Battleman
Active member
OK last summer I spent 2 weeks in Kazakhstan. I was part of a unit that went to experience the harsh desert conditions and also do some training with the Kazakhs.
Their equipment was pretty poor, old soviet era stuff, with all the goodies stripped out by the Russians and the bare minimum left behind. They were only given new uniforms too look good for our arrival. However I did manage to find some kazakhs with their "current issued" gear and it wasnt up to much.
I found it quite sad that alot of the kazakhs had their teeth missing, especially the front ones (replaced by gold teeth however) . This was due to initiation ceremonies, where the new recruits would be "toughened" by being rifle butted and a good "filling" in.
Their acceptable casualty rate for training was 20%!! This was visible as the Kazakhs weapons drills were poor, as alot them had negligent discharges of live ammo. Eventually we were told "if a kazakh approaches you, walk away", as they just werent safe! Hence on the exercise they dropped artillery shells a mere 50-100 Metres away from their own troops! However the Kazakhs were very friendly and made our visit hospitable. Just to point out the Blue berets were for their airborne troops. Also alot of them still had the old "Hammer and Sickle" cap badges!!
Kazakhstan was anice country, their city of Almaty was very nice.
Enclosed are some images I got when I was there.
Their equipment was pretty poor, old soviet era stuff, with all the goodies stripped out by the Russians and the bare minimum left behind. They were only given new uniforms too look good for our arrival. However I did manage to find some kazakhs with their "current issued" gear and it wasnt up to much.
I found it quite sad that alot of the kazakhs had their teeth missing, especially the front ones (replaced by gold teeth however) . This was due to initiation ceremonies, where the new recruits would be "toughened" by being rifle butted and a good "filling" in.
Their acceptable casualty rate for training was 20%!! This was visible as the Kazakhs weapons drills were poor, as alot them had negligent discharges of live ammo. Eventually we were told "if a kazakh approaches you, walk away", as they just werent safe! Hence on the exercise they dropped artillery shells a mere 50-100 Metres away from their own troops! However the Kazakhs were very friendly and made our visit hospitable. Just to point out the Blue berets were for their airborne troops. Also alot of them still had the old "Hammer and Sickle" cap badges!!
Kazakhstan was anice country, their city of Almaty was very nice.
Enclosed are some images I got when I was there.
