In Battlefield 2, the Middle Eastern Coalition provided a convenient way to include a modern Middle Eastern military, ignoring the fact that much of the equipment was not in widespread use in the Middle East and without politicising the game. However, Project Reality is a realism mod with no such issues about including real factions, and the MEC is an unrealistic faction which should not ideally be included in a modification which aims to achieve realism.
I understand that the PR developers are very busy as it is, and replacing the MEC may not be a high priority. I propose we start a community effort to replace or complement the MEC with more realistic factions. I know people like to concentrate on getting their own country’s military done, but I think more OPFOR variation will ultimately benefit everyone.
We need to look at the politics of the Middle East and decide which factions are most likely to be fighting the western armies in the near future.
One of the logical replacements for the MEC would be Iran, which has one of the most powerful militaries in the Middle East and a growing indigenous arms industry. Iran uses western arms sold before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, alongside Iranian and Soviet/Russian weapons, making for interesting game play. Iran would require the most effort of all the MEC replacement factions to implement, needing Persian voices and 3D models for Iranian weapons.
Syria would also make a good replacement for the MEC. Syria was involved in the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War against Israel. More recently, Israel bombed an alleged Syrian nuclear facility. I think having a Syrian faction in-game would be particularly useful to the IDF community mod, and possibly for the Turkish community mod if it ever gets off the ground. Putting the Syrians in-game would be easy as we already have Arabic voices and most of the equipment they would use is already done.
I have no delusions of creating a super-leet community mod in no time at all and I know how much work would be involved. I'm posting here to throw this idea around and see what people think, and hopefully find people who are interested in seeing this happening.
I intend to edit this thread as people suggest other militaries we can add to replace the MEC, equipment we can use, and armies geographically appropriate to the locations that the existing maps are in. The list below is by no means a complete plan, I hope we can draft that up as a community.
Thanks for reading my proposal thread. All feedback and comments are welcome. Can you think of any other factions that could realistically replace the MEC on some maps? Are you willing to help? Do you think we should forget about this idea and keep the MEC to avoid politicisation and give the developers more creative freedom? Should we have both the MEC and new factions? Discuss.
Syria
To do:
- Re-skin MEC soldiers
- Re-skin MEC vehicles
- Replace weapons from kits with more realistic ones
Assault Rifle: AK-47 (done) is probably standard issue, AK-74 (done) may be in limited service.
Light Machine Gun: PKM (done)
Marksman Rifle: SVD (done)
MANPADS: SA-7 (done) would be suitable, or a Strela-3 or Igla.
Light AT: RPG-29/RPG-7 (done)
Armour:
MBT: T-72 (re-skin)
APC: BTR-60 (re-skin)/BRDM-2 (re-skin)
Aircraft:
Fighter: MiG-29 (re-skin)
Attack Helicopter: Mil Mi-24 (SF/Russian Forces?)
Transport Helicopter: Mil Mi-17 (re-skin)
Iran
To do:
- Re-skin MEC soldiers
- Re-skin MEC vehicles
- Create 3D models of some Iranian weapons and vehicles
- Record Persian voices
Assault Rifle: G3A6 (Iranian-made G3A3, done)
Iran produces its own 5.56mm bullpup Khaybar assault rifle, but I don’t think it’s in service yet. Even so, it would be nice if someone could model it and add it in-game to add an element of uniqueness to an Iranian faction if it’s ever created.
Light Machine Gun: PKM (done)
Does Iran use the MG3?
Marksman Rifle: SVD (done)
MANPADS: SA-7 (done)/Igla
Light AT: RPG-7/Saegheh (done)
Heavy AT: RPG-29
Armour:
I put some names of indigenous Iranian designs on this list even though they may be hard to find information about, and to model. Of course, it would be nice to have them to add some variety to equipment.
MBT: T-72 (done) or Zulfiqar (information seems to be scarce)
APC: BTR-60 (done) or Cobra BMT-2 (information seems to be scarce)
Aircraft:
Fighter: MiG-29 (re-skin)
We could also create a HESA Azarakhsh or Saeqeh, both F-5 variants, the latter of which has 2 tail fins.
Ground Attack: Su-25 (re-skin)
2-seat Attack: F-14A
There may not be an appropriate map for the F-14A, but I think it would be cool to have, and make the faction more distinguished.
Attack Helicopter: AH-1J SeaCobra/Panha 2091 (re-skin)
Transport Helicopter: Mil Mi-8 (re-skin) or Bell 206/212 (is this similar enough to the Huey for a re-skin to be acceptable?) or CH-47C Chinook (WIP?)
Mec 
