Finnish OOB 5.5

[dmnt]

Got confirmation, Finland scrapped T72s in 2007-2008 (which also resulted in a nice corruption scandal and criminal court, but I digress) except for the engineering tanks.

From 2006, In Finnish: http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/artikkeli/P.../1135224786324
Quick fixed English machine translation:
The Finnish Defence Forces will discard this year about 350 tanks by selling them for scrap. Due to the purchased German Leopard tanks and demands for savings in storage costs that have accumulated on decommissioned equipment, FDF had to sign the first scrapping contract.

The Finnish Defence Forces will gain on average EUR 10 000 per tank. The contract with Stena Metalli the three-year scrapping program also includes scrap metal pick-up at FDF locations as well as the collection from Kittilä blast area shrapnel collection.

About T72 in Finnish Wikipedia: http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/T72#K.C...C3.B6_Suomessa
Now, T-72 fleet is out of the Finnish Defence Forces use. The tanks were sold and unsold scrapped in Jyväskylä Seppälänkangas industrial area starting in late 2006. In 2007 Armed Forces decided to scrap the 240 main battle tanks, 220 vehicles and the assault tanks and more than 200 field guns. Some of the scrapped vehicles were T-72s and field guns 152-mm howitzers. Colonel Markku Laine stated that the upkeep costs of the old equipment would have exceeded their sales value in a long run.

In late summer 2007 T72 surplus stocks of spare parts were sold thru Patria Weapons Systems to the Czech Republic. The buyer was a Dako Cz, and the purchase price of EUR 4.1 million, including spare parts 430 000 titles.

In Finland, the T72's were replaced by the Leopard 2 A4.


In effect, Finland scrapped old Soviet equipment of T72 (NOTE! Not the mine clearing ones!), BMP-1 (already correct in the OOB) and some howitzers. IIRC the discussion was that there's no point in keeping different guns of (approximately) same caliber, favoring SPAs over static howitzers.

[Pibwl]

In case it went unnoticed in the other thread, it's worth to add T-20 Komsomolets artillery tractor, copied eg. from Russian oob (#552), but with corrections:
- carry should be 7 soldiers or light guns
- speed was up to 50 km/h
- it had armour 1 all around (although soldiers on a platform were vulnerable)
- it was armed with 1 DT TMG.
- used until 1961

(specs' and name changes concern all oobs, but, as I wrote in other place, no country should use Komsomolets after the war except Finland, and they should be replaced with something else, for example Ya-12).

Regards,
Michal

[Suhiir]

Originally Posted by Pibwl

In case it went unnoticed in the other thread, it's worth to add T-20 Komsomolets artillery tractor, copied eg. from Russian oob (#552), but with corrections:
- carry should be 7 soldiers or light guns
- speed was up to 50 km/h
- it had armour 1 all around (although soldiers on a platform were vulnerable)
- it was armed with 1 DT TMG.
- used until 1961

(specs' and name changes concern all oobs, but, as I wrote in other place, no country should use Komsomolets after the war except Finland, and they should be replaced with something else, for example Ya-12).

Regards,
Michal

If I might offer a suggestion.

When you come up with a possible addition or change to an OOB stop and ask yourself :

Is this merely cosmetic or does it "add something" to the OOB?

Can some new item or change to an existing one be relatively seamlessly and easily added to the OOB without requiring a massive change to the existing formations?

How common is the new item? Do enough of them exist to warrant inclusion in the OOB?

Does an existing item in the OOB fill the role of the new item?
(A good example is trucks, there are a zillion different makes and models with minor differences in speed and carry capacity but most OOBs use a fairly generic light, medium, and heavy truck)

[Pibwl]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

If I might offer a suggestion.

When you come up with a possible addition or change to an OOB stop and ask yourself :

Is this merely cosmetic or does it "add something" to the OOB?

Can some new item or change to an existing one be relatively seamlessly and easily added to the OOB without requiring a massive change to the existing formations?

How common is the new item? Do enough of them exist to warrant inclusion in the OOB?

Does an existing item in the OOB fill the role of the new item?
(A good example is trucks, there are a zillion different makes and models with minor differences in speed and carry capacity but most OOBs use a fairly generic light, medium, and heavy truck)

Come on, proposals are for free - it's up to decision of our HQ. I proposed Komsomolets only because it is already available in several oobs (yet with incorrect specs) and it has own icon and picture. On the other hand, Finland was the only country, which used them after the war. It is interesting example of armoured MG-armed artillery tractor, which could be also used as a tankette.

As for trucks, if we have lots of free slots, we could also fill them with wider variety of trucks, to give better taste - but it's only my humble opinion.

As for Don's answer - it's a fair enough reason to keep its high carry capacity, though in fact it was only a tractor for AT-guns. But I think it's worth to give it its gun and armour at least, and change Komsomolets in other countries to actually used tractors?

Regards
Michal

[Pibwl]

An interesting Leopard 2R mineclearing tank: http://www.tanknutdave.com/component...nt/article/360

According to a Polish article from 2007, they were to be delivered by 2009, maybe in 2008. Armament: NSVT AAMG, 16-tube SD, crew 3.

Michal