I was just wondering this as the new members of the EU and NATO have to upgrade a lot of there equipment or replace it. Some countries such as the Czech Republic are upgrading there equipment and are buying in new stuff like the JAS39 Gripens. They seem to be under pressure from western governments to buy modern western equipment, but could they still buy russian weapon systems, such as BTR-80/90 and BMP-3 and still comply with NATO standards. Thanks

Ya most definetly, thats just my opinion. I think most new russian equipment is well of in an western army, hey, like germany with the MiG-29, or am i wrong?

Well germanys given the Migs to Poland but I think S.Korea and some arab countries have russian technology, im wondering if they did it for price, or because its better then rival products?

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.

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.

yes but Finland is changing the russian equpment with german.

Originally Posted by Snauhi

yes but Finland is changing the russian equpment with german.

I personally don't think we'll ever get rid of all the russian equipment. Sure we bought some Leopards and some of our field artillery is also German but russian equipment is cheaper and perfectly suitable for our environment.

Is it now in the case of finland, czech republic, poland etc. that the russian technology is all going to be replaced by german,french, british, swedish etc. equipment or is russia equipment going to be used because it has served them well in the past and will in the future?

Originally Posted by Shadowalker

Is it now in the case of finland, czech republic, poland etc. that the russian technology is all going to be replaced by german,french, british, swedish etc. equipment or is russia equipment going to be used because it has served them well in the past and will in the future?

I think that most of the newer Nato-countries are not yet in the economic condition to renew their military equipment, so I'd reckon that they will make their existing equipment & command structure Nato-compliant. Don't know if the new Nato-countries are allowed to buy newer russian equipment thought.

Even if Finland were to join Nato in the future, I'd doubt it if we'd ever for example change from 7.62mm to 5.56Nato. It's simply not as usable as 7.62 here in our environment. And western european weapons systems don't exactly fare well in our environment. For example the Crotale NG has some pretty serious reliability issues in the arctic areas.

Missiles=Amazing
Aircraft=Pretty good
Ships=TEH suck
Tanks=not great
Other vehicles=good
infantry=decent

I think that modern Russian equipment is very much up to NATO standard. In some ways I think it's even better. A Russian fighter jet doesn't need the runway brushed of for every liitle object. A Russian Navy ship can run on almost every kind of oil.

Russian euqipment is'nt usually that sophisticated but they do work well in combat.

I've said it before never underestimate the Russians.