Originally posted by fkh:
Warsaw Pact armed force had one advantage : they use standard equipment supplied by former USSR, they were unified by communist beliefs.
Whereas, NATO used their own weapons and try to maintain unique identify by disregarding USA sometimes.
However, in the times of war, many of Warsaw Pact soldiers would defect en-mass to NATO side, or even organised internal mutiny against "Soviet puppets" (communist party in their own countries.)
Besides that , Eastern Europe military forces were inferior to that of Western counterpart. Why ? They don't do scientific research to ensure that their own equipments are better .
For example, MiG 31 Foxhound is generations behind F-15
The answer depends on the timeline i guess,though the advantage of NATO which you ascribe to does not seem to supercede until around and near the collapse of Soviet Union~~~
This is an excerpt from "The Art of Maneuver:Maneuver-Warfare Theory and AirLand Battle" written in 1994 by then US infantry officer,now Lt.-Col. Robert Leonhard regarding this issue:
"The development of AirLand Battle began with the assignment of Gen. Donn Starry as TRADOC commander in 1977. An experienced armor officer and former corps commander, Starry served to focus attentionon what he referred to as the "Central Battle" - a future decisive confrontation between NATO and Warsaw Pact forces in Europe. With growing concern over the expansion and modernization going on within the Warsaw Pact, officers in TRADOC and V Corps developed of mathematical, computer-assisted "battle calculus" with which to study the huge decisive battle they envisioned.
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Inevitably, battle calculus had to reveal the bad news: even factoring in the latest technology and equipment that the West could offer, the force ratios and anticipated loss rates in the Central Battle would eventually produce a Warsaw Pact victory........................ "