I can believe such a unit existing as late as 1998, but not by 2000. It would become an instant marauder unit, if someone tried to form and arm one.
Going back to the WW2 examples, both Soviets and Germans used penal units for construction work, too. If anything, I could see this in 2000-- semi-slave labor, like the rabotniks in Krakow or the LCs in New America.
The pre-war French-African army had some as well, IIRC. They had a reputation for really long forced marches, even more so than the Foreign Legion.
There's also a rumor that the Soviets would use military prisoners as tailgunners on the IL-2 Shturmoviks. Ten missions would get one's sentence lifted! Or so they were told. Did I mention the pilot of the IL-2 had armor plate, but not the tailgunner?
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My Twilight claim to fame: I ran "Allegheny Uprising" at Allegheny College, spring of 1988.
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