Observing the constant movements near our borders performed by our former allies in the Warsaw Pact Organization (OVD), sooner or later, but you ask yourself the question: who are you, lads? ATS or NATO?
So NATO, but in essence?
And in fact, all this is nothing more than a sign and talk about integration and unification. The splendor and poverty of the courtesans, as it was said in the classic novel by M. de Balzac.
It is possible that the ending will be the same.
Take the Poles. Quirky guys. Still, they ripped out the Patriots for themselves on the cheap. Defense Minister Blaschak happily announced this the other day. Indeed, the Poles are handsome, $ 4.5 billion is a deal, if not a century, then an outstanding one for the former socialist bloc.
But - a single one.
Our former allies cannot boast of having weapons and equipment that meet NATO standards.
That is, you entered NATO, and then what? And then everything, the money ran out. Because there is, and that is what they are happy about.
Tanks? Except, again, the Poles, the rest are armed with the same T-72. And even ARVs based on the T-55 are still in service. And many of the T-55s themselves are in storage. We got it tight.
And NATO cars are only in Poland. More than 200 German Leopards. And it seems like "their" 232 PT-91 Twardy units. True, in fact, this is again a T-72, produced under license.
The rest do not even have that.
Naturally, there were hundreds, if not thousands of BTR-60 and 70, MT-LB, BMP-1 and 2, BRDM …
And in artillery the situation is no better. We look at the armament of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Montenegro and see familiar markings.
"Carnation", "Acacia", D-20, BM-21 "Grad" and so on. Bulgarians somehow still managed to keep several launchers of the Tochka complex.
We are generally silent about air defense. Before the Polish deal with the Patriots, only the Romanians snatched in some strange way 8 MIM-23 Hawk complexes. True, they cannot be called new in any way, and they do not even pretend to be "fresh", but … Some stand out against the background of the S-125 and S-200 of the rest.
Oh yes, the Bulgarians and Slovaks managed to receive from the USSR one S-300 PMU division each. But this is also not a panacea for air defense.
And of all the "splendor" for almost 30 years that have passed since the dissolution of the Internal Affairs Directorate, individual surviving complexes are in real combat readiness, nothing more.
There is no ATS / NATO air defense system. Whom can it please? Let's omit.
In the army air defense, the picture is absolutely the same.
Complexes 9K33 "Osa-AK", 2K12 "Cube", ZSU-23-4 "Shilka", SAM "Strela-10", ZU-23. And the former allies are clearly not going to abandon them. Moreover, they go out of their way to keep it with them.
Poland is modernizing the Shilki, the Osa complex is being redesigned for the German IRIS-T anti-aircraft missiles. The Czech Republic is converting the Kub air defense system to use the Italian Aspide 2000 anti-aircraft missiles.
Standards are standards, and they love money. Especially when it comes to first-class and reliable new-generation missiles. It is clear that we are talking about Russian products. But after all, NATO …
Yes, and with those against whom the air defense systems will fight, not everything is very beautiful either. It's about aviation.
No matter how hard NATO recruits tried to keep the Soviet MiG-29 and MiG-21 in service, alas, the aircraft's resource is not endless. Not a tank. But the elder brothers in NATO are in no hurry to replace the aircraft fleet with the younger ones. Moreover, at your own expense.
Yes, some of the European flying second-hand falls. Poland and Romania got hold of F-16s in their air forces, and the Hungarians got rid of the Soviet legacy altogether, having leased as many as 12 Saab JAS 39 Gripen units.
The rest, alas, have sadness and longing. Yes, the Bulgarians asked the price for the F-16, but alas, the price was too high. And Croatia, and in general, once lost part of its air force, transferring the MiG-21 for repairs to Ukraine. Now there are no planes, no chance to get the money back.
It remains only to state the fact that toys for independence are one thing, but games with national security are completely different.
The countries of Eastern Europe eagerly left the OVD bloc and fell into the arms of NATO. Democratized, so to speak. Broken with the communist past. Democratic revolutions have won.
But, as one of the ideologues of communism once said (that's a strange thing, right?), "A revolution is worth something only when it is able to defend itself." Whoever said this phrase knew a lot about revolutions.
And in fact, it turned out that the achievements of democracy will have to be defended (seemingly for now) with the legacy of the damned communist past.
In NATO, very few people were interested in this problem. And, I must say, the elder brothers in NATO did not aggravate the situation. If you have money, you will have something new (or not so much) Western, no - sit with the Soviet.
Everyone is sitting. Moreover, no one is in a hurry to send Soviet equipment to the metal. And the reason is not even the lack of money for a new Western one. On the territory of Eastern Europe, there are, to one degree or another, about 300 military enterprises.
For the production of ammunition, maintenance, repair and modernization of equipment. Both military and related. And, of course, all these factories were built after World War II according to Soviet standards.
And a fair number of people work in these factories.
Of course, you can re-equip, for example, a cartridge factory. Or an armored vehicle repair plant. To re-equip is, first of all, to train personnel. There would be money.
And not very much with money …
It turns out that a complete rejection of Soviet technology is capable of giving such a kick to the military-industrial complexes of the former OVD countries that God forbid that the matter would be knocked down.
And the fat in the case of sale to third countries is very good. Soviet technology is in demand, as the price / quality ratio is at the proper level.
We will not remember how many of its equipment Ukraine sold. To the same Georgia. Romania generally has a reputation for a European warehouse of spare parts. Bulgaria was noted for the sale of its reserves in the Middle East. And so everyone does. And that's okay.
Soviet technology is depleting or has actually depleted its resource. And you need to get rid of it, especially if you buy. But then what?
Sooner or later, the moment will come when the stocks of Soviet weapons will simply run out. As it is today in Ukraine. And further?
I wonder what the military departments of these countries will do?
In the work of Honoré de Balzac I mentioned, one of the main characters got out of the situation and survived. Unlike the rest. But this is just a novel …
The reality for our former allies may be completely different. With a less pretty ending.
