What would you choose to fund? UK options?

[pathology_doc]

Returning to this thread after a long time away, I'm going to nominate Blue Boar. It would have needed a lot of work done, but if it had been introduced into limited service (a la Fireflash) and funded as a long-term research programme for continuous in-service improvement, it might have produced a workable weapon long before the US ever fielded a TV-guided glide bomb... and might even have had export potential when the US, engaged in Vietnam, discovered the need for such a weapon.

It's interesting to consider what a couple of middle-weight second or third generation Blue Boars in the 5000lb bracket might have done at Stanley Airfield. IIRC Black Buck 1 dropped 21 thousand-pounders across the runway and got one good crater in exactly the best spot. I imagine that having to carry 11,000lb less in the way of bombs might have made a big difference to mission planning.

 

[zen]

I'm starting to ponder Blue Slug.....quite ambitious for the time. But not impossible and a host of elements about this would provide a great deal of potential for the future.

 

[robunos]

I'd go back to 1928, and have the Army buy the Vickers 6-Ton mark E tank. Although in no way a world-beater, it was a superior vehicle to the 'Light Tank' overgrown carriers that were taken into service. As much as anything, it had the capability to carry an OQF 2-pdr, which would have come in very handy for the BEF in 1940, and the early part of the Middle East campaign against the Italians. I would stick with the single turret version, though, the twin turret concept doesn't really seem to work, crew overload,but an MG only armed version is easy enough with the single turret version.

cheers,
Robin.