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PaperclipPerfector  11hr ago (text post)   580 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 16, 2026

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It sort of depends on what you think is "irreplaceable." Africa manufactures their own RPGs, small arms ammunition, and bombs. Dumb bombs in particular aren't hard to manufacture at all, but plenty sufficient to sink European ships with ~impunity if you have jet aircraft. But I don't know how long the African air force could be maintained without technical expertise and spare parts from Russia and the United States.

But I don't know how long the African air force could be maintained without technical expertise and spare parts from Russia and the United States.

On a war footing, not very long, and the parts won't be replaced domestically (the idea of an African war economy just doesn't work. North African countries maintain the militaries they do by putting much their best human capital into it, sustained by resource sales to fund foreign imports and expertise, so IMO their best shot is to carefully husband modern weapons to support the conscript zerg rush at key points). Egypt has a wild hodgepodge of aircraft that are all incompatible. Algeria a bit more robust because of their Russian connection, but not great either. Morocco, pretty good. South Africa, well. Given their relatively short range and limited number of fires, they can't do sufficient strategic bombing to knock out industry, and they'll lack the ground attack capabilities which were so important in WWII. They'll be fine on small arms ammunition but get a pretty negligible advantage from that - the first African casualties/prisoners mean that European industry will switch over entirely to the AK-47, it's not exactly rocket science to make.

On a war footing, not very long,

Right, but if "not very long" is, say, a month, that's long enough to clobber every European navy (at least the ones within reach).

They'll be fine on small arms ammunition but get a pretty negligible advantage from that

I tend to agree here, although stuff like the RPG and modern towed arty is genuinely a big step up from what's being thrown around in 1939. The main advantage Africa would have would be modern NVGs and (more) modern tanks/AFVs, but I am not sure that's enough to actually be decisive.

I consider tanks and similar vehicles basically irrelevant, because, with African standards of maintenance, they break down even faster trying to cover meaningful stretches of ground. I doubt Team Africa's tanks even make it to the Pyrenees.

"Within reach" is the critical thing with respect to air/naval stuff. The Italian navy is just as fucked as they were in OTL 1939, but everyone else is fine.

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