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#1 |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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I'm looking for suggestions, brand and model name if possible, as well as weight and stats of the kind of more expensive equipment a mercenary operation similar to Executive Outcomes would need.
That includes forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensors and high-quality cameras and optics for reconaissance aircraft, air-to-ground and ground-to-air communications sets, radio relay for circling aircraft over the contested area, tactical radios for individual elements, night vision and the like. If Warsaw Pact equipment is sufficiently effective and not too heavy for the intended use, this is happening right as the biggest military equipment fire sale in history was happening, so buy Eastern European if it will do the job. In 1990-1991, though, it's quite possible that Soviet tactical radios were too heavy for each man to carry one and only Western ones would be practical. Same for advanced sensors like the FLIR. Eastern Europe had lots of good lenses and optics, not sure how well integrated that was into aerial photography or live-feed video from the air. I'm open to buying lots of cheap Soviet night vision helmets or goggles to equip drivers, pilots and even individual soldiers. No way will a reasonable budget stretch to giving everyone top-of-the-line Western gear that even Navy SEALs didn't always get, but with IR light sources, the Soviet stuff is way better than nothing. GURPS books have generic TL8 radios and sensors, I'd like to be able to used named equipment, with real world-world and capabilities, whereever possible.
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! |
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#2 |
Join Date: Nov 2014
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For nightvision PVS-5 Binos where common enough that you could get them as a civilian, its a mid era Gen 2 image intensifier, cheaper stuff like the PVS - 7 would exist. There are also a bunch of stuff like the Fero D 51 binoculars (Seen in aliens :D )
Thermals where declassified in 1992 and its unlikely that mercs would be using them, even the soviets where lacking in it. Warsaw pact got ground radars though for stuff like even machineguns ( Fara-1 Radar ) AN/PRC 77 radios would be good for manpacks, there are really not a lot of good man portable options for man to man, i would consider the 4855 Personal Role Radio (500 meter range 3 pounds weight single man radio)I am a bit unsure about cameras for airplanes and such, probably a Minolta 700 with a large objective mounted to take photos at a 45 degree angle downwards ? |
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#3 |
Join Date: Nov 2024
Location: Northern Midwest, North America
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Ooh! Exactly my cup of tea!
If you want the Eastern Bloc, you can get the Eastern Bloc. For standard uniform, the Gorka works fine, unless you already have something planned for that. I would also suggest the Winter Afghanka Uniform, with proper forest camouflage, as I assume you are working in temperate terrains. I believe at the time, the standard armor was a 6B5-16 along with an SSh-68 helmet. Despite what video games will tell you, the AKS-74U isn't the best weapon, as it just shaves off weight, trading it for most long-range capabilities without an optic. They also were only infamous because, since they were assigned to tank crews, obtaining one during the Afghan war meant you needed to take out a tank. Overall, just taking the AK-74 is your best bet, as it is the standard issue for most soldiers at the time. Also, the SVD or SKS are good marksman weapons. For pistols, the Makarov or PSM is viable, though the PSM lacks stats in GURPS. The OTs-02 might be in too low of production to be viable to the party at the time of the game. If they manage to find one, the 9A-91 could be good if they needed to conceal a weapon, though it is still rather large. As Fula Farbrorn said, AN/PVS-5 night vision binoculars and AN/PRC 77 radio sets will work. Also recommended is the AN/PVS-4, as monocular night vision pieces might have some special use to your players. For photography, you will have to do some deeper digging.
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I apologize for my idiocy in advance. I run a GURPS (and other things) blog started very recently. |
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#4 |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Will answer the rest later, but the climate will range from equatorial to merely warm. In geography terms, Namibia, Angola, Congo, Zaire, Nigeria, Mali, Sierra Leone, Morocco (some of that will be security around engineers and oil workers, some will be training bases for security personnel), and then later on, some parts of South America, Central America and the Caribbean.
