Heres a question that had suddenly peaked my interest.
During a talk with some friends of mine the topic of UN peacekeepers and peacemakers came up. One friend commented that they are given the most advanced equipment avaliable. I asked, like what, and he didn’t know. So I bring the quesiton here.
Are UN forces issued more advanced/powerful/expensive weapons then are issued to them in a normal military?
Are the troops able to choose what weapons they want to use?
Is there some kind of list where they can tick boxes or something along those lines? (i.e: A list of primary and secondary weapons that troops can select from, so you can see one troop with a P-90 and a berreta and another with a H&K G11 and an Uzi)
If such a list does exist, what weapons are on it? Who choses what weapons are put on?
The Peacekeeping force is entirely supplied by a member countries, they let the UN know what they want to provide & under what circumstances —
From this site
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/home.shtml
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A primary tool to enhance rapid deployment of military personnel is the United Nations Standby Arrangements System, which was initiated by the Secretariat in 1994. The system provides a framework through which Governments indicate to the Secretariat the military personnel and equipment they could, in principle, provide in a given case, and the time that would be required to deploy them. Some States have formalized this arrangement by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations. The system’s data base is the point of initial consultation used by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations in approaching Member States for contributions to new or ongoing missions.
It is important to note that all of these efforts are based on the principle that troops would only be available subject to national consent. The determining factor in rapid deployment will continue to be, not the existence of effective structures, but the political will on the part of Member States.
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The troops deployed to UN Peacekeeping missions deploy with the standard weapons of their member nation’s military.
For example: A US infantry platoon would deploy with M16 rifles, M16/M203 grenade launcher combo, M249 SAWs, and M9 pistols for their small arms.
A Russian infantry platoon would have AK74 rifles, AK74/GP40 grenade launcher combo, RPK-74 machine guns, and Tokarev pistols for their small arms.
A Marine friend of mine who served in Somalia has often bitched about UN peacekeepers from poorer countries who showed up with the crappy equipment that their government provided, but then left with a much nicer kit. (Courtesy of the US Taxpayer and the Five-Finger Discount Military Supply Depot.)
Right. “UN” forces carry standard issue of their national army – because that’s what they are, there being no “UN Army”. Except in some cases it may turn out to be appropriate for one or another of the participant countries in a mission to contribute some extra hardware to the poorer members for the sake of efficiency of that particular mission – but that would be not so much weaponry as it would be radios and other comm/info gear, so everyone’s communications are compatible in the field; and perhaps extra trucks and 4x4s.