Quote:
Originally Posted by Olefin
The Soviets were using them as bunkers and for coastal defense but also still had ones that were mobile as well into the late 80’s and early 90’s. It may be a question more of V1 versus V2.2. The V1 world where the Cold War never ended is one where the Soviets and Cubans never went thru the draw downs that would have occurred in V2.2. In a V1 scenario I could easily see the Cubans still having the T34 and IS-2M’s ready to go as needed instead of being used for static defense by the time of the war.
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Well, as I have written above, the Cubans hadn't kept the IS-2Ms in a running condition by 1989 already, and likely earlier. The Soviets did neither, at least not in Cuba - where there was only one brigade stationed at the end of the Cold War - or in European Russia. Running IS-2 only reappeared in break-off areas of break-off states after the collapse of the USSR. These beasts were really rare and old by the 1980s. Also, they hadn't been produced in numbers comparable to the T-34/85 medium tanks and were too slow for Soviet doctrine after the 1960s.
Could a post Twilight War Cuba, Mexico or Soviet remnant state field a couple of them? Yes, sure, why not. But it's not going to be a sizeable and likely only a company in total, divided into platoons or even single tanks over a wider area. But hey, it's a mobile 122 mm gun, so it will likely make an impression by 2000.