WesWorld

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Where is the threat coming from however?

That's the main problem with my analysis: I have absolutely no idea what the politics of Wesworld are going to be like in 2000. Ask me in about twenty years...

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there are a distinct lack of choke points into the Indian Ocean

There are only two ways in from the west, Suez and south of Africa. The various passages between Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the mainland may not be choke points in the sense of the Bosporous or Strait of Gibraltar, but they are restricted compared to the open ocean.

Note that I refer only to maritime aircraft, so am not considering traffic from China in this regard.

How does twin-engine complicate VTOL? More difficult to equalize thrust on either side of the airframe? Or just more stuff to work around?

More stuff to work around. But India is currently operating Mig-29Ks from a modified Kiev class carrier. So you wouldn't be limited to V/STOL aircraft.

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I'd expect Diego Garcia to get whacked pretty quickly. Not sure if F111/TSR.2 has the range from Oz for that however.

They dont but then there's inflight refueling. The F-111 bombed Libya from the UK while flying around all of Europe.

Lots of Backfires for India sounds interesting. Makes Australia want some real carriers with F-14 capability.

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The long-range missiles make things interesting against carrier groups. I'm thinking quite a large AA missile, ramjet powered for M.3+ range 300km+, active and passive radar homing. Perfect for shooting down E3s from range.

Extended range AIM-54 Phoenix? Now if someone would placed a nuc warhead on one...

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That's the main problem with my analysis: I have absolutely no idea what the politics of Wesworld are going to be like in 2000. Ask me in about twenty years...

Just use current politics. Its just for fun anyways.

Standard load for P-3 is 2 torpedoes internally and 2 Harpoon external. It can obviously carry more. The Tu-142 is massive and old.

J,

I don't think anyones going to attack you through Suez. Far to easy to sustain damage in transit through the canal or Red Sea. "South of Africa" is a long distance from India. I suppose a few more choke points from the east, but more traffic to sort through as well.

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How does twin-engine complicate VTOL?

Its space as well. Because of twin engines you're limited in what method you use for VTOL. I suppose you could go for similar method to Harrier but having 2 ports on one side. Significant thrust loss there however. or harrier config with 4 ports and external engines in pods below wings. Thats reasonable, but a few balancing problems. for a more conventional aircraft you're looking at JSF/freestyle aft direction, which means you need lift jets forwards as well. Taking up space, weight needed by the 2nd crewman.

Well, if it's current politics, then all of the European colonies are independent by now (one way or another), and SATSUMA is the world's economic powerhouse, provided we haven't turned on each other and nuked the entire neighbourhood. But I digress.

Diego Garcia can also be whacked via cruise missile attack - but if it's a serious military facility at this point, there's probably a decent AAW system in place to contest the issue.

Is ex-Baku actually operational now? Even that's larger than I expect WW India would be operating - I'm thinking that something in size range of Garibaldi or Invincible is the best case, providing local ASW and fixed-wing capability, and leaving the long-range heavy hitting to the aforementioned land-based A/C. Big power-projection CVNs are probably not something this continental power would be needing.

I can't imagine Australia would be capable of fielding much of a CV force either, really, due to cost. Though I do understand your desire for interceptors if confronted with the couple hundred ~Backfire type aircraft (and yes, maybe that number is excessive, but hey, maybe it isn't).

Sounds like Blackjack is right up your alley, Rocky - strategic bomber, heavy interceptor, super-king-size Wild Weasel, satellite launcher...

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The Tu-142 is massive and old.

No more so than a B-52, and Nimrod is based on the Comet.

I'd go with Freestyle for a STOVL type; not entirely sure I like the seperate lift engines vs Harrier type vectoring, but if you lose an engine in hover you're going to be splattered either way and the lift fan on the F-35B *spit* makes me cringe.

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*looks at AF of a "small" country, decides to buy F-22Ns for Australia*

(If that scares you, you don't want to see the orbat of the Royal Mozambican Air Force...)

Oh, and did I mention the top-secret aerospace fighters at Area 15 up by Khon Kaen?



I did?

Oh dear, the secret is out. Now I'll have to kill you all...

^_^

I don't think we can tell excatly what we will be operating by 2000. Many nations here have indigenous designs that are fictional, many alliance structures might have different alamagmations than say Panavia or whatever. Satsuma might join forces to create a joint aircraft firm. If our econimes wer still as strong as now then many nations might not have lost their home-build capability and more tension might equal many more home-grown orders and exports.

The USA and Russia so far in WW are poor exporters and other nations seem to be getting orders. While we will have many real aircraft there would be many fictional too. Different requirments might mean the Tomcatskii (whcih looks cool to me) would be built and many real-world aircraft would not be the same nor their weapons.

I'd expect Argentina to design;
1945-48 jet fighter Pulqui I & II
1953-56 jet fighter Pulqui III (never built but designed by Kurt Tank and became the Indian Marut)
1960s supersonic jet fighter, jet bomber like Mirage IV
1970s Pucara single seat, Pampa trainer
1980s a M2 F/A-18 type fighter

Everything else would be brought, mostly UK but maybe some US stuff too.

Very true - hence my discussion focusing on missions/types and not specific aircraft.

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Satsuma might join forces to create a joint aircraft firm

SATSUMAIR...

