Suvorov's "monkey models"

[Commissar]

For those of you who have read Suvorov's "Inside the Soviet Military," was there any confirmation of his assertion of there being two types of many weapon platforms: 1) the normal model with all the goodies for use with regular Soviet units 2) the stripped down version for export to client states? If so, I wonder when this practice was started. Considering the thread on captured T-34's from Korea, how accurate would any study by the US be on these North Korean/Chinese T-34s if they were indeed only the stripped down version of these tanks and not the "full" model? I have never come across any verification for Suvorov's claim.

[ 04-09-2001: Message edited by: Commissar ]

[Michael Emrys]

I rather expect that the T-34s given to North Korea were not "export models" but simply surplus obsolete equipment left over from the war.

I believe that the watering down of export models of tanks, aircraft, and other military hardware didn't begin until the mid-'50s and was done not so much to cheat the purchasing countries as to bring costs down to a level the purchasers could readily afford. Mostly these were Third World countries only expecting to fight other Third World countries, and so didn't need the last word in military technology.

But it is doubtlessly also true that like the US and other Western powers, there was some technology that they wanted to keep in their own hands for a while.

Michael

[Grisha]

Suvorov - the man is no historian, but more an inciter of sensationalism.

[Skipper]

> Suvorov - the man is no historian, but

> more an inciter of sensationalism.

That's very much what he is.

OTOH, "scaled down" versions of military hardware were exported to all countries, including the closest allies, such as Eastern Germany.

Yes, the most combat ready and most reliable ally of Soviet Army was Eastern Germany, of all Warsaw Pact countries. Soviet generals considered them "as good as ourselves".

And if crap hits the fan, these (together with the soviet forces in Germany) were the people to take the worst beating, too.

Even they had export verions of everything - from planes to tanks to SAM systems. Apparently, it was not so much about keeping the costs down, but about keeping the best toys to oneself.

However, I believe that North Korean T-34s were just what they were - standard, no frills, T-34-85. After all, by 1948 these were almost obsolete.