[naturalman1975]

A principle I was taught was that you always use the best you have available - you certainly don’t not use your most modern weapons just because you are afraid of losing them.

First of all, if you’ve got that attitude, you may as well not have the weapons. But secondly if you’re worried about losing your newest technology, you should be even more worried about the survivability of the older technology - and remember that technology has living, breathing people inside it. You owe it to them to send them into battle with the best you have whenever you can.

(Old doesn’t always mean bad, and new doesn’t always mean better - sometimes older tech can have particular advantages in particular situations - but you don’t go old out of fear).

[Nowhere Man]

A principle I was taught was that you always use the best you have available - you certainly don’t not use your most modern weapons just because you are afraid of losing them.

First of all, if you’ve got that attitude, you may as well not have the weapons. But secondly if you’re worried about losing your newest technology, you should be even more worried about the survivability of the older technology - and remember that technology has living, breathing people inside it. You owe it to them to send them into battle with the best you have whenever you can.

(Old doesn’t always mean bad, and new doesn’t always mean better - sometimes older tech can have particular advantages in particular situations - but you don’t go old out of fear).

True. There is no such thing as an obsolete weapon, only the thinking might be obsolete. First thing you need is the attitude, the willingness, to fight as you pointed out. No matter what, if you do not have that, no matter if you have an F-100 Super Sabre or an F-22 Raptor, it ain't gonna help. The Russians for years have stockpiled their old weapons, they still have many weapons like the MiG-15/17/21's in storage along with oodles of tanks going as far back as the T-34. The idea there is when the newer stuff is all shot up, there is always the older equipment left in which they can still throw their weight around with. There are times even the older equipment can be superior to the new. For a while the M-60 tank with the upgrades they made at one time was superior to the M-1 tank. I'm also amazed that even though there are new rifles, there are still many old rifles like the 1891 Nagant, Lee-Enfield and Mausers still in frontline service today. It's interesting to see that those rifles are still being used for over 100 years, although if you go back further, the British used the Brown Bess musket from 1717 well into the 1840's.