Missing out
Countries from the Warsaw Treaty Organization (ATS) were admitted to NATO in two ways. Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland - in 1999, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania - in 2004. GDR was dissolved in NATO West Germany in 1990. The admission of Eastern European countries to the alliance pursued two goals: to limit the spheres of influence of Russia as much as possible, to emphasize the loss of any significance on the continent and to provide the NATO bureaucracy with a wide field of activity for a long time. The state of the annexed armies did not matter, since the military goal was never set when expanding the block. Re-equipment of the “Novonatovtsy” from Soviet to Western technology was their own problem. As a rule, the neophytes did not have enough money for this, so even the countries of the first wave, being in the alliance for 17 for years, only partially re-armed, this process almost did not affect the second wave.
Let us leave aside the “dissident” of the Department of Internal Affairs of Romania, whose army is almost completely equipped with its own production equipment (albeit made under strong Soviet influence) and is traditionally brewed in its own juice. Let's talk about the rest of the ATS countries, including the late GDR (with its equipment for the ground forces).
Armored "rasters"
Even an analysis of the official data provided by the Eastern European countries for the CFE Treaty and the UN Register of Conventional Arms shows that a significant part of the equipment withdrawn from their Armed Forces physically continues to exist and is used either for parts or for export. In the second case, the declarations do not always coincide with reality. At the same time between Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria practiced constant exchange, including the same type of equipment. The part goes on re-export, the part "dissolves".
Of course, significant arms volumes of Soviet and East European production have been utilized to date. This primarily concerns armored personnel carriers - all BTR-40, BTR-50, BTR-152, almost all BTR-60 and OT-64. A certain proportion of these machines is still alive, but apparently very insignificant, it is almost impossible to establish its value, and it is not necessary, since today their combat value is zero. This also applies to tanks T-54, T-55, although they most likely survived in more tangible quantities - up to several hundred. The last case of T-55 export from the countries of the former ATS occurred in 2005: 120 tanks from Bulgaria were sent to Eritrea. In addition, up to 170 “unaccounted for” T-62s may remain at Sofia’s disposal.
T-72 tanks, of course, cannot be called new, but today it is the most massive and most belligerent tank in the world. At 551 ATS, T-72 had GDRs, 759 - Poland, 815 - Czechoslovakia, 138 - Hungary (90 bought 100 in Belarus in the beginning) and 333 - Bulgaria (plus 100 acquired in 90 from Russia). At the moment, the Polish Army has 505 tanks of this type, another 135 were converted to RT-91. The Czech Republic’s Armed Forces have 120, Slovakia’s 30, Hungary’s 76, Bulgaria’s 314. No less than 11 machines in these countries and in Germany became museum exhibits.
425 T-72 went to the USA and other countries of the “old NATO”, as well as to Finland, Georgia, Nigeria, Iraq. The fate of 1180 tanks (351 from the GDR, 60 from Poland, 450 from the Czech Republic, 200 from Slovakia, 5 from Hungary, 117 from Bulgaria) is unclear. Some part of the "lost" cars, obviously, were dismantled (for parts, for study, for scrap metal), sold to museums and private collections, and shot at landfills as targets. However, all this is unlikely to account for at least half of the missing tanks. Moreover, not everything is clear with the 97 T-42 sold from the stocks of the GDR to Finland (although it is believed that all of them, except for one museum, are disposed of).
The BMP-1 in the former ATS countries had almost 5400 (in Poland and Czechoslovakia they were produced under a Soviet license), of which now they are listed near 1800. Sold around 1500, and 375, acquired by Sweden from Germany, were returned to ... the Czech Republic. As a result, the number of machines of this type with an unclear fate exceeds 2500 units. Of course, there are also unrecorded utilization, shooting at landfills, sales to museums and private owners, but absolutely no less than a thousand cars fell under any of these scenarios.
With the BMP-2 there are no such problems. Now they are in service only in the armies of the Czech Republic (173) and Slovakia (95). 87 German, Polish and Czech cars are sold, two are in museums, the fate of only 8 BMP-2 army of the former GDR is unclear.
Only the GDR was armed with 1266 BTR-70, sold 520, the remaining 746 disappeared into the unknown. In 2015, the 19 BTR-70 came to Slovakia from Belarus (apparently for resale). BTR-80 today has only Hungary - 406 conventional and 178 A modification units, as well as 14 engineering vehicles based on them. 74 left for Iraq and Ukraine (before the ATO), the fate of 59 is unclear again.
ACS 2С1 were produced under license in Poland and Bulgaria, and the latter has large discrepancies in the number of installations made (from 256 to 686). The Poles released 533 SAU, the GDR had 374, Czechoslovakia - 150, Hungary - 153. Now it remains in service and in storage around 300 2C1 from Poland and, apparently, Bulgaria's 200 – 250, 5 – 6 SAU are in museums. Outside of the countries under discussion, 252 (according to other data - 301) are sold. Accordingly, the fate from 660 to 1140 2C1 is unclear. Of course, there are options for recycling, landfills and museums, but they are unlikely to cover such a significant number of “losses”.
From 95 SAU 2C3, which was in service with the NNA GDR, 9 were sold in the United States, where the rest 86 went, is unknown. Bulgaria has sold four 2C3. From 16, Hungarian SAUs of this type from 10 to 13 were sold through the Czech Republic to Ukraine, one became a museum exhibit, the fate of 2 – 5 has not been established.
Of the Czechoslovak 408 wheeled self-propelled guns “Dana” produced for their own army, 86 armed with the Czech Republic, 24 sold to Georgia (at least one of them became a Russian trophy in August 2008 of the year), at least three are museum exhibits. Where are the rest of 295 - the question. Another 111 of these SAUs was acquired from Czechoslovakia Poland, all of them are still in service with its army.
