Panzers on the Loose in Bulgaria!

Well they're all threats so kill'em!!!!

I spy with my little eye, a hind-d, Mi-hip, Btr's, Brdm's, T-55, t-62, Scud launchers, and mig's in the background!!!

That's the best I could do

see some SA-2s, Fan Song, and old FAGGOT, poss RBS last pic

First, LUCKY! That place is like a Cold Warrior's wet dream.

Second, I'm with David on this one. All I see are targets, or, to put it another way, the bad guy section from the unit guide to any modern day combat flight sim.

That said, let's get down to business.

First picture, tanks: from upper left, clockwise: T-34-85, T-54/55 (you can tell by the gap in the road wheels) and T-72.

SA-2 site complete with Fan Song radar. That's all I've got for the first picture, other than stuff I'll identify later.

Second picture, SS missile systems, starting at upper left and moving clockwise: FROG-7, SS-1/Scud, and SS-23.

Moving on to aircraft, starting on the far left and moving right then wrapping around: 1) some sort of trainer, kind of hard to tell but wing mounted intakes and t-tail make me think L-29. 2) obviously some sort of MiG-23/27. Bulgaria never operated the MiG-27, but the fact that there is already a MiG-23 there coupled with the fact that the intakes look suspiciously non-Mach 2 capable lead me to guess MiG-27. 3) Some sort of Fitter, since Bulgaria was not a part of the USSR they got the export version, meaning this is likely a Su-22. 4) MiG-23, for previously stated reasons. 5) MiG-15UTI, trainer version. 6) Wing fences had me thinking MiG-19, but the almost t-tail gives it away as a MiG-17. 7) Looks delta winged and twin engined, which makes me think Su-15, even though that was only operated by PVO Strany. 8) low slung stance makes me think either Su-9 or Su-11, due to the higher production rate of the Su-9 that's what I'm going with. 9) Wouldn't be a Warsaw Pact equipment zoo without a MiG-21. No guess on the variant, because, well, that's a fool's errand.

Next picture, starting with the choppers and moving from right to left: 1) Mi-8/17, the way to tell the difference is the tail rotor and that isn't readily visible, so since this is Bulgaria and not Russia, I'll guess the export version Mi-17. 2) Kind of like the MiG-21, no Warsaw Pact equipment zoo would be complete without a Hind. No guess as to variant. 3) Might as well round out with a Mil, high forehead makes me think Mi-2.

Finally, the APCs. Starting on the left and moving counter-clockwise: 1&2) Look to be some sort of wheeled BTR, but the open top seems to indicate an early BTR-60. 3) BTR-50, second bay on the front gives it away as a command vehicle version. 4&5) MT-LB, no guess as to variants. 6) BRDM-2. 7) No guess beyond to say it looks like a BTR-60 or -70.

As for any other equipment, your guess is as good as mine.

Full disclosure, I did use wikipedia as a bit of an aid, although I nailed almost all of the aviation related stuff without "cheating" and had a general idea on the armor, just needed some help pinning down the exact model.

While my Warsaw Pact ID skills have atrophied since my long-gone days as a forward observer, in the middle photo, the larger ballistic missile is a SCUD C on board a TEL - transporter-elevator-launcher. BTW, NK has hundreds of these and sells them in a complete package off the shelf. Pretty much every other country who could be put on a list of enemies or potential enemies has them.

I would have to say that all I see are targets.

What fascinates me is the line about the tanks being repurposed as dug-in artillery during the Cold War. Does anyone have any information on this?
Sir John Hackett mentioned something along these lines (digging obsolete armor into fixed positions for defensive use) in his Third World War books, and this is the first I've heard of it being done in the Cold War.

The dug-in tanks? Once a tank had reached the end of its useful life those that weren't recycled as scrap became immovable firing posts along the borders of the Soviet Empire. Each firing-post was equipped with a concrete shelter for the crew and lots of ammo. Spaced one or two kilometers apart so they could mutually support each other, the Red Army considered this an effective means of border defense based on its disasterous experience in the Soviet-Finnish War. [Reference: Victor Suvorov's books The Liberators and Inside the Soviet Army]

By the way,

I spent this summer working in Egypt and in my course of exploring the country I came to the Citadel in Cairo. There they house a similar graveyard for old soviet weaponry. But something far more interesting caught my attention when I came upon the exhibit about the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Strangely enough, this exhibit was titled the "1973 October Victory."

I guess the certain members of congress were correct in the fact that we can declare victory in Iraq and leave.