So who's going to fly Iraq's new planes?

[roo_ster]

I know we aren't cold realistic enough to do this, but I harbor fanatsies that one day we'll find out that all the advanced military hardware we sell everyone has a shutdown code hardwired in to it.

Like the Cylons, we'll precede our attack with a shutdown signal and everything will just .......stop.

Almost every bit of high tech kit has that.  All that is required is that us.gov suspend maintenence and repair agreements and refuse to sell spare parts.  Soon enough the hardware will be useless.

The amount of upkeep required to keep jets and armored vehicles ready to go is prodigeous.

If most of them were not flush with oil money or foreign aid money they would be hard pressed to keep a leg infantry division in bullets and beans and combat effective.

[KD5NRH]

The amount of upkeep required to keep jets and armored vehicles ready to go is prodigeous.

Jets, sure, but the hard part of an armored truck is the armor.  Even if they blow the engine, I'm betting they can rig a whole new powertrain from whatever heavy-duty trucks they can get their hands on.  Plus the maintenance parts for all the small arms left behind for them to pick up are easily mail ordered and/or fabricated by any decent machinist.

[roo_ster]

Jets, sure, but the hard part of an armored truck is the armor.  Even if they blow the engine, I'm betting they can rig a whole new powertrain from whatever heavy-duty trucks they can get their hands on.  Plus the maintenance parts for all the small arms left behind for them to pick up are easily mail ordered and/or fabricated by any decent machinist.

Light armor is of no matter.  Any munition 12.7mm or larger diam will turn it into scrap.  And there are no or few higher tech systems attached to exportable light armor. 

And do not assume all these skeevy countries have the human skills in abundance to go all dukes of hazzard with their entire complement of vehicles.

[KD5NRH]

And do not assume all these skeevy countries have the human skills in abundance to go all dukes of hazzard with their entire complement of vehicles.

Have you looked at their current complement of vehicles?  The A Team had less cobbled together crap.

[dogmush]

And do not assume all these skeevy countries have the human skills in abundance to go all dukes of hazzard with their entire complement of vehicles.

I dunno about that. I've seen some crazy examples of redneck engineering in the Mid East. I would not be surprised that much to find that someone had bolted 6 HiLux engines together and installed them in a M1A1.  They get some crazy shot working.

[Hawkmoon]

A few years ago I took a taxi in Peru. It sounded a lot like a diesel, so I asked. It WAS a diesel. The car was a Ford Crown Victoria, but someone had swapped in a small-ish Nissan diesel engine mated to a five-speed on the column manual transmission.