Re: [DS and SG] Tech dispersal to the frontier

>I agree.  I was just getting at the fact that I suspect that colonies
>might not WANT the actually obsolete stuff, even if it is cheap,
because
>they couldn't maintain it.  Then again, looking at Libya's army, where
>there's almost no repetition of individual MODEL vehicle, let alone
>manufacturer or interchangable spare parts, and where the artillery
uses
>an astounding array of different calibers, there's bound to be a market
>for everything.

Absolutely right.  Although, just because it isn't "modern" doesn't mean
it
is REALLY obsolete - and these things need to be taken in context.  An
AK47
is still an excellent weapon, in the context for which it was designed: 
to
provide high volume fire within a couple hundred metres, operated by
poorly
trained conscript troops without the resources for complex maintenance,
and
never break.  This they do admirably.  They're heavy and clunky and
noisy,
but they work well - even if you've had them sitting in mud all day.
Within one or two hundred metres, they're even quite accurate.	The
Israelis based their Galil rifle action on the AK (well, their
prototypes
were built up on Valmet rifles from Finland, but these were a Finnish
copy
of the AK) for a good reason - they are a good, durable design that
works
well in harsh conditions.  AK's are good because they work, and you can
open a crate with it, and hit somebody over the head with one without
the
stock breaking.

An NAC colonial militia would not be expected to have to realistically
defend against a full-out planetary assault by FSE Legionaires or ESU
Naval
Infantry.  If they were, the military planners would give them the
resources to do it with (or not - but that is a big political issue...
"Colonists Abandoned By Incompetant General Staff" is not what the
politicians would want to hear).  What they would be expected to defend
against without screaming for help is insurgencies, mercenary forces,
etc.
who would presumably be equipped with similar gear.  Having stuff lower
tech than the first line forces wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing - it
would not necessarily be obsolete IN CONTEXT.  OK, if they were given
old
military castoffs for which there are no spare parts, they would have a
problem...

Here's an example - the Candian military maintains a war storage system
to
allow for a relatively quick buildup of forces in a large war (WWIII
type
scenario).  We keep lots of our old equipment, like the FN rifles and
Sterling submachineguns that we replaced with M16's in the late 1980's. 
We
have warehouses with 1960's vintage fighter jets, old tanks, old
artillery,
etc etc etc.  This equipment is still perfectly deadly, just not as
efficient or capable as more modern gear.  But the bullet from a FN will
kill you just as dead as the M16...  In a general war scenario in
Europe,
if it lasted longer than a couple of months and didn't go nuclear, the
formations that would be trained and fielded by the combatant nations
would
start to be equipped with this kind of older technology - our second or
third line divisions with tuned up Centurion tanks and FN rifles versus
their third line divisions with T54 (?) tanks and AK47 rifles.	There
would
be a rough equivalency - everybody's stuff would be equally old...  If
they
had to fight a force with modern equipment (say we suddenly had to fight
WWIII versus Egypt and Saudi Arabia) we'd have a real problem...

It could well be that the colonial forces would be equipped with NEW
equipment that is simply LESS COMPLEX (and possibly less capable) which
would not require the complex infrastructure to maintain that the first
line military equipment would.	So, a FSE battalion fighting a colonial
militia battalion would have a qualitative edge, but so they should. 
When
the colonial militia fights another colonial militia, or mercs, or
insurgents - they would be on more equal footing - which is the fight
they
would be expected to fight, after all.

Just a thought.