars would be very extensive indeed - the last 20 years have seen many of them retired but in 1995 you have a lot of that equipment still in use. So dont count them out.

Also keep in mind just in Italy there are literally hundreds of old M47 tanks with plenty of spares in storage that were leased from the US Army.

And if you are looking at V1 there would be even more of such tanks and armored vehicles still around and still in running shape - i.e. the era of the US and Soviets sending stuff like that to countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Israel, Syria, etc. would still be very much in action

I also think that even a "Potemkin" tank has a lot of value - i.e. how many marauders are going to see a tank and decide that they want to take it on - not knowing that its basically immobile and may not have a working fire control system. Its one thing if its somewhere that has anti-tank weapons - its another if you are talking a bunch of guys with shotguns and hunting rifles seeing a tank and have nothing but some dynamite or a flaming bottle of gas to try to take it out with. Most would give it a wide berth.
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