[RecruitMonty]

All you really need conscripts for, surely is to fire rifles, machineguns and lighter artillery, with a professional Cadre of officers and NCOs and professionals to use the heavier and more technical equipment in support of the Conscript infantry.

I am sure that the army has its way of teaching its soldiers how to use the more technically demanding equipment. In fact I am sure that the more modern Western nations can do just fine doing that.

If the military industrial complex in the west were not so keen on pumping out to toys for the politicians to gawp at and to keep the "safety conscious" media and civilians happy, then perhaps money would not be wasted so much as it is these days in procuring equipment for the military.

As far as I can see a lot of the so called advances in infantry weaponry seem to be little more than additional bells and whistles. Look at the G 36 for instance, a lot of money would have been saved if the G3 had been upgraded. Some troops seem to be complaining about it actually. Its derivatives are quite adequate but then a similar effect could have been achieved with the G3.

Russia, for instance, has been quite bright in this respect. They rely on the AK47/74 as their primary infantry weapon and I don't think that they regret it. They are easy to produce, even the older ones are still viable and they have a more stopping power than what we have in the West these days. I don't see the benefits in this policy of decreasing the size of our ammunition, beyond cutting costs where frankly it doesn't pay to do so.

If the Cold War was still going, then of course things would be different. If a weapons procurement system like the Soviet or German (both wars) one was in place then I am sure these problems would not persist.

Motivation is of course always a problem. Effective propaganda, shutting the liberal media up, setting the army up like they do in South America or staffing it with hardcore patriots would solve this problem. A few more things besides I suppose.