Odd Military Facts....

[dragoon500ly]

This was the first bomber that could fly at Mach 2. It was designed as a nuclear attack bomber. Once the U.S.S.R. proved it could shoot down high flying fast aircraft, the B-58 was obsolete.

I had an uncle who was a command pilot with the first B-58 squadron, he loved the fact that it could break Mach 2, but he always claimed that when you need to make a turn, at just about any speed, "You needed air space roughly the size of Texas!"

It was designed for the high-altitude, high-speed penetration mission, and as it was discovered how good the Soviet ADA netwrok was, SAC attempted to use it for low-level delivery, a job that its delta wings were never designed for, that's what led to their retirement.

[dragoon500ly]

That's only 13 years. In the US alone, both the M60 and M1 series have that beat by big margins. Ditto the Chieftain and Challengers in the UK, Leo I and Leo II in Germany, etc. Even if they isolate for specific marks of those designs, the M60A1 and M1A1 have it beat.

Actually, the M-48 series has the M-60 and M-1 beat...but you are correct, I should have said of all the World War One designs, the MkVIII had the longest life span. Of course, for WWI vetrans, the French FT-17 has them all beat.

[dragoon500ly]

On the other hand, technology was moving pretty damn fast back then. A tank from the 1980s still has a chance against tanks today, 25 years younger. The Mk VIII was toast if it faced virtually anything younger than it.

True, it is intresting to look over some of the might have beens, take for example, the M-1922 Medium Tank, this was an attempt at designing a more flexible suspension, the track was 2.5-inch steel cable that supported a variety of iron brackets...fitted to each bracket was the latest track shoe...each was carved from the finest oak!

Needless to say, track life was short and the M-1922 rests in the Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Grounds.

[Graebarde]

The USS Kidd, DD-661 was a late model Fletcher-class destroyer commissioned on 23 April 1943. She is notable for several facts...



Repaired and returned to service, the Kidd enjoyed a quiet post-war career...until 21 April, 1853, when she was rammed by the Swedish freighter Hainan, which left a V-shaped hole in the CPO's quarters, no one was killed or injured.

She was finally decommissioned into the Atlantic Reserve Fleet in 1964.

"The Floating Drydock Warship Data, USS Kidd"

Time warped I think.

[dragoon500ly]

Time warped I think.

Nah...Philadelphia Experiment II

[dragoon500ly]

The all time record for most enemy submarines sunk in the shortest period time belongs to...

The USS England (DE-635), which sank six Japanese submarines in twelve days in May-June 1944.

[Canadian Army]

Folsom State Penitentiary Petition

The attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 brought an immediate unity of purpose to the US. Citizens of all political persuasions and from all parts of the country pledged their support, volunteered their service, and offered to enlist in the military. One of the most interesting examples of this is found among the FDR Librarys Presidential papers. It is a petition; congaing 39 pages and 1,746 signatures, that FDR received signed by prisoners at Folsom State Penitentiary in California.

[dragoon500ly]

The B-36 Peacemaker was noted for several strange conversions during its lifespan. So heavy was the aircraft that Convair tested tracked landing gear in an effort to reduce its ground pressure, before switching to multi-wheel landing gear.

Project FICON was an attempt to design a parasite fighter that could be carried into enemy airspace and then used to protect its parent ship. The McDonnell XF-85 was the first attempt at this, quickly replaced by the Repiblic F-84E Thunderstreak. FICON only involved a single fighter.

Project Tom-Tom was the fitting of a wingtip hook-up that allowed the B-36 to carry two F-84Es, later replaced by two RF-84Fs. This never worked well in testing.

Perhaps the oddest B-36 conversion happend to TailNo 15712 which was converted into the platform for the first airborne nuclear reactor. This was the platform to test if the Air Force could make the conversion into nuclear-propelled aircraft This first airborne reactor never powered the aircraft, but was used to test radiation effects on the NB-36H itself. The crew was carried in the front of the aircraft, in a shielded compartment that featured leaded glass windows, 12-inches thick. Forty-seven flights were completed between 9/17/1955 to 03/28/1957.

Source "B-36 in Action"

[Legbreaker]

Hmm, a B-52 carrying a couple of armed drones.... Could work...
Oh wait, there's AA missiles now that do that job.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

I don't know about "odd" but I do know horrible...

