Tiger really is the perfect comparison. But ofc Westerners never learned the lesson of the Tiger, because people are still creaming themselves about that thing and laughing about supposedly cheap, crappy T34s.
Even now the majority of the heavy lifting in Ukraine on the Ukrainian side is done by old but reliable Soviet equipment
Not just on their side, on the Russians too. Just look at this list of Russian artillery pieces. Almost all of it is Soviet designed. Granted, some very late Soviet era, but still. D-30 howitzers are all over the place in Ukraine and that thing has been around since the 60s and afaik is still their main field artillery. Every man of fighting age in Russia has been trained on it, every military mechanic worked on it, etc. This shit just works, is easy to maintain and mass produce.
Is the M777 better 1on1? Yeah sure, but it costs >$4mio, because it’s an air droppable super light weight, titanium clad what ever the fuck piece of high tech with gps guided missles, a digital fire-control system, etc. Good for accurately blasting farmers with AKs out of caves? Probably, but not for mass war, under mass artillery barrages for firing hundreds of shells per day.
An AMG Mercedes G-class is definitely a higher quality machine than a 90s Hilux, but those are still the work horses all over the world in the toughest conditions doing what they were made for.
Just imagine the logistical nightmare Ukraine is facing with these dozens of random as complex weapons systems they’ve been blessed. One more expensive than the other, hardly anyone’s trained on anything, maintenance is hard, replacement hard to come by, munitions not interoperable, etc.
Tiger really is the perfect comparison. But ofc Westerners never learned the lesson of the Tiger, because people are still creaming themselves about that thing and laughing about supposedly cheap, crappy T34s.
Not just on their side, on the Russians too. Just look at this list of Russian artillery pieces. Almost all of it is Soviet designed. Granted, some very late Soviet era, but still. D-30 howitzers are all over the place in Ukraine and that thing has been around since the 60s and afaik is still their main field artillery. Every man of fighting age in Russia has been trained on it, every military mechanic worked on it, etc. This shit just works, is easy to maintain and mass produce.
Is the M777 better 1on1? Yeah sure, but it costs >$4mio, because it’s an air droppable super light weight, titanium clad what ever the fuck piece of high tech with gps guided missles, a digital fire-control system, etc. Good for accurately blasting farmers with AKs out of caves? Probably, but not for mass war, under mass artillery barrages for firing hundreds of shells per day.
An AMG Mercedes G-class is definitely a higher quality machine than a 90s Hilux, but those are still the work horses all over the world in the toughest conditions doing what they were made for.
Just imagine the logistical nightmare Ukraine is facing with these dozens of random as complex weapons systems they’ve been blessed. One more expensive than the other, hardly anyone’s trained on anything, maintenance is hard, replacement hard to come by, munitions not interoperable, etc.