Quote:
Originally Posted by Olefin
Lets look at the equipment
they had the money to buy several hundred AMX-VCI APC's and BDX APC's and then rework them and rearm them in real life in the early to mid 90's - thus this gives us a base for what they had to spend
So what are we looking at - 36 SPG's per the canon - all of them older models and ones that countries would be looking to get rid of
rebuild 45 light tanks into better tanks - or even buy ones that the Brazilians were retiring - not that expensive a cost
adding about 180 APC's of some sort and maybe not that many if you count the home build ones they had to get to the canon numbers - thats where the real spend would be and also buying MILAN or HOT missiles
thus could they have the money - the answer is yes - if they had the money for the AMX/BDX buy in real life they most likely had the money for the kind of buy I am proposing
What they didnt have was the money for the Mexican Sourcebook buy of literally over a thousand tanks - that they didnt have the money for unless you postulate a huge increase in oil prices
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All of that would point to a major change in the direction of Mexican defence policy that never occurred during or after the Cold War.
Did the AMX-VCI/BDX buy occur during the Cold war, and with all the surplus defence equipment floating about after the end of the Cold War why did Mexico choose these old vehicles when it could have its choice of anything it wanted?
How many actual military vehicles are recorder as transferred from Belgium to Mexico? How long did the Mexicans take to covert all of them to DCN-1? Would upgrading and converting 40 year old SP howitzers without any parts being made be an easy thing? And then on top of that Mexico finds the money and expertise to buy and convert light tanks from Brazil, and then buy a whole load of anti-tank missiles from France?
That's a lot of effort for very little gain. If Mexico has money why not just buy some new or used material in good condition from France.