Only countries without the technological knowhow or have a
careless approach to maintaining effective systems see
their weapons deteriorate quickly and have to replace them in 20
years or in many cases much sooner. As can be seen, good weapons
systems can be continuously upgraded to be effective. As I have
mentioned before, the SAF has many good examples of
weapons still remaining relevant & effective after more than 20
years of service such as the F5s, Oerlikon 35mm, AMX13, M113, V200
etc. The USA still uses 60 year old B52s and many
European countries still operate upgraded LeoA4s which were
originally built 30 years ago.
Buying spare parts is key to maintaining an effective system -
any system, not only weapons systems. Again one does not need to
look far to see that shiny new equipment without spares or
maintenance quickly become scrap metal.
There is no such thing as building so called "easy"
weapons. Building a so called simple, for example , machinegun
, rifle etc to work reliably , be effective at
reasonably cost is probably one of the hardest things to
do. One of the most effective heavy machine guns today
the Browing 50 cal was designed almost 100 years ago - now that is
a techno marvel. Even copying can be difficult - look at the
M60 machinegun.
Generals usually earned their stars very much earlier when they
were fighting alongside their men in the frontlines of battle as
junior officers & performed very well. Thats why they usually
have grey hair. They shud not be spending too much time
on the front lines but they shud be more critically
developing strategies / plans and executing them to
ensure victory at minimum loss of own forces. Losing a general in
the trenches to a sniper bullet may well mean victory for the enemy
in the battlefield.