stevep
Fleet admiral
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Post by stevep on Oct 2, 2021 9:46:25 GMT
Interesting couple of twists there. First that the commander had been bewitched into his action and then the suggestion that the Soviets weren't behind it. China is the obvious other possibility but there are further potential candidates.
Also that the RAF have adopted possibly the RN's most famous warship of the modern age for one of their own designs. 
Steve
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simon darkshade
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Post by simon darkshade on Oct 2, 2021 10:58:02 GMT
Steve,
I had to go down the path of twists, as the straight action would only take us so far.
The evidence indicates it isn’t the Soviets. It could be China. It could be another party altogether.
Warspite is a great British warship name and a pride of the Royal Navy. It’s use indicates some inter-service bridge building as well as a sales technique by Armstrong-Whitworth. A-W is the “senior” aircraft marque in its group, but really needs to get its sales up. They presently have the Atlas strategic transport, some civilian jets, seaplanes, the AW.171 spy plane and airships. It really needs a popular modern aircraft with good sales potential, which it hasn’t had for a decade since the success of the AW.168 Achilles and the Albion twin engine MPA in the 1950s. They are pinning their hopes on the Adventure twin jet transport/airliner and the Argonaut multirole plane in addition to the Warspite and an as yet unnamed flying wing intruder.
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simon darkshade
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Post by simon darkshade on Oct 2, 2021 18:07:05 GMT
As a little addendum, the results of Barton’s direction to improve fire support options by 1968:
- Every ground operation is within range of tactical air support. This doesn’t really take that much of a change, simply deploying tactical fighters forward to Kamina in the Congo and other air bases around Africa as necessary.
- Procurement of the Warspite gunship and deployment to Africa, as well as Borneo/Malaya.
- Increase range for rocket and gun arty.
- Increased deployment of armed helicopters and Rotodynes.
- Fielding of refurbished 25pdrs as infantry support howitzers for deployment on a needs basis.
- Increased fielding of light tanks, Super Centurion MBTs (see below) and wheeled 105mm Challenger MAVs to the four major African roulements (North, South, East, West)
- Ongoing development of greatly increased naval gunfire range, land attack missiles and stand off weapons for carrier aircraft.
The other areas of low intensity military campaigns as of the late 1960s are Malaya, Borneo, Burma and Aden/Southern Arabia. There are much lower level operations in Sinai/Suez, but they are right on the base areas, so aren’t particularly practical insurgencies. For all intents and purposes, the big challenge lies in Africa.
Super Cent note: The Chieftain is too heavy for many colonial deployments, so the upgunned Centurions have had a last Indian summer of active service. It is planned to replace them in the colonial role with light tanks, MAVs and the Vickers MBT being privately developed.
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