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! Last edited by Icelander; 12-05-2024 at 03:19 AM. |
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#5 | ||||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Greatest battlefield threats would be fragments from 60mm and 82mm mortars, 30mm grenades or the 23mm HE rounds from ZU-23 anti-air autocannon used in ground assault role. Most personal armour available at the time would not be enough to protect you from mortars, but might reduce casualties. I think plates that reliably stopped rifle fire were prohibitively heavy in 1990-1991, and troops mostly relied on the protection from their BMP, BRDM or Ratel infantry fighting vehicles or MRAPs like the Casspir. Quote:
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But nearly all the African countries where PMCs/PSCs would be working, as well as some Latin American countries, were still using 7.62x39mm AK-47, AKM, Type 56 or similar AK-type rifles in the older caliber. Many still are, in fact. And the older pattern rifles were nearly all warehoused by the Soviet Union, so shady arms dealers who bribed some warehouse dealers were offering NIB AKMs, stored in cosmoline, for literal pennies on the dollar. The AK-74 in 5.45x39mm has advantages, sure, and they'll procure some, but most of the time, other than for helicopter crew, pilots and other very specialized roles, an AKM or AKMS in 7.62x39mm is good enough and you can use local ammo. The SVD is, but it would be inconvenient to collect many of them. Few units or bases had all that many of them and there weren't big caches of them in storage somewhere. Bribing individual company commanders to get a couple of rifles seems like the opportunity cost would be too high for the value, if you could bribe someone to let you waltz out with far more expensive items that are not available in sporting goods stores. The SVD isn't really all that much better as a marksman rifle than a good hunting rifle with a scope would be. And the SKS is 7.62x39mm, not really a good long-range round. You can totally buy thousands of SKS rifles for only the cost of bribing a warehouse guard and transporting a pallet, but you can do the same with AKM rifles. And, for that matter, South African 'R2' rifles (SADF designation of Portuguese-made G3 rifles with Choate aftermarket furniture) in 7.62x51mm mounting a 4x scope are probably comparable to the Dragunov SVD as marksman's rifles and while the scopes are not free, there were literally over hundred thousand of the G3 rifles which South Africa had declared surplus and was having a hard time selling, so you'd be able to buy them at, well, maybe x20 or x40 the cost of a new-in-the-box AKM, but still only a couple of hundred dollars per rifle. The travel arrangements to acquire SVD rifles in any numbers would probably amount to more. Pick up a few while bribing a base commander to sell a shipload of military equipment, sure, but going unit from unit, collecting a full armory of these rifles that were spread around all active units of the USSR, it sounds like too much work for too little reward. Quote:
I think I've seen PSM stats, but it's more of a status symbol than a weapon. The Makarov PM is a nice balance between comfort and utility. It does everything you need a pistol to do and nothing you don't. Mostly, pistols aren't militarily significant and only matter in situations where you need to conceal your weapons. Such situations might also offer some utility for APS and even APB 'Stechkin' automatic pistols, FB PM-63 RAK in 9x18mm or the Škorpion vz. 61 in .32 ACP. Pilots, commanders, elite pathfinders and special recon teams might get Western NVD technology, but if they were equipping a whole force of locals they train, I think they need to look into what is the best Soviet NVD equipment they can source from the immensely bribable ranks of Soviet commanders of forgotten bases or security on storage facilities, while the army is no longer paid and the senior generals are choosing sides on a potential coup.
