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*Originally posted by ahmadjee: *
Thanks Maddy!
One of my friend's father was inchrage of the Tank factory at Wah/Taxilla. Once I had a talk with him & he was bitter about everything dependent on outside parts, and the supply fluctuates with sanctions. Do you know if Pakistan had made any improvement by being more diverse in their technology & more independent in supply? I sure hope the tanks they are planning to sell are not as uncomfortable as the one I rode around. The thing was more loud than a C-130.
I always hear how North Korea is armed to teeth. And that they have more bullets than loaf of bread. So, do they also sell stuff? Where do they rank? I expected them to be in the list of exporters but I guess they only import?!
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All tanks are loud and uncomfortable... they tone down the sound for TV news. If you ever see photos of tank crew members of any army riding around inside their tanks, they are always wearing noise-reduction headsets. The amount of engine power that you need to move around what amounts to a mobile fortress never comes quietly.
North Korea doesn't export much because it produces low-quality copies of Soviet and Chinese weapons, and imports all of its good equipment rather than manufacturing locally. The only exports of significance from North Korea are Soviet & Chinese designed missiles that Russia and China will not export.
"(though cluster bombs are still exported - we previously sold cluster bombs to Turkey, and later helped Turkey to establish cluster bomb manufacturing facilities, following a US cluster bomb embargo on Turkey in the aftermath of revelations that Turkey was cluster-bombing the Kurds)."
And THAT dear Nadia is precisely the way of the world. Your idealism has some reality problems.
Just two corrections. 1 ChannMahi, the US companies grossly over price their drugs and medicines in the third world. This currently an issue with regard to AIDS and Africa. It is called the "Essential Medicines" dispute or problem or whatever. Anyway it is cheaper to parrallel import from Europe Aids medicine than it is to buy them in South Africa.
Secondly, why isnt Switzerland up there. They produce and sell atleast 500 million dollars worth of weaponary.
I'm not going to blame any party, buyers or sellers. However, I do believe that the international defence industry should be regularized, meaning, that each and everytime, a country is wanting to do defence purchases, they should fullfill certain pre-requisite, for example, a buyer country must prove that they spend 4% of their GDP on education, and 4% of their GDP on health. This way, no country will be able to purchase ammo, if they are not spening adequate amount on their own people. The sellers, mostly western countries national governments(champions of so-called democracy), should bear the burden of making sure that these pre-requisite are met before the final sale is made. The U.N. can also play an imporatnt role in this by making sure that no country violates these pre-requisite....
Any more suggestions are always welcome.
Yep.. I saw the whole spectacle on TV, SKY NEWS to be exact.
Hmm i quite prefer the Ruger P90 to the Glock 19 and the MP5 is far better a sum machinegun then the steyer Aug that is more Assualt Rifle then Sub Machine Gun in looks and performance!!!