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vincent

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Moderator - World Affairs
For starters, SK, India and Vietnam wouldn't be too happy. I don't think China minds pissing off US, but China still wants to get along with its neighbours. But I'm not talking about military sales (like the weapons US sells to Taiwan), more like military aid.
Expired ammo are unsafe and need to be destroyed. Older equipment most likely have little to no spare parts, gonna be very difficult to maintain.
 

bobsagget

New Member
Registered Member
Expired ammo are unsafe and need to be destroyed. Older equipment most likely have little to no spare parts, gonna be very difficult to maintain.
Rifle ammo really wont go bad i have fired 60 plus year old rifle rounds no problem . High explosives can decompose but for things like 152/155 shells as Ukraine Russia conflict shows they are good to go . main worries are anything with batteries gas sealed lasers or optics that need gas pressurization , active cooled ir , cordite or similar explosives , and anything that has rubber seals that are necessary for function
 

YISOW

New Member
Registered Member
Rifle ammo really wont go bad i have fired 60 plus year old rifle rounds no problem . High explosives can decompose but for things like 152/155 shells as Ukraine Russia conflict shows they are good to go . main worries are anything with batteries gas sealed lasers or optics that need gas pressurization , active cooled ir , cordite or similar explosives , and anything that has rubber seals that are necessary for function
So thats why RU's AF have been hit down so many jets just to use those old ammo (maybe they were produce when its SU)
 

supersnoop

Major
Registered Member
I have a question, how does China get rid of old military equipment and ammo? The US and NATO can always stir up a conflict and periodically dump them in foreign countries (e.g., Ukraine), but what can China do? Can less developed countries even take as much old military equipment as China has to offer? What about non-country entities like the Wa military? Are there other groups like them which China has ties to?

There are clearly political costs to just donating/selling old equipment to friendly nations (NK, Cambodia, Pakistan, Serbia), but maybe this outweighs the economic and environmental costs of adestroying the equipment on Chinese soil.

What do you need to "get rid of"?

The nice thing about most military equipment is that it’s 90% metal, so a lot of things can be recycled. Think of old rifles, you can just take off the stock and handguard/foregrip, the rest is metal.

If you take the example of artillery, there was an article of how some older pieces were refurbished for the purpose of using up some old ammo stocks being phased out (ie 152mm). Probably this was used in training. Ammo is usually used up in regularly scheduled live-fire exercises.

Artillery rarely uses training rounds because they are not worth it. Basically like 80% the cost of the real thing which will expire anyway if you don’t use it.

Other things can be refurbished to a point, and when you can’t anymore, it’s exercise time.
 

coolgod

Colonel
Registered Member
I'm just curious what does China do with old military equipment and ammo in general.

For expendable stuff, say old bombs, shells, explosives is it even worth refurbishing them? It seems dangerous and not nice for the environment. Can China even use up all that stockpile in exercises? What about donating them when they have say 30% rated lifespan left? What about old missiles and rockets?

For equipment like guns, artillery and vehicles, does it even make economic sense to recycle them? Maybe cheaply selling them or giving them away provides more value for the buck?

What about higher-value equipment like old aircraft and ships, should they be sold or donated? Like the whole J-7 drone conversion, seems like an interesting modification, but drones are pretty cheap already though.
 

supersnoop

Major
Registered Member
I'm just curious what does China do with old military equipment and ammo in general.

For expendable stuff, say old bombs, shells, explosives is it even worth refurbishing them? It seems dangerous and not nice for the environment. Can China even use up all that stockpile in exercises? What about donating them when they have say 30% rated lifespan left? What about old missiles and rockets?

For equipment like guns, artillery and vehicles, does it even make economic sense to recycle them? Maybe cheaply selling them or giving them away provides more value for the buck?

What about higher-value equipment like old aircraft and ships, should they be sold or donated? Like the whole J-7 drone conversion, seems like an interesting modification, but drones are pretty cheap already though.
Bombs, shells, no. Refurbishment is more for something like not yet obsolete missiles.

I can't say for PLA how it works, but it's my experience with ammunition, when the time comes, exercises will have more fire missions.
A gun is detached from the main battery to do a direct fire mission with HESH rounds. etc.

Small arms - Let's "practice" full auto at 25y.

If something can be sold for value, then it will be sold for value. This is true for all militaries. There is a good trade in used F-16 right now because MiG-21 and F-5 type fighters don't really exist anymore (closest would be FA-50 and JF-17), and new "light" fighters like Gripen or F-16 are too expensive for most countries.

Scrap metal is usually good business. If it wasn't scrapyards wouldn't exist and people wouldn't steel copper wiring.
 

bobsagget

New Member
Registered Member
So thats why RU's AF have been hit down so many jets just to use those old ammo (maybe they were produce when its SU)
Ukrainians also are using old ammo too . A lot of the 155mm stock is old nato rounds . It works it works . Thats the great thing about how guns work. It will work in space on land and even at 100 years old . It goes bang
 

dirtydragon

New Member
Registered Member
I just want to ask " Is that real that Ukrainians University have a lot of blueprints that China really want to get their hands on ?" Cuz there's a believe in my country that is the truth. I'm new to the Chinese aerospace industry so be nice to me .
 

styx

Junior Member
Registered Member
Can you open a thread on china military recon satellites? Imaging radar elint etc?
 

Jono

Junior Member
Registered Member
I just want to ask " Is that real that Ukrainians University have a lot of blueprints that China really want to get their hands on ?" Cuz there's a believe in my country that is the truth. I'm new to the Chinese aerospace industry so be nice to me .
like what?
please give explicit examples of such "blueprints", quoting sources and evidence to back up such claims as well.
just stating a broad statement like that because it is your belief (or fantasy if I may say so) will not go very far in this Forum.
China has single-handedly:
set up an independent Beidou GPS system with very high accuracy,
established a functioning Space Station and expanding it as we speak,
landed on the far side of the Moon,
landed on Mars,
built Stealth fighters,
built hypersonic missiles,
built CATOBAR carriers with EM catapults.
with due respect, how can Ukraine Universities contribute to the above programs????
 
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