It is extremely difficult to determine the fate of towed guns. Most of them were produced before World War II or during it. However, by this time, this class of technology had almost reached the limit of development; therefore, there are still very many American guns of the same period in the world, including the USA. The East European armies are now left with a small amount of towed artillery - X-NUMX howitzers D-19 from Slovakia, 30 D-31 from Hungary and to 20 from Bulgaria, and she, possibly, to 150 M-30. It evaporated to 30 M-1800, near 30 D-270, to 30 A-100, to 19 ML-280, to 20 D-400. Most of these guns are likely utilized, but up to a thousand can still physically exist.
Of the 72 MLRS BM-21 "Grad", available in the army of the GDR, four sold in the United States, the fate of the rest is unclear. Poland had 232 such MLRSs, of which up to 75 were altered by the WR-40 “Langust” variant, approximately 135 remain in service in their original form. From 66 of the Hungarian Gradov, most, if not all, went to the Czech Republic, and from there 18 of them went to Slovakia, which also received 11 Gradov from Belarus. From the Czech Republic five BM-21 went to the USA and to 36 - to Ukraine (also to the ATO), from Slovakia 20 - to Saudi Arabia. From 225 Bulgarian Gradov approximately 52 is sold, one more or several became exhibits. Thus, approximately 380 of the MLRS remains in service in Poland and Bulgaria (taking into account “Langusts”), the fate of the 100 is more than unknown.
In Czechoslovakia for their own army produced approximately 210 own "Gradov" - MLRS RM-70. Already after the country's divorce, the Slovakia released the 26 of the modified Modular, the RS-RMN-70 MLRS, which remain in service. At a minimum, the 181 installation was exported, the fate of approximately 30 is unclear, as was the former German 69 (in the GDR there were 265 MLRS of this type, of which 196 was sold). 30 Polish RM-70 remain in service.
From 41, the “Osa” air defense missile system, owned by the NNA, sold 14, the fate of 27 was covered with darkness. In Poland, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, all these air defense systems remain in service (64, 24, 24, respectively). All 40 complexes "Strela-10" from the arsenals of the GDR were missing, as were 36 similar SAM systems of the Czechoslovak army. Remain in service with the Czech Republic (16), Slovakia (48), Bulgaria (20).
ZSU-23-4 "Shilka" were in service in the GDR (150), Poland (87) and Bulgaria (40). Now they remain about 30 in Poland and Bulgaria. At least one German and Polish "Shilka" in museums, German 120 were sold. The fate of the rest ZSU (roughly 100) is unclear.
Thus, the armed forces of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria currently have over a thousand T-72, about two thousand infantry fighting vehicles, about 900 SAU, more than 200 towed guns, about 450 MLRS, about 200 air defense missile systems and about 60 ZSU Soviet and own (times of the Warsaw Pact) production. In addition, the fate of about two thousand tanks, 2600 BMP, 800 BTR, 1500 SAU, 2800 towed guns, more than 200 MLRS and 100 SAM, approximately 100 ZSU, is unclear. It disappeared much more than left.
Bins instability
In the Czech Republic, the Excalibur Army is quite officially operating, offering customers T-72 and T-55 tanks, BMP-1, SAU 2С1 and Dana, howitzer D-20, MLRS RM-70, spare parts for them, engineering and auxiliary machines . The company has a wide selection of small weapons and ammunition, including shells caliber 100, 120, 122, 125, 152 millimeter. It is from the stocks of Excalibur that in recent years there have been deliveries of T-72, BMP-1, RM-70 to Iraq and Nigeria. The official supplier is the Czech Republic, but the number of vehicles in service with its army does not change. Obviously, Excalibur is the owner of most of the unregistered parts described here, the machines there are much more than those of the Czech army. The second largest source, apparently, is Bulgaria.
The disappeared weapon perfectly feeds today's wars. Slovakia in recent years officially sold 20 BM-21 to Saudi Arabia. Of course, they did not enter the armament of the army of the kingdom, but went to the formations fighting against Assad. One can only guess how many Soviet vehicles were unofficially bought in Eastern Europe for their Syrian, Libyan and Yemeni clients. It is absolutely necessary to say that the entire numerous opposition to Damascus army in no way could have fought so long at the expense of captured ammunition, with such intensive battles they would have ended long ago. That is, deliveries of ammunition from Eastern Europe through Turkey to the “fighters against tyranny” were and are massive. Moreover, today Sofia practically officially acknowledges that supplies for Islamic radicals in Syria for Saudi money have become almost the main source of Bulgaria’s export earnings.
Ukraine in 2008 – 2010 (under presidents Yushchenko and Yanukovych) received from Hungary 8 BTR-80 and 65 – 66 SAU 2-1. 2008 BMP-50 arrived from the Czech Republic in 1, the data on 2009 – 2011 years diverge. Maximum for this period, the APU received up to 48 ACS 2C1, up to 13 "Akacias" - ACS 2C3, up to 44 howitzers D-30, up to 36 MLRS BM-21. Perhaps all of this equipment was for resale and / or disposal, however deliveries did take place and replenished their arsenals. Since 2014, the arrival of heavy machinery from Eastern Europe to Ukraine has not been fixed, as long as there is enough of it (it’s more and better than in the countries of the former ATS), but this possibility certainly remains. Deliveries of ammunition and small arms could well be, track them almost impossible ("Under the threat of victory").
Built in data schemes and Belarus. At least some of the “Grads” that left Syrian gangsters through Saudi Arabia are from there.
Of course, at present the Soviet technology is very outdated and it is almost useless to use it against a serious opponent. But for the local wars that are going on today in Ukraine and the Middle East, it is very suitable. And, apparently, it will suffice for a long time.
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