Project Pluto was the first SLAM (Supersonic Land Attack Missile) worked on by the USAF. Two things made Project Pluto frightening. The first was how effective it would have been: the missile was designed to fly in excess of Mach-3, at very low altitude, using the then new TERCOM technology for low altitude high speed navigation. Even without a payload (I'll get to that in a minute) the missile would have killed anyone in a "target" area it chose to fly over: the weapon's mass and speed and altitude would've sent out a shockwave that would have simply crushed anyone not in an armored vehicle or bunker.

Of course, that's assuming the place flown over by the missile wasn't on it's target list. Pluto was planned as a robot bomber, a drone. It could be armed with up to 10 1MT hydrogen bombs. Part of Pluto's mission plan included post-strike strikes, weeks or months after the initial wars. Pluto was capable of staying in the air that long. How, you ask Now we get to the really horrifying part.

Just in case the notion of a Terminator (or Berserker if you will) roaming around over an already blasted earth and continuing to pound the "enemy" with one megaton nuclear bombs isn't frightening enough, what enabled Pluto to keep on keepin' on like that was it's unique propulsion system. Pluto was a ram-air turbine jet that used air moving at hypersonic speeds over its nuclear fuel elements for propulsion. Once launched, the air intake and exhaust system were open ends of a nuclear reactor. The Pluto missile was programmed, once it's payload was deployed, to slow to the point that it's fuel would become liquid. It would literally spray molten liquid plutonium across hundreds of miles as it slowed and crashed.

What kept us from deploying the ultimate doomsday weapon was three things: one, ICBMs were making great strides, in spite of successful ground tests of the engine it was kind of impossible to flight test it and, in the event of a war, the missile would have to fly over US or allied territory to get into position to open up its box of nightmares: it'd have killed us as well as the Soviets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto

http://www.merkle.com/pluto/pluto.html

[dragoon500ly]

And don't forget the F-102 and F-106 interceptors...and their Falcon AAMs, armed with 0.25KT warheads.

And the early Nike Hercules SAMs that would carry nuclear warheads over US cities and then detonate...a defensive shield to stop them pesky bombers!

I don't know which would be worse, to be a Soviet bomber crewman...or a civilian on the ground when one of those would go off!

[raketenjagdpanzer]

The yield on the AIR-2 Genie missile was such that at the altitudes it would've been deployed the absolute worse thing that would've happened would have been EMP and a slight increase in background radiation as material from the blast was wind-scattered over many hundreds of miles.

But yeah, the Nike Holy God. And if the bomber jammed or otherwise spoofed the missile and it just went wandering Grr. Do half the fucking work of the manned attack that way.

[dragoon500ly]

I had forgot about the Genie...I heard in some lunch room talk, that the F-102s were supposed to salvo their missiles at the Russian bomber formations; I don't know how true that is, but 3-4 Genie/Falcon warheads going off!

And don't forget about the nuclear armed torpedoes, just the right weapon for that task group or hostile port.

Both sides had way too much time on their hands designing way too many "uses" for nuclear warheads!

[Legbreaker]

Nuclear torpedoes I can actually see being used in T2K. What better way for the Pact to even the odds a bit at sea
Mind you, by the time nukes started to be used (July 97) the "last major fleet" had been destroyed... :/

[Medic]

The Finnish Army Field Kitchen, m/29 Soppatykki (Soup Cannon). Originally designed in 1929 for horse-drawn troops and be used with firewood, it is still in production, adapted to be towed by lorries and smaller motor vehicles. The redesign, m/85, is merely an incorporation and documentation of all changes and improvements on the original. Several of the WWII veteran field kitchens are still in use.

There is the newer Kentt$keitin 2000 (Fieldcooker 2000) in existance with an oven you can actually bake pizza in, but it s more delicate and requires electricity while the older models are heated with wood.

Also, while serving as a conscript, my mess kit, as it turnes out, was originally stamped in 1944. Not to mention the pistol holster I received for the Honour Guard I was a art of in the summer - it had the Third Reich eagle on the back with manufacturer, which was a German company...

Edit: one more thing remembered. The recently retired Tarkkuuskiv$$ri m/85 (Sniper Rifle model 85) was born, when the Finnish military desperately needed a new one to replace the venerable Mosin-Nagant based rifles. A number of rifles were considered, but the one that won was a rifle, built of a custom stock, bull barrel and... A Mosin-Nagant action, some of which were stamped around the beginning of the century. But having fired that particular model quite a number of times, I can attest to its capabilities.