Cuba: Section 2 - Market Overview

摘要

In 1990, Cuba could have been said to possess Latin America's best equipped, if not most technologically up-to-date, armed forces. However, the quality of the country's inventory has since eroded drastically due to the subsequent collapse of the Soviet-led strategic bloc and subsequent emergence of perpetual maintenance shortfalls. Cuba has been unable to pay market prices for spare parts after growing accustomed to the previous "friendship" prices offered by the Soviet Union/Warsaw Pact. Russia and other post-Soviet states now seek to sell military equipment to Cuba at market prices. With limited cash resources, overall military readiness has suffered and the country has slimmed down its active force structure across all three primary services.Despite the perceived need to counter the purported threat of a U.S. invasion as the basis for maintaining a highly capable force level, the country's continued economic constriction cannot support major systems acquisitions. Cuba has found it increasingly difficult to maintain and store its massive inventories - let alone procure new equipment.