nuclear battlefield

Just came across Operation Downfall, and was pondering. What might be the political situation that would warrant the plan coming to fruition? What projects would be pursued and put into production, and what wouldn't? Who would win the war? Perhaps the 3rd world war would be caused by a...

Nothing in military history has given the RAF such a hold on the public imagination as the gallant Spitfire and Hurricane pilots of the Battle of Britain. Sadly in the postwar nuclear world their successors have only been tasked with wartime defence of key military infrastructure in the UK. It...

The fledgling Lufftwaffe and Marineflieger appeared to be interesting in buying British in their earliest days. Of course this was the worst possible time to deal with the British, so every effort fell over. Wiki referencing Wood. The German Defence Ministry first expressed interest in the...

The US Navy in the 1980s deployed an impressive range of non-AEGIS cruisers. Long Beach was the largest and oldest of the nuclear ships and the only one to start life as a cruiser. The remainder started as frigates then became DLGNs. Bainbridge and Truxtun were one-offs followed in the 70s by 2...

I have the Lost British Projects 1/72 scale resin model of the Bristol 204 which includes two small underwing pods which are shown in the drawings to be found on this esteemed site - but what are they?

In the late 1970s Sandia explored the design of a maneuvering glide bomb, the Extended Range Bomb: "Aerodynamic Design of an Extended Range Bomb" https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/3.57916 "TIGER -- A technology to improve the delivery capability of nuclear bombs and the survivability of the...

https://daviddoylebooks.com/aircraft-usn-usmc-jet-aircraft/aj-savage-9kbz5

In 1960 some 64 Canberra B2 & B6 in 4 sqns based in Britain and assigned to SACEUR were replaced by 24 Valiants in 3 sqns. Despite the significant decrease in numbers this was considered a net benefit because of the Valiant's all weather capabilities. By 1964 the RAF still had 9 sqns of Canberra...

DARPA NextRS "Y-plane" hypersonic strike concept: 30,000-38,000 lbf TBCC Conventional fuel Metallic construction https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/aircraft-propulsion/darpa-eyes-hypersonic-striker-air-force-studies-long-term-options (May be paywalled.)

This is a thread on Twitter (X) showing a series of weird & wonderful ideas, mostly nuclear armed AAMs and mostly American. since today is 1 April, it’s possible they’re an April Fool’s Day joke but I though you might enjoy them anyway.

A few days ago I stumbled across this ASROC training video from Periscope Films and I was surprised when I checked the board that no specific thread for the ASROC has been posted so hear goes: Now for some stats from the RUR-5 ASROC wikipedia page: Detonation of W44 warhead launched by an...

Have I missed something? Have I overlooked something? See Chris Gibson's (new?) Avatar ...

In a September 20, 2020 article posted on Wavell Room, defense and international affairs analyst Dr. James Bosbotinis examines the United Kingdom’s options for investing in long-range strike capability. One option briefly explored is for the UK to purchase surplus B-1 or B-52 bombers from the...

The headline is a bit misleading as the article talks in terms of anti-satellite weapon not a weapon to drop onto the planet. https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/white-house-plans-brief-lawmakers-house-chairman-warns/story?id=107232293

From the 70s to the end of the Cold War France deployed its own tracked vehicle launched battlefield nuclear missile, Pluton. A truck and trailer mounted replacement Hades was entering service as the Cold War ended. In peacetime Pluton and its warheads were stationed in France. However, once a...

Award for National University of Defense Technology for their contribution in achieving stable transient combustion of scramjet engine during change (speed, altitude, direction,) in flight conditions. 3 years ago, ground test China’s hypersonic cruise missile sees technological breakthrough...

The GW96A class Missile Cruiser was cancelled by the Royal Navy in 1957, but, I do not seem able to find any ‘definitive’ statement about who/why the decision was made. I appreciate that in reality they were harking back to a previous era as modern Frigates had an adequate cruising range and...

Been trying to find out more on this subject, but there seems to be frustratingly little. I'm interested in finding out data on 1970s-1980s soviet and american radar processors to form an idea about the oft-mentioned gap between the two in this domain. i'm not a computer man so anything detailed...

I used to nurse the fond belief that only the B52G and H versions carried Hound Dog missiles and that they were only loaded in the "silver era". Thanks to the Internet it turned out that the Dog served well into the 70s and so was carried by SIOP scheme B52s. An example is shown here...

It is mentioned here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S3_(missile) Any more information anywhere?