I just thought of another reason why NATO would hang on to captured PACT gear prior to the TDM.
I think we've established that captured gear would be kept to resupply former GDR units, ship to China, equip E. European guerrilla units, etc. I think that NATO would also keep it in order to equip the post war Polish military. With things going slowly but well during early to mid '97, planning for a NATO-aligned Poland must have been on the drawing board. It would have been nearly impossible to reequip whatever remained of the Polish military with NATO-manufactured weapons, especially since NATO would probably be hard pressed to make up its own material losses. It would be easier to equip the post-war Polish military with stockpiles of captured PACT weaponry. It would be faster and cheaper and Polish troops would already be familiar with the operation of Soviet bloc weapons, from rifles to MBTs.
Trucks are a no brainer. Knowledgeable folks here have previously stated that the Soviets would, even at the outset of the war, be short on trucks. Any captured NATO or Chinese trucks would immediately be pressed into service. The WWII Wermacht was always short of trucks and used whatever they could get their hands on. It made maintainance a real pain in the a** sine a single unit could have French, Belgian, Czech, British, Russian, and American military (and civilian) trucks in the their supply and baggage trains.
After the TDM, I think any unit with a vehicle or two would be wise to keep a set of PACT weapons. With resupply sporadic at best, a lot of units would probably have to resort, at times at least, to using captured ammo which should be fairly plentiful or at least readily available during combat. Some PACT gear, like the RPG-7/16, would probably be standard issue in NATO units by 2000.
And the AK series is legendary for its simplicity and durability. The M-16 has a reputation of being rather finicky. I once saw video of a South African special police unit in the early '00s called to remove an old weapons cache from the '80s somewhere in the bush in Namibia. They found an old AK literally orange with rust. They poured motor oil over it, wiped it down with a rag, and fired a whole magazine on full auto without a stoppage.
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