If you were Sandys or Mcnamara?

[Scott Kenny]

Deck launched intercepts are primarily a fleet specific defensive role, and doesn't so much pertain to the RAF procurement.

It's still got the same timing issues between detection and getting into position as an RAF interceptor.

Same functional role, different details.

 

[Rule of cool]

I suspect that was the Army HQ not thinking about what throwing nukes around would mean

I think the Army thought it could still fight even with the odd nuke being thrown around. After all the Soviet Union and Germany lost tens of millions of people in WW2 and kept fighting.

 

[Scott Kenny]

I think the Army thought it could still fight even with the odd nuke being thrown around. After all the Soviet Union and Germany lost tens of millions of people in WW2 and kept fighting.

But not in one battle with all their equipment.

 

[Rule of cool]

I was thinking about the likes of the initial phase of Barbarossa, or Bagration.

 

[Purpletrouble]

I think the Army thought it could still fight even with the odd nuke being thrown around. After all the Soviet Union and Germany lost tens of millions of people in WW2 and kept fighting.

I think the (British) Army just went “phew, thank fk thats over. Back to proper soldiering where they’ve only got sharp bits of fruit”. That (well actually some quite demanding colonial minor wars) and an increasingly comfy garrison life in BAOR plus trying to manage peacetime national service pretty much occupied it fully.

I find it amazing how little the British Army modernised its armoured/mechanised forces (thinking armoured infantry vehicles and orbat, less so tanks) between 1945 and the 1960s yet had copious evidence its tactics and organisational structures even in 45 were at best sub par. In contrast the RN and RAF poured vast effort into shaping their 1950s forces to be much better at refighting WW2 and recognised when nukes meant that wasnt the best idea (RN by 54 radical review, RAF perhaps had it imposed in 57).

 

[ItalianAFDFail]

i just realized these past weeks a lot of various things regarding the defense situation of Italy in the 50s and 60s, arguably the big necessity for survival in that time is efficiency over "fancy stuff" F-11F-1F would be the godsend the AF needs for the "low" component of the Hi-Low strategy but unfortunately due to likely political shenanigans that are 100% bound to happen the High component would be either significantly reduced or scrapped entirely, the AF could use Super Tigers like the F-104 and the end result is an F-11F-1F ASA in the late 90s and maybe it would be kept around and sold also to Turkey untill the 2000s, the High component could lead to political suicide and relying too much on planes like the F-4 would lead to massive issues later down the line, development of a national fighter could result in a competitive plane but then you would find yourself with Aeritalia trying to sell it to a lot of people that would probably use it aggressively (look at the MB-339 and it's operators), development of further planes would lead to likely clashes with the Brits and Germans when making Tornado and Typhoon down the line and if everything goes south we would find ourselves forced to make a plane on our own or at least collaborating with the French. so the AF would also be even more annoying than in the OTL when it comes to certain opinions (ie Italy has an AF lobby that belives most of the funding would have to go to them, they were the premier complainers of the F-35 procurement), opponent wise the candidates are either Lybia or Yugoslavia so this F-11 would have access to Aspide and BVR capabilities because after it's procurement i fully expect the AF to treat it like the F-104 in the OTL but that would also mean that pilots would die less often due to this plane being well, better designed and made than a Starfighter and if push comes to shove Italy may even be tempted to buy Hornets if Grumman plays their cards right.
Army wise they could also try to revive the italian missile program (SAMs) but the results would lead to issues later down the line as in the MiC becoming way too powerful, ADS would be relegated to a Skyguard system and also to an OTOMATIC with added missiles, the goal of that would be a system that would have to deal with missiles, planes and self defense if cought in encirclements by invading forces (due to the idea of the Fanteria d'Arresto or Stoppage Infantry units) the idea is that the OTOMATIC of this timeline would have to hold the line untill the army would arrive in force, the vehicle would be essentially irreplacable even after the cold war due to the versatility it offers and with clever marketing i am sure OTO would sell even just the turret system to ex-Soviet clients as un upgrade, i wouldn't be surprised to see a Greek and Turkish version of it, this would lead to even more interest in infrastructure of the country and traveling of troops, likely forcing the civilian government to continue advancement in train stuff, but i digress...
the navy part will come later due to it needing a full article alone. the continuation of Army stuff will also be there, later