I don't know why people are clowning this, pay 10M for one military grade truck or pay 10m for 200 civilian grade trucks that can have inherent camouflage...
Well, disguising military equipment as civilian vehicles just means any enemy is going to target civilian vehicles, but yeah can't argue with cost efficiency.
Civilian trucks are expensive decoys compared to balloon or plywood ones, but on balance probably not that bad given that unlike having to make and store pure military decoys, functional civilian trucks make money during peacetime.
It won't stop the US and S. Korea from also just bombing every garbage truck if it comes to it, but we then waste a ton of bombs on harmless garbage trucks trying to hit ~100 rocket trucks.
A military truck doesn't cost anywhere near 10M. Humvees cost $70-100K, a bigger military truck costs about twice that. Considering off-road capability, crew protection, and ease of repair, it's a far better investment than a dump truck (which costs $100-200K).
Of course those prices don't include the weapon systems, but dump trucks don't come standard with rocket launchers either.
C&C: Generals also had the Middle-Eastern terrorist faction who used pickup-truck-mounted guns ("technicals") that could be upgraded from the remains of superior enemy vehicles. It was a ton of fun.
You could also send school buses filled with soldiers.
I sat reading the comments and nodding along and then realized that all this discourse is essentially 'poor country can't afford nice things '. I'd be really upset at someone that made fun of a person over the junker they drove because it was all they could afford.
It’s like making fun of the cheap gun they bought to protect themselves after a gang set up shop in their neighborhood, took over their neighbors house and did a home invasion where 1/5 of the family was killed and the house itself was completely destroyed.
I mean, if folks were making fun of their housing I'd agree but this is the equipment they're buying to threaten their neighbors with, instead of feeding their starving population
The country has never starved itself for fun. North Korea has <20% arable land and relies on other countries to provide that supply. With sanctions it is very hard to import high quality food to provide for people. The fact that the government offers free housing, healthcare, and education tells me they would do everything in their power to feed its population if they were able to trade with more countries.
I'm certainly not pro military, but if I was NK I would focus on military parades too. Every year(?) the U.S. and SK practice invading NK the people who live near the DMZ are always under threat or told that they are under threat of invasion. So yeah dump trucks with missile launchers are great, because of nothing else the people near the DMZ know they can at least have mutually assured destruction on their side.
There are entire generations of people who have lived in the fighting grounds of the U.S. and China. These parades show that these people will still put up a fight for their home.
So yeah us rich and militaristic Americans can always have a good laugh at the poor parts of the world we threaten.
If I had a poor neighbor that relied on me for food and financial support during hard times and then turned around and told everyone what a piece of shit I am and how much they're going to fuck me up next time they see me, and how much better their car is than mine? Yeah, I would call them out for their shitty ass car when they pulled it out of the driveway and the door was duct taped on. And I wouldn't really feel that bad about it.
This is literally it. North Korea is just a poor country that offers its citizens free healthcare and education. If a poor country in Africa became "communist," you can bet these same people would be laughing at them when kids have to pick up guns to defend themselves from an American invasion. "Ha ha look at those inferior kids thinking they deserve to fight back. Kill them! I wish they died quicker and were sanctioned harder."
Poor guy claims to be able to afford nice things, waves a load of junk dragged from the local scrap yard in front of the local homeless guys claiming it is amazing.
North Korea celebrated its founding early Saturday in the capital with a military parade that included tractors pulling rocket launchers in front of visiting delegations from China and Russia, the Associated Press reported.
The parade emphasized the "militia" components of North Korea's military in an attempt to demonstrate the country's ability to beat back a foreign invasion.
Photos released by North Korean state media show rows of tractors towing what appear to be rocket launchers.
The parade also featured red dump trucks that were modified to hide missile launchers, an effort to signal "the militia's role as guerilla fighters in a war," according to Reuters.
No nuclear-capable weapons or intercontinental ballistic missiles appeared to be on display, in contrast with a July parade marking North Korea's "victory" in the 1950-53 war that cemented the division of the peninsula.
The country's Worker-Peasant Red Guards are believed to have more than 5 million members, The Korea Herald reported, citing a South Korean government estimate.
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I don't buy this, that sort of plucky and ingenius innovation wouldn't be found in a communist country. More likely they just strap the rockets onto donkeys