Need help - Soviet Military Power

[flateric]

To my knowledge in one of final editions there were some assumptions and hypothetical drawings of post-Blackjack Soviet LO bomber(s).

Does anyone here has this one?

Thanks in advance!

 

[phrenzy]

I've got a couple and a 1990 in the post so I'll have a look this afternoon. Any idea roughly what year? One of the later ones I presume.

 

[flateric]

I think so. 89 or 90.

 

[phrenzy]

I have a '90 in the post so I'll have a look when it arrives. The seller was quick to emphasise that it had a genuine recreation copy of Dick Cheney's signature in there, how could I resist?

 

[flateric]

oh my
starting thinking to collect all of 'em one day too

 

[GeorgeA]

DTIC.mil, baby.

 

[flateric]

Thank you, Captain...
they have very poor b&w pdfs

 

[phrenzy]

I had a look at some of the downloads just to see if I could figure out which one it was but I didn't see anything in the illustration indexes that matched. There was an artists impression of the blackjack and although I couldn't see much if it they're wasn't much in the caption to indicate it wasn't a garden variety tu-160.

There was a modified bear but that's not what your after.

 

[flateric]

1991 SMP edition may be?

 

[SOC]

It definitely isn't 1990, I have that one right here. Amusingly I also have the 1986 edition, printed entirely in Russian!

 

[phrenzy]

It definitely isn't 1990, I have that one right here. Amusingly I also have the 1986 edition, printed entirely in Russian!

That's a genuine collectors item. Is it a Soviet translation or a DOD publication in Russian? I know they did then in various languages but the only ones I've seen are in NATO languages (German, Italian etc.).

 

[flateric]

ever saw a Soviet counterpart?

 

[phrenzy]

That is very cool. Did they do an English edition?

Also, a little off topic but I've seen that picture (or a similar one) of the MX before and it always bugged me not knowing what the tiles breaking away were doing. Could you enlighten me? Is it just some temporary protection for the launch while inside the solo?

 

[TomS]

Yeah, they're shock-absorbing blocks to protect the missile from hitting any internal support structures in the silo. I believe it's part of the hardening to survive a near-miss as much as it is for launch.

 

[phrenzy]

Just got my SMP '90 in the mail, there's a lot of speculation in there but no speculative bomber artwork that I've found so far. Sorry.

 

[flateric]

As I said, that leaves us with the only variant of 1991 SMP (or that source is mistaking).
Source (a Tekhnika Molodyozhi magazine, a Russian PopSci/PopMech analogue) states in 1994 article that top one was once in SMP.
Looks pretty much like Soviet Stealth Fighter ad from Hughes Defense Systems that we know already, though.