Albania OOB (55)

[Wdll]

Originally Posted by Marcello

If they could keep some T-55s moving and shooting in early 2000's Afghanistan I don't see why they could not manage the same in Albania.
If they could make the engine work doing the same with the gun would not be a problem and for the rest...who cares, in that circumstances, if the NBC system is defunct or one of the two starting systems does not work properly?
We aren't talking about the most complex device ever created by Man.

What you might be forgetting is that near the end of the 90's there was chaos for a long time in Albania and everything was stripped and sold. Everything.

As for Afghanistan, Albania was not at war at any point. When you are in need (see war) you do whatever you can to make things work, in some way or the other. When half your population lives in Greece and Italy, when all of the country doesn't have electricity, communications, anything, and at peace, the last thing you want to do is keep ancient tanks operational. For what? Who were they going to fight? Serbs? Greeks? Italians? Their tanks would survive a couple of days at most (if they were operational). and they knew it. Albanians are a smart people.

[Imp]

Have to admit they were in dire straights & parading on TV was probably to give the impresion they had operational tanks. They might have had a handfull that was servicable but doubt much more than that.

[Marcello]

Originally Posted by Wdll

What you might be forgetting is that near the end of the 90's there was chaos for a long time in Albania

Having grown up watching scenes like the above every time the proverbial **** hit the fan there I don't see why I should fail to remember that the 90's were a tough time for Albania (incidentally I do also deal with albanians quite frequently, so I don't need to remembered that they aren't dumber than all other humans). Yet...

and everything was stripped and sold.Everything

It is a bit of an overstatement. The country was in the late 2000s still full of military hardware that evidently nobody was in a hurry to scrap.

This is just a small example. http://www.aeroplanemonthly.co.uk/ne...ws_152134.html
Of course these are jets, which are inherently more maintenance intensive than planes. Out of a similar row of tank making one or two "operational" (move and shoot, at least to a limited extent) by robbing the air filter from one and a cable from the next should not be impossibly hard.

As for Afghanistan, Albania was not at war at any point.

Well there was that little war which happened 1999 right at Albania doorsteps, without mentioning balkans were generally unhealthy at that time.

For what? Who were they going to fight? Serbs? Greeks? Italians? Their tanks would survive a couple of days at most (if they were operational). and they knew it.

Well, when a war is going on just beyond your border the government, if only for domestic purposes, ought to be able to show it is doing something. Sending some tanks to the border and shoot some rounds if needs be looks good; maybe they would not have lasted 20 minutes in an actual engagement but that's besides the point.


Source: http://www.militaryphotossearch.net/

I haven't found better pictures about that deployment but it does fit with what I remember.That should not be not something beyond the possibilites of 90's Albania.