In Defense of the Red Army

[pmulcahy11b]

If nothing else, one should never underestimate their opponents.

[pmulcahy11b]

@Cynic:

Ooohhh, new stuff for the "Best Stuff That Never Was" pages! It'll take more research than on those pages, however. It's a good start, though.

[Raellus]

I can't remember if it has been previously pointed out in this thread, but the Soviet-made T-72s that were spanked by American M1 Abrams and British Challengers in both Iraq wars were bare-bones export models that had down-graded optics and manual-only turret traverses. Soviet T-72s, although inferior in nearly every aspect to contemporary NATO MBTs, would have been significantly more capable than the Republican Guards' T-72s. I really wonder how the battle of 73 Easting would have gone down if it had been Soviet Guards tankers that the American ACRs were going up against. I doubt that they would have won that fight, but they sure as hell would have made it a lot costlier in terms of men and material for the Americans.

Extensively upgraded T-55s, T-62s, T-72s, T-80s, and T-90s (and these surely would have been rolled out during the '90s had the Cold War continued) are fairly capable MBTs and they would have been thrown at the West in numbers that NATO simply couldn't match.

[Legbreaker]

Absolutely agree with that.
As has been stated time and time again, the Iraqi's simply cannot be compared to what would have been faced by Nato in Europe. In 1991 and again a decade later, Iraq was all alone, equipped with second grade vehicles and weapons, and their training standard can only be described as laughable. Add in that they'd only just finished fighting Iran and the vast bulk of their best units had been destroyed....

Obviously the Iraqi commanders made some fatal mistakes in 91, and the willingness of the troops to fight was, on the whole, rather lacking. If they'd been competantly led, properly trained and organised, it may well have been a different matter.

Granted the Pact forces at the time have proven to be fairly poorly prepared, however that state of affairs is not what the game is based upon. In the T2K universe, the Pact were a strong and credible force, ready, able and willing to do serious damage.