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! Last edited by Icelander; 12-05-2024 at 09:29 AM. |
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#6 |
Join Date: Oct 2008
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Nightvision:
That was the era of lots of soviet block ~$200 night vision googles, they showed up everywhere. There was no single model, but they were kind of fairly low light intesification, but came with an IR light to help. Rifles: AKMs in 7.62x39 are available everywhere, ak-74 in 5.45s are available if you want but you have to go to the former Soviet Union mostly to buy. The 7.62 versions have the benefit of ammo being available most likely also from opponents on battle fields.. Other weapons: PKMs are also fairly easy to get anywhere. RPG-7s are kind of a must thing to have in large numbers.. :) 82mm mortars and ammo are available, but the numbers you can get are likely a bit limited. Communication: The standard manpack soviet radios are fully usable, something like a R-158 would likely be fairly easy to aquire in numbers and is.. not too bad.. But western ruggerized civilian radios meant for things like rescue work might make a better option. As for Armor: You might be able to pick up a smallish number of assault vests, like 6b3/5 series, but they are pretty heavy at around 7 kg for the thin back plate versions. Smallish, I mean a hundred or so is likely easily possible for some paratrooper company commander selling their company vests to buy food for the family.. |
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#7 | |||||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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As lots of 32 Battalion, Koevoet, Parabats and Recces are about to be out of a job, they might sign on. Their sticks would probably have mostly RPDs, while those who carried an M79 grenade launcher could opt for the lightest and most compact rifle, strictly for self-defence purposes, while they'd use their grenade launcher as their main weapon. This fits how those units often operated, loaded down with lots of firepower, even if they had to walk in and out. If they had a helicopter or armoured vehicle to take them, it would take strict discipline to limit their ammo and ordnance to some sane amount. Not only are PKM excellent general-purpose machine guns, but RPDs are pretty good light machine guns. The RPK is merely a stouter AK, not really a proper machine gun, so its adoption among Soviet-supplied countries was, if anything, a step back, but South African 32 Battalion still made heavy use of the original RPD into the 1990s. Agreed. Quote:
So, the South African patmor (patrol mortar) in 60mm, later made formally and given a military designation, the M-4 Commando Mortar, weighing 16-17 lbs., depending on what kind of sling or satchel you carried it with, will likely be the primary mortars for the individual eight-man 'sticks'. I imagine that 82mm mortars and their teams might be formed into a Weapons Platoon rounding out a Company, but you could attach an element or two from the Weapons Platoon to a 24-man Troop if needed. Quote:
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Even if, most of the time, fatigue and dehydration are more likely than being shot, so it would be hard to get a paratrooper, especially one who grew up in Eastern Europe or Siberia, to wear armour under an equatorial sun, but if they ever go on a full-on assault where they don't expect any walking, they might want them.
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! |
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#8 | ||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Furthermore, FLIR can't have been that secret, Hollywood directors knew about it, see Aliens (1987). Which is not weird, considering how long the technology had existed, though at the time Aliens was made, FLIR modules were mostly too expensive and finicky for widespread civilian SAR use. It was not too expensive for operations where the difference between having it and not having it was whether your Mi-17 helicopters were shot down by MANPADS. Which is why Executive Outcomes used FLIR-equipped And Executive Outcomes, for example, started as a company through which Eeben Barlow prepared and taught classes on developing and using intelligence to South African Special Forces. His background, other than being a military engineering officer who had commanded the 32 Battalion Reconnaissance Wing, was the CCB intelligence officer in charge of Europe and the Middle East, where one of his duties had been to follow foreign military technology and acquire it for South Africa if practical. At the time, with records-keeping much worse, a lot of companies sold military equipment as long as they could show a valid end-user certificate, they didn't care whether anyone actually followed them, as long as they had one, they had covered their ass. As it happened, though, the UK accepted Angolan end-user certificates for what Executive Outcomes wanted to buy for their contract of training the FAA (the national Angolan Army, of the legitimate, UN-approved government, which, ironically, Executive Outcomes were demonized for working for, while the United States and South Africa kept supporting UNITA in defiance of international law and treaties they had specifically signed binding all parties to the result of elections that UNITA rejected when Dr. Jonas Savimbi didn't win). Eeben Barlow doesn't specify the model of FLIR they bought for their aircraft, but the contracts were signed in London. That probably means they came from British Aerospace or GEC-Marconi and were either licensed from French SAGEM or from HAC (later Raytheon). Quote:
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! Last edited by Icelander; 12-05-2024 at 09:33 AM. |
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#9 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
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#10 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Many of the people who give training seminars or run courses for police or military in most countries, Iceland not excluded, will bill you on behalf of the company they work for. Journalists with no real-world knowledge often call such people 'mercenaries', but, in reality, they answer to a corporate HR department.
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! Last edited by Icelander; 12-05-2024 at 01:14 PM. |
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Tags |
electronics, high-tech, mercenary, modern firepower |
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