Tanks.

This is coolbert:

Thanks to the web site of Dirk and the Nuclear Vault.

Here with an extract - - the most interesting observation from the Soviet General Danilevich. A most senior Soviet general staff officer, as interviewed by an American military "think tank" expert in 1992. Previously classified and presumably top-secret info from the land of "Big Red"!

"Cold War Interviews." - - 1992 Gen-Col. (Ret.) Andrian A. Danilevich.

"A General Staff Officer from 1964 to 1990. Director of the General Staff authors collective that composed and refine, between 1977 and 1986, the top-secret, three-Volume Strategy of Deep Operations"

Danilevich, presumably a man IN THE KNOW!

In the case of a PROTRACTED CONVENTIONAL WAR [chemical and biological weaponry used, non-nuclear - - PROTRACTED!] with the NATO powers, the ability of the Soviets to replace battlefield losses of tanks was recognized and understood to be more than difficult:

"To produce a T-34 [WW2 era Soviet tank] you needed four plants, one for engines, one for the main body, one for the control systems [one plant for final assembly?] . . . Now you need 340 plants to build a medium tank, say a T-64A [1964 era]. You need all of the above, plus night vision systems, laser sights, stabilization systems for fire-on-the-run, fire control systems, anti-radiation systems, various kinds of armor, etc. 340 Plants! Try doing all of this during war. And you cannot use low tech. Well, you can, but if the other side has high-tech, it will be a rout."

340 plants just to one build a state-of-the-art modern tank, as compared to just four plants during the era of World War Two [WW2]! And this for a T-64 tank as compared to a WW2 era T-34. [Soviet tank design and development too has gone far beyond the era of the T-64! T-72, T-80 and T-90 have surpassed and supplanted the T-64 a long time ago!]

According to Suvorov, the Soviets did possess for export purposes what was called the "Monkey Model". A stripped-down version of their main-battle-tank! The standard tank MINUS important features such as night-vision devices, anti-radiation systems, etc. Presumably the Soviet could built during a time of protracted conventional war the "Monkey Model" and issue these less-than-efficient tanks to their troops, but with expected less than satisfactory results from the Soviet standpoint.

Hey, nobody ever said this was easy!

coolbert.