north atlantic treaty organisation

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...

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)...

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.

In the late 60s the Germans were looking for a replacement for its ground attack Fiat G 91s. As an offset against costs for BAOR and RAF Germany the UK succeeds in selling Harriers to the Bundeswehr and getting Dornier involved in its production and a joint trainer which becomes the Hawk. HS and...

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/usaf-northrop-harassment-weapons-1817855401

I've searched on the net but did not found any info on these series of designs and the forum the picture hosted on was archived long ago, and google could not find it (Luckily I've saved the image and could reverse search for it) Maybe people here know more about these proposals? Also I've...

I wonder if anyone with a first or second edition copy of Janes Weapons Systems (1969 or 70) could help me track down an image showing a Marder like mock up of a US MICV design for the 1967 MICV competition. I photocopied it some years back from a Library copy (now no longer available) and...

Was leafing through a book in a German bookshop in a series on army weapons and with the title British Army Nuclear Missiles and Artillery in German. I came across an official drawing of a Blue Water missile mounted on an FV4020 chassis. This is the first time I have seen, what was presumably a...

As we know the Russians managed to standardise their tanks forces in the 60s and 70s on two designs: The T55 and later the T72. What tank should NATO have chosen if politics had been no object?

Nice-looking new title from Crecy/Hikoki from RC-135-pilot-turned-historian Robert S Hopkins III. Spyflights & Overflights Cold War Aerial Reconnaissance RRP: £29.95 Few aviation subjects have been shrouded in more secrecy or been more controversial than cold war aerial reconnaissance. Former...

1983, rather than 1982 is a key date for decisions for the RN and UK defence as a whole, in the light of the Falklands and it's effect not just on defence thinking but on the UK populace's attitude to their country. As surely as it was to the political establishment. But in terms of changes a...

An enlarged update of Robert Hopkins' 1998 Aerofax book, already a pretty good tome: http://www.amazon.com/Boeing-KC-135-Stratotanker-Robert-Hopkins/dp/1910809012/

Stinger MANPADS are being modified to avert obsolescence and add some new capabilities such as the proximity fuze but the end of it's use and service is foreseeable. I´ve read about the "Future Stinger Capability Working Group". What covers behind this group? Are there any new planned systems...