I can only answer this one with any certainty. As far as I'm aware: NO. People who've never experienced the military tend to have misconceptions where commanders can basically do what they want. They can't. They still work within the paramaters of protocol which is decided by the brass in some office. Like in SH3 we decide how many G7a or G7e we bring along at the start of the war, say. This wouldn't be the case...at the most you'd have the base commander putting out a directive of the quota of any new equipment allowed per boat. Then of course, a wink-wink nudge-nudge to the warrant officer engineers would get you more depending on how friendly your relationship is between you 2.

So no...you'd have quotas and directives and you'd have to work within those parameters. Military forces don't change much...they pretty much work on tradition. Hence why I'm pretty certain... Just to say the armed forces I was in was a member of the Axis during WW2 and even though they "lost" and were the "bad guys", the uniforms, units, insignia, tradition etc etc have not changed much if at all, even though to an outsider it would seem not politically correct. IN fact some of you would've been very much shocked, I'm sure. Even the unit's Gold Medal for valour won at Tobruk fighting the British was very much celebrated. ;)

Just to chime in with Wily Pete, the old East German Army uniforms, as far as I could tell, were basically the old Wehrmacht uniforms with a new helmet - was really startling the first time I happened to see them in a parade.

And as far as I know, the old Bundeswehr uniform, no idea what they are wearing these days, was purposely designed to be impossible to press and make look spiffy.

And as far as the Gold Medal for valour won at Tobruk, that is a reflection of the valour of the unit's previous soldiers, not a comment on the identity of the opposition.

The military is an odd and different subset of society. :)