The Cold War never heated up, but if it had, the Soviet Union was ready. This reference work details 73 major Soviet war machines, from the 2P26 “Baby Carriage” – a deceptively light, Jeep-like vehicle mounting four anti-tank missiles – to the T-80U main battle tank with its advanced armour and electronic countermeasures.
Sixty-one photographs and drawings illustrate the work, and access to a web gallery with even more illustrations is included in the purchase.
Genre: HISTORY / Military / WeaponsThe Cold War does not have a definitive start and end. For the purposes of this book, it is defined as the period from the end of the Second World War (known in the Soviet Union as the Great Patriotic War) to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Soviet military had a deeply ingrained culture of secrecy, to the point that soldiers were not told the designations of the vehicles that they used. Whereas most Western armies believe that crews should be familiar with their own vehicle, the Soviet army believed that once a soldier had been taught to drive a tank or fire a gun, he would be able to drive any tank or fire any gun. It was common for a subset of a unit's vehicles to be used for training, allowing the remaining vehicles to be kept in better condition. If a vehicle was particularly secret, the soldiers would be trained on a different vehicle, while the secret vehicle was kept in storage. In time of war, the soldiers would be given a short time for familiarisation.
Soviet weapon systems tended to be simpler and less expensive than their Western counterparts. This was partly due to the experience of the Second World War, when the German advance meant that factories were overrun or had to be moved. During that war, simple weapons that did not require complex industrial processes, and which could be produced in great quantities, were highly valued. Western planners generally assumed that a third world war in Europe would be over quickly, but Soviet planners wanted to be able to continue production even after extensive damage had been inflicted on the country. User comfort was a much lower priority for Soviet designers than their Western counterparts, although ease of use was of the utmost importance. The Soviet army consisted primarily of short-term conscripts, many of whom spoke and read little to no Russian. Thus, it was important that the weapon systems should be rugged, simple to use, and easy to maintain.
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