Posted by
celtic-dragon on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 1:43:18 AM
Welcome to the first post of my blog. So many people in the Gay, Lesbian, Bi and Transgendered community (conservatives and moderates included) seem to fixate on issues pretty specific and limited to, well...Gay, Lesbian, Bi and Transgendered people! Kinda boring. My interests go quite a bit wider and I will try to reflect that here. Comments and disagreements are welcome, although I prefer that we keep things civil! Anyways, here goes...
I was reviewing some news from Janes' Defence Weekly and came across a story this week concerning an arms sale. Russia has agreed to sell some 160 (I believe this number is accurate) T-90 Main Battle Tanks (MBT's) to Algeria. My reference material on Russian MBT's ends with the T-80, with the current product improved version being the T-84. This is the front line tank for Russia, and is equipped with a 125mm smoothbore gun, steel/composite/reactive armor...and an attractive price tag. I am conjecturing that the T-90 as mentioned in Janes may be a stripped down export version of the T-80/T-84 series.
What surprised me was that I was unaware of any prior instance where Russia was willing to export first line armor possibly in preference to its' own military. Also, Algeria could almost certainly have procured used T-72 MBT's, or even new Norinco Type 69 or Type 80 MBT's from China for less. Conclusions that may be drawn are:
1. Russia is desperate for hard cash and is willing to sell (or push) brand new, quality military equipment to ANYONE who can pay. Kind've like France in the 1970's, only more. Hey, you might be able to get a good deal on The Red Banner Northern Fleet, or at least what's left of it!
2. Algeria seems to have felt the need to buy a large quantity of armor for.....what? Much of North Africa now seems to be equipped with late generation hardware and no apparent target to direct it against. Most of Algerias' problems have been internal rather then external, and the tank being purchased was designed for a high lethality European battlefield rather then internal security duties.
One thing we can count on in our War On Terror is that we will see the Islamo-Fascists getting access to better arms and equipment Anyone care to guess where much of it will be coming from?