north atlantic treaty organisation

Hi everyone, IRL the US and UK jointly embarked on a complete Harrier redesign as the AV-8B as the US had no V/STOL alternative at the moment. But had the US chosen to finish development of the Convair Model 200 instead of the XVF-12A, and had this worked well enough to enter service, there...

We discussed at nauseum alternatives to the F-8 Crusader from 1956, 1968, 1975. One we missed was this very one. I had forgotten one of the early N-156 was to be a naval fighter. The USN wanted it for the smallest carriers of WWII vintage that had not been downrated to secondary or tertiary...

Back in 1973 I purchased the boardgame "NATO operational combat in the 1970s" from Jim Dunnigan's SPI (Simulation Publications) gaming company. In a world before home computing this wargame of a future war as opposed to Waterloo or DDay was something new and daring. In this month of lockdown you...

More or less unnoticed in the mid 60s the Royal Navy was able to replace the wartime very fast Minelayer "Manxman" with a new build ship. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Abdiel_(N21) Abdiel served nearly to the end of the Cold War in1988. Unlike the famous UK mine countermeasures vessels...

Back in the Cold War the France, Germsny and the UK embarked on an ambitious programne to produce a family of third generation anti tank missiles. The only survivor is the long range helicopter launched version https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PARS_3_LR. Like the SP70 gun and RS80 (described in...

I noticed a Teddy Bear in Guards Uniform carrying an M16 (like the Canadian Army) and it got me wondering about the saga of the SA80 and what we are going to replace it with. I get the impression that of the rifles introduced from the 1970s on only the French Army got one they liked. But even...

The US Navy's Iwo Jima class helicopter carriers were the closest the US came to a Harrier carrier when one was used as an interim Sea Control Ship. The US Marines went on to operate its Harriers from Tarawa and Wasp class ships. But the compact Iwo Jimas might have been a quick and dirty...

I should know the answer to this. When does Lance first emerge as a likely replacement for Honest John and Sergeant and even Corporal, given its range. I only ask because Lance does seem to make Blue Water pretty pointless as it has better range and more mobile with its M548 based launcher...

I was wondering how much these two pieces of electronic equipment contributed to the growth in weight of the F-86D/K over the F-86. Does anybody has some data? Also, I understand the MG-4 fire control system what somewhat less advanced than the Huges E-4 that was exclusive to the US F-86D. What...

Knowing how popular helicopters are here I thought I would try this one out. In the 1970s the US cancelled the futuristic but troubled Lockheed AH56 Cheyenne in favour of a new competition which Hughes won with the Apache leaving modified Huey Cobra variants designed for Vietnam to serve well...

This one is not really feasible but it does produce some interesting models or artwork. The USAF had its Hound Dogs in service from the Cuban Missile Crisis well into the 70s. If politics and other considerations had not got in the way, permutations of NATO Hound might have served on the...

Robert's latest book has gone to print and should be available, alongside the man himself, on the Crecy Publishing stand at IPMS Telford on 9th November 2019. Strategic Air Command in the UK Throughout its 46-year history, Strategic Air Command (SAC) was inextricably linked to the United...

I had always been puzzled by who in NATO apart from the US received nuclear missiles. The UK received Corporal (range about 75miles) while Belgium, France, Germany, Italy as well as UK got Honest John(12 miles or so) It then gets interesting. The UK comes up with Blue Water (range 50-60 miles)...

After the launch and commissioning of Garibaldi (C551) the Italian Navy started to look about a second (and even bigger) aircraft carrier. During 1990-94 timeframe, several projects were prepared and introduced to the Stato Maggiore of Italian Navy, one of the most promising was the Design...

In "Storia Militare" n. 196 (January 2010) Enrico Cernuschi described the unknown project of an early Italian helicopter/VTOL carrier of 60's. During 1965 the Italian Navy seriously considered the possibility to modify the proposed second "Vittorio Veneto" cruiser into a sort of small carrier...

G'day gents I've just finish listening to a great and informative seminar titled: Technology-Strategy Seminar: NATO's AirLand Battle Strategy and Future Extended Deterrence (Center for Strategic & International Studies, 2013) Found the views and experience of Dr. Jim Tegnelia and Dr. Rich...

Now that the INF Treaty seems to have joined the Chequers Deal in the land of the Dodo, I found myself wondering whether Russia is altogether wise to pick this particular fight with the West. At the end of the Cold War, France was deploying HADES and the US had Pershing 2s in Germany. Both were...

Just starting a generic thread here to discuss possibilities and programs. Saw the following in an AvWeek article: "These include a new family of interceptor missiles called SkyFire proposed by Raytheon; hypervelocity projectiles designed by General Atomics, Boeing and BAE Systems; a laser gun...

From 1963 to 1965 three squadrons of Valiant B1s at RAF Marham were assigned to NATO to deliver US supplied nuclear weapons to targets chosen by Supreme Allied Command Europe. They replaced Canberras in the same role. This always seemed to me a more essential role for 50 TSR2s or F111Ks than...

Tieback = Soviet Air Defence Forces (V-PVO) GCI/EW system. In effect the top tier of the overall Soviet strategic IADS. -Markham = Lazur Semiautomatic Datalink. Key component of Tieback. Came in a number of different variants.