WI:Albanian armed forces if communist regime survived

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KonTim

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I was wondering what would be the status of Albanian armed forces in a world where the communist regime survived into the '90s-2000s-2010s-2020s, practically till now. Would be Albania the "North Korea of Europe"?

Who would be her main armament sources??? Let's say PRC, DPRK, Cuba??? Any possible arms acquisitions????
 
The standard assault rifle by the later half of the 2000s would likely be the Chinese QBZ-95 for one thing.

en.wikipedia.org

QBZ-95 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

EDIT: Probably with some equipped full-time with the QLG-91B (Type 91B) grenade launcher (the QBZ-95 can also fire traditional rifle grenades quite handily).

Type 91 grenade launcher - Wikipedia

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Though the newer QLG-10/A caseless grenade launcher might also turn up in some of the more elite units:

QLG-10 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
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Assuming these rifles were in service, then the standard assault rifle ammo by the end of the 2000s would be the 5.8×42mm / DBP87:

5.8×42mm - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
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What about heavier military gear like tanks, artillery, air defence systems, aircrafts, helicopters, ships, submarines???
 
Albania had broken relations with China as well since the 1970s as Maoist China wasn't hard-core Stalinist enough for its tastes. So since it's surviving Ramiz Alia has doubled down on the teachings of his mentor Hoxha sending the sigurini after unrest. This Albania remains a hermit kingdom. A destitute hermit kingdom. They will still have the very same equipment they had in 1991. Minus things that even with cannibalizing the6 will be running out of spare parts.
 
Lascaris said:
Albania had broken relations with China as well since the 1970s as Maoist China wasn't hard-core Stalinist enough for its tastes. So since it's surviving Ramiz Alia has doubled down on the teachings of his mentor Hoxha sending the sigurini after unrest. This Albania remains a hermit kingdom. A destitute hermit kingdom. They will still have the very same equipment they had in 1991. Minus things that even with cannibalizing the6 will be running out of spare parts.
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I seem to recall there was at least a partial reconciliation between the two countries by the 1980s though, with the PRC once again using Albania as a listening and staging post for intelligence gathering operations in Europe?
 
Lascaris said:
Albania had broken relations with China as well since the 1970s as Maoist China wasn't hard-core Stalinist enough for its tastes. So since it's surviving Ramiz Alia has doubled down on the teachings of his mentor Hoxha sending the sigurini after unrest. This Albania remains a hermit kingdom. A destitute hermit kingdom. They will still have the very same equipment they had in 1991. Minus things that even with cannibalizing the6 will be running out of spare parts.
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That's true, but in an alternate history, given the problems that the self-isolation had, they would encouraged themselves to re-establish relations with the outer world, especially with co-belligerent countries, especially PRC and perhaps North Korea and Cuba.
 
Were they any planned or clandestine acquisitions by the People's Albanian navy at the late '80s, before the collapse of the socialism? I recall that during internal crisis of 1997, there were some fears that the rebels may use "missiles of Chinese origin" from the stockpile of the Albanian navy, to strike commercial and linear ships in the Adriatic Sea.
 
Moar bunkers, Enver Hoxha was gung-ho about them. Think they built 70 000 of them ? talk about a communist dictator nutcase...
 
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Albania has, according to https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-are-the-major-natural-resources-of-albania.html a fairly broad spectrum of mineral resources plus oil. Since the West (including the US) will buy oil, especially, from some truly horrid regimes, they could certainly raise the money.

On the other hand, Hoxha and his immediate successor managed to piss off all the arm suppliers under the loose umbrella of "communist." On the other hand, with enough money (Albania also has gold...), they could find back channel sources. There are thousands of Arthur Petrov's in the World who just live to run black markets.
 

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