Those are not our soldiers those are jaunsargi (new guards in direct translation) and their commanders their like scouts only military group basically youth who train in a military style but most of them go to school or universitiesl and not officially military those photos are from trip which usually involves walking long distances and camping in the wood overnight the weapons are disabled and added for reality and so it will put more strain on them during the walk the older man are unit commanders they are usually retired military and they are usually leading all the exercises. Heres a typical Latvian troop http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ian_G36KV.JPEG the uniform is digital and its made by prisoners for a small monetary reward so it cuts the costs it also is worn by our military police and specialo uzdevumu vieniba (special operations division )

For a country only a little larger than West Virginia, their small armed forces is probably more than adequate for their purposes.

Latvia = 63,589 sq kms
WVA = 62,755 sq kms.

What counts is not, "the size of dog in the fight", but, "the size of the fight in the dog".

I am quite sure that the Latvians can punch well above their weight, where the need arises.

Wow, that looks like pics from a Swedish Army manouver ca 1970.
Almost all their kit is Swedish surplus material.
And the weapon on those pics are the AK4, decommisioned in Sweden about ten years ago. (The last version to get the axe were the sniperversion the national guard used).
Basically a scoped version of the AK4 with a cheek rest on the stock.

The CG,s are pretty much gone by now as well, although they have served with honor from the first UN mission to the Congo (early 60,s) up untill present in it´s current form.
US Rangers used it for a few years there as well.

However the Bill ATM is one hell of a weapon, able to defeat any tank currently in service anywhere in the world.
Easily carried and fiered by three man Teams each missile is able to take out an MBT.
One of the first missiles designed to hit the top armor of the tank.
The number of systems are not open information, but I´d rather have that then an aging T-55 anyday.

//KJ.

That looks a lot more professional Dragon.

that all depends doesn't it?

Well we have a very good military and until couple years back it was obligatory to serve unless you were still in school or college now we have professional military but the number of troops in various sources are incorrect cause they only include basic troops and not special forces and military police which all trained and deployed my friend is an MP and hes been to iraq, we also have the only combat diver school in Baltic's , but like I said thats not our troops in those pictures we got rid of the g3's 5 or 6 years ago we only had couple before that there were m16's and ak's now all g3's are now converted to non firing props for various excercises as for camouflage we have never used this type of camouflage since 90's we had woodland and before that Russian camouflage because we were part of soviet armed forces and the Russians had some type of 2 color camouflage my father served in the armed forces for many years for soviet's I've seen various pictures you can clearly see that the uniform is different like I said these are young guards they have almost zero budget so they buy they're own clothes boots and we don't have good surplus stores so we can't really get anything good not even woodland most of the stuff is from danish storage sometimes Russian or some other country which still stores old supplies recently there has been Mil-tec production (they produce extremely cheap[ and bad copies of camouflages even digital mostly for airsoft use and those people are only non military who have good camouflage which they usually get from ebay and no0t those surplus stores)

Nobody contested the quality of your troops.
I am sure they are very good.

How do you reckon you have the only combatdiving school in the Baltic though?
About every nation bordering the Baltic got a combat diver, attack diver, combat swimmer school.
And that is ontop of the Mineclearance diver schools..
Hell I bet even the Russkies has set one up in Kaliningrad since the break down of the Union..

Baltics is Lithuania,Estonia,Latvia that's it of course Russians have one they're not that retarded. I understand i didn't make myself clear not the Baltic sea but Baltics or maybe I translated it wrong in that case sorry.

Well Latvian army is not that poor looking as in the pics!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGrzRzE7gnY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN7AZYhadgo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE_JEhnhNYc

Ahh, the classic red army parade through the streets..
Haven´t seen one of those for awhile.

Question: Have the Baltic states taken over the mine clearence operations outside their costs yet?
We have had our mineclearence divers there for about a decade now..
//KJ.