Originally Posted by Hegario

From what I know (although I might be wrong), being "Nato-compatible" is more about making radar systems and whatnot compatible and not about making the actual equipment similar. Although Nato-countries might get an extra-discount by manufacturers in Nato-countries.

Our country isn't in NATO and we have lots of Russian equipment. The good thing about Russian equipment is the durability which means you can basically bury them in sand and when you get them out they still work. The Russians owed several billions to us in the 1990's and they paid us back in weapons systems like the BUK M1 air defense system.

http://www.defense-update.com/products/b/buk.htm

And the fall of DDR made large amounts of extremely cheap equipment like the BTR's & BMP's available.