great britain

G'day all. Just been some research into the Vickers 'Falcon' 30mm SPAAG program, in doing so Im just wondering if Vickers or other defence manufactures for that matter considered using the FV433 Abbot SPH chassis as the basis for other derivatives? It seems a good and versatile chassis for what...

Source: Norman Friedman's Seapower and Space p365-366. AST.9003 envisaged satellites orbiting at 200 miles in 97 degree (sun-synchronous) orbits carrying two cameras with television readout, and an ELINT Antenna. Resolution of the cameras would be 25 and 5 yards with swath widths of 45 and 7...

I have always been struck by the fact that France made much better use of the Surcouf class, their equivalents of the RN Daring class http://www.seaforces.org/marint/French-Navy/Destroyer-Frigate/Surcouf-class.htm https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daring-class_destroyer_(1949) 4 Tartar or Ikara...

There is already a thread on what might have been in the 1930s. I want to focus on the land forces. Britain and France in 1940 had some tanks (Somua and Matilda 2) which could match the Germans. If the French and British General Staffs had understood the importance of armoured units in a...

The British Air Ministry created a designation system for the installations of radio equipment in the late 1930s, each number reflected the standardised installation of a particular radio transmitter or receiver and all the various elements including power units, aerial connections, and control...

Reading through threads on the All the Worlds' Battlecruisers forum I was struck by two covering Fisher/Vickers proposals for diesel powered capital ships, they ignited a memory I had of reading about a single cylinder diesel test unit Vickers had produced prior to the War that seemed relevant...

From British Civil Aircraft since 1919, Mr. F. W. Broughton built a single seat parasol wing light monoplane,powered by one 30 hp Carden,developed from Perman Parasol,called Broughton-Blayney Brawney.

I have a soft spot for this concept and design. Under different circumstances it might have been built. Thoughts?

One of the hallmarks of the postwar RN was its continuing love affair with the gun cruiser. This leads to three gun equipped Tigers and HMS Belfast still being in service in the early 60s. Had the conversions worked, Swiftsure and Superb would have joined them (Triang Minic ships in 1/1200 scale...

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...

Hi all, A thread to discuss Tornado (Panavia) stories etc. Mods if you feel this should be in the bar instead please move.

https://revaldinho.github.io/f100l/doc/F100CPU.html

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...

It is one of the great what-ifs of recent history, what would have happened if Argentina had waited until John Nott's defence cuts had been implemented and invaded the Falklands in March 1983? With only Illustrious working up and Ark Royal still under construction, the Royal Navy had sold...

Another of Scott Manley’s historical documentary videos:

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...

As the UK wrestles with the issue of whether to build the HS2 high speed rail link from London to the North I had to revisit the world of the late Gerry Anderson as drawn by the artist Graham Bleathman. Like a lot of 60s ideas monorails looked cool but were expensive and impractical- how would...

Hello! We all know the Alvis Unipower variant of BR-90 Brigde System, but M-series had a whole family of vehicles as mentioned in this link: https://www.trucksplanet.com/catalog/model.php?id=1149 Does anyone has blueprints with dimensions, brochures etc? There was also a 12x8 variant which...

Hi everyone, I stumbled upon this piece of info in the Centurion Main Battle Tank Manual: Does anyone have more info on and maybe drawings of this engine? And do you know about any modifications approved during the Centurion Mk 7 program that were never applied, like the Action X mantletless...

The Royal Navy's second 16" armed battleships history was a long and bumpy road of large number of designs and the inability on the Admiralty's side to actually start and continue it's work on them or choose a design to produce. First I present the 1938 designs: Design 14A-38 This is the first...