Russia Continuing Soviet Practice of Seizing Foreign Weapons Systems and Copying Them

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 16 – From time immemorial, the armies of one country have sought to capture the weapons of another to learn their capabilities and to copy them for their own use. As war has become more technologically advanced, this practice has intensified; and no military has done so as often or as with as much success as the Russian.

            French media are reporting that this tradition is continuing in Ukraine where Russian forces have captured two units of the Caesar self-propelled artillery and transferred them to facilities in Russia for study and possible duplication, thus continuing a tradition the Soviets developed during World War II and the Cold War (versia.ru/kak-v-sssr-kopirovali-amerikanskoe-oruzhie).

            During the first of these conflicts, Moscow worked hard to capture and copy German weapons; during the second, it worked even harder to have its proxies in Korea, Vietnam, and the Middle East seize Western weapons when they could and hand them over to the USSR for copying.

            Capturing Western weapons was so important that in a number of these cases, Moscow dispatched its own special units to seize the weapons  that it was most interested in, especially as Soviet clients, recognizing how much the Soviet side wanted them sought to use them as bargaining chips to get more aid.

            In detailing these practices, Moscow journalist Igor Kiyan likely intentionally offers one of the reasons why Western governments have sometimes been reluctant to provide their most advanced weapons systems to allies, fearful that such systems will fall into the hands of Moscow and be used against them.