Matt Wiser wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2024 3:54 am
James1978 wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2024 10:07 pm
Good chapter!
I don't suppose we could get a rough map detailing the front lines from the Baltic to the Adriatic?
If memory serves, SOUTHAG has reached the Czech border. Has CENTAG reaches the IGB?
From digging around, I think the Kh-55 (AS-15) family
might have had a second production line elsewhere.
Keep up the good work!
Would the AS-4 have a secondary production line as well?
I mean I wouldn't rule it out, for various possible reasons.
In TLWverse, we saw nuclear arms reductions continue through the 1990s at the same time as internal economic reforms kept the Soviet economy hobbling along. It's not crazy to think that as some nuclear programs got cancelled or scaled back, work on conventional systems got spread around to keep factories busy.
Also in TLWverse, the Soviet Union remained a going concern and was able to digest the lessons of the 1991 Middle East Live Fire Demonstration and actually do something with those lessons. I very much doubt the utility of conventional cruise missiles was lost on them. And post Theater Weapons Treaty, there is even more reason to build up PGM stocks. Then Renko comes along and believes that the final conflict between the West and the Communist Bloc is inevitable - sounds like a guy interested in building up war stocks and industrial capacity.
I'm not saying every system has multiple line, but odds are some systems do. Heck, the TLWverse US has two lines for Tomahawks and AGM-129s.
RE: AS-6
Without the total collapse of the USSR, the Tu-16 and Tu-22 would have stayed in service longer until Tu-22M production could replace them at the rate of about a regiment per year. So in that light, the AS-6 may not be out of service all that long in TLWverse,
And in @, many were converted to supersonic targets. So somewhere, there may be techs who are still current on the missile.
We've seen the Soviets hang onto and repurpose older missile systems in TLWverse before, so who knows.