Who knows, that may come to pass sooner than you think.

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SATSUMAIR...

Who knows, that may come to pass sooner than you think.

It certainly would be nice, at least for purposes of standardization.

I'm already cooperating closely with Nakajima.

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Standard load for P-3 is 2 torpedoes internally and 2 Harpoon external. It can obviously carry more. The Tu-142 is massive and old.

Standard load for the P-3 is very dependent on the world situation. When I worked on the P-3C Update III project, standard load was up to 8 torpedoes in the internal weapons bay and 2 ASMs (usually Harpoons, later mods added Mavericks) under the wings. The Tu-142 is no older in design than either the P-3 or the Nimrod.

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I can't imagine Australia would be capable of fielding much of a CV force either, really, due to cost. Though I do understand your desire for interceptors if confronted with the couple hundred ~Backfire type aircraft (and yes, maybe that number is excessive, but hey, maybe it isn't).

WW Australia is somewhat larger due to the inclusion of NZ and NG. And if SATSUMA still exists Australia will be sure to have some carriers. A couple of ex-US Forrestals or Kittyhawks would fit the bill, together with a bunch of ad hoc carrier merchants with Harriers.

Of course somewhere in the deserts of Australia...





A few interesting models I found:






RAAF CAC CA-31

In the 1960s Australia’s Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) proposed a small delta-winged supersonic trainer to the RAAF. This was meant to be for advanced training and operational conversion to the similar (but considerably larger) Mirage III. Although not proceeded with, the CA-31 did reach mockup stage (in fact, the mockups have recently re-emerged after being hidden by disappointed former employees for many years!).


All are from: http://www.whatifmodelers.com/

What I misunderstood as the retirement of the entire S-3B fleet was in fact the retirement of the last West Coast Viking squadron at North Island, so I guess Pacific carriers won't have them but Atlantic ones might? I also saw that there is a bill in Congress to convert over 100 into waterbombers and for "Homeland Security" uses. Apparently we are also offering them to Chile, Peru, and a couple other countries in SA. I know there were some really good profiles on the What-if forum, and these are archived at http://www.madoc.us/profiles.html

I'm not sure what aircraft I would have... I assume Swampy has put more thought into this than I have... all I know is, there would be lots and lots of Exocets.

Germany has NO idea what the Luftwaffe would look like, that would depend very, very much on the course of the world through the preceding years. Ie: does Germany have an independent aircraft industry, or is it buying planes from allied countries? Who are those allies? Who are it's enemies? What are it's responsibilities in the world? Etc, etc. I've got enough trouble figuring out what the Luftwaffe will look like in 1945, let alone 2000.

I have enough trouble figuring out what the Royal Air Force will look like in 1935, let alone 1945, as it happens.

But, if I'm allowed a flight of fancy, come the "modern" era I would see the WesWorld UK retaining a few overseas bases so she's not so dependent on local allies letting us use their bases. We'll probably have a TSR.2 class aircraft (although possibly not the Eagle herself) flying in the strike and recconaisance roles, with something between the Tomcat, Flanker and Tornado flying for air defence: although the Tornado was designed to meet UK needs, the needs will be slightly different in this scenario. Possibly something in the F-16 class, possibly not. A Nimrod-type maritime patrol craft is likely, with VC7-based types as AEW, tanker and such.

Or, we could decide manned aircraft are on the way out, then change our minds a few years later and buy Indian.

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Originally posted by Alikchi
I'm not sure what aircraft I would have... I assume Swampy has put more thought into this than I have... all I know is, there would be lots and lots of Exocets.

Well who knows what Nakajima and Heinkel will be building by then (latter = Tornadoes perhaps?) but they'll probably be a few Lockheed Martin F-16s... ;-)


And lots and lots and lots and lots of Exocets...and Gabriels...and Tomahawks...and....

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I have enough trouble figuring out what the Royal Air Force will look like in 1935, let alone 1945, as it happens.

More or less as historical but with more planes for Coastal Command given the increased sea traffic. I'd expect you to avoid things like the BP. Defiant For light bombers you've more of a problem as the Battle and Blenheim will be outclassed pretty easily in range/speed/load

I have a pretty good idea of the Regia Aeronautica up till 1950ish for fighters/bombers/trainers. Historical designs but different engines.

1935 isn't too much of a problem for Germany: the currently serving He-51 will be being replaced with early model Bf-109s (probably Bs, though the WW 109B is equipped with 2 7.92mm and 2 15mm MGs rather than 3 7.92mm MGs), the Do-17 will be in service with the He-111 just starting to arrive and the Ju-88, Ju-89, and Do-19 under development. Ju-87As will be in service, along with Do-18s, to be followed by either Do-24s or Do-26s (possibly with the Jumo-205s replaced with Jumo 206s or 207s, if the bugs can be worked out in time).

(Ie, essentially as historical, just 2-3 years early and with slight variances to armament based on interactions with WW Germany's friends and allies.)

Hmm... Borrowing liberally from a couple websites I found (Here) and (Here], I'd imagine my air force looking something like the following.


Multi-Role Fighter:



Interceptor:



Strategic Bomber:

Nice links...

Hmm... I can already see Wesworld Japan using something like this...

Or this...

According to the Macross timeline, the first flight of a Veritech prototype was in 2006.