Art & Image Thread

[Poohbah]

Photo: USS Missouri (BB-63) firing main guns at dusk. Forrestal-class aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CV-61) in background undergoing underway replenishment. photo taken most likely after the end of the First Kamthatka Raid codenamed VERMONT CEDAR, 1987. VERMONT CEDAR involved a multi-carrier battlegroup, a surface action group centered on the USS Missouri, EASTERN EXPRESS strikes from Hong Kong, and special operations support from, of all branches, the Air Force.

October 1986, actually. One historian describes it as the Navy and Air Force deciding to return the favor for Puget Sound.

I think they wanted to show the Russians how it was suppose to be done.

I can't remember did any of the Russian surface fleet sortie or was it no ships were around?

The first warning that anyone in Petropavlovsk has was shortly before the Tomahawks arrived. The SOPA was flying his flag on the newly-comissioned Yuri Andropov, and had a front-row seat for the "Second Admiral" system experiencing a catastrophic failure; it "somehow" flipped the parity bit for the IFF system, and proceeded to mag-dump from every ship up on their Alfa Whiskey net into a Backfire raid forming up over Umbozero North. (That nonchalant whistling you're suddenly hearing is coming from Lieutenant General Sophie Lodge's residence in DC.) Between the mass arrests and the desperate need to reload the surviving AAW ship's magazines, no major fleet units got underway. Light forces only.

[Lordroel]

There were some surface units, but most of the ships encountered were KGB Maritime Border Guards or Navy coastal forces (Said FAC (M) and FAC (Torpedo).

OOC: a to bad, so my images are not canon then.

[Matt Wiser]

OOC: Actually, it would be: Nanchukas were considered coastal forces by the Soviets.

[Bernard Woolley]

Two M60A3TTS of 1-303 Armor, 81st Infantry Brigade (Mech), in British Columbia in the winter of 1986/1987. The brigade was a Washington ARNG formation, which formed the ROUNDOUT of the regular 9th Infantry Division. The division had until a few months before been the US Army's only motorised division. After taking near crippling losses in 1985 during fighting in BC, the division was reformed as a standard mechanised infantry formation.

[Lordroel]

Photo: The British Aerospace EAP, seen during its build process in 1985. The EAP entered into service with the RAF as the BAe Tempest with its first version being the BAe Tempest FGR.1 and the last being the BAe Tempest FGR.3 wich entered into service in 1994. The Tempest would be replace into service with the Eurofighter Typhoon from 1994 onward.

[jemhouston]

Photo: The British Aerospace EAP, seen during its build process in 1985. The EAP entered into service with the RAF as the BAe Tempest with its first version being the BAe Tempest FGR.1 and the last being the BAe Tempest FGR.3 wich entered into service in 1994. The Tempest would be replace into service with the Eurofighter Typhoon from 1994 onward.

I find the picture disturbing. It's looking looking a body being autopsied.

[Lordroel]

Photo: a Argentinian Mirage M-5P C-419 and a Nord Aviation AS-30 missile both bought from Peru, in Mendoza, Argentina being made ready for second invasion of the Falklands by Argentina, 1985, however the destruction of the Argentine Navy main naval base by a Royal Navy fired Polaris SLBM on Puerto Belgrano Naval Base and an adjacent Argentine city halted this operation and the Chilean-Argentine War of 1986 diverted most of Argentina air, naval and ground resources to focus on fighting the Chileans.

[Lordroel]

Photo: a Rapier Missile firing, Falkland Islands 1986, despite the threat of a new Argentinian invasion having been reduce a lot due the Royal Navy nuking of Argentina's main naval base which prevented a second Falklands invasion and the Soviet Union having limit activity in this part of the world, it was still necessary to conduct regular exercise to keep British Forces South Atlantic Islands ready just in case.

[Bernard Woolley]

Between 1985 and late 1986, the army’s contribution was built around a reinforced light infantry battalion. From late 1986 it was reduced to a single infantry company. At the same time the squadron of Phantom FGR.2 was reduced to a flight of 6 and late 4 aircraft.

[Lordroel]

Between 1985 and late 1986, the army’s contribution was built around a reinforced light infantry battalion. From late 1986 it was reduced to a single infantry company. At the same time the squadron of Phantom FGR.2 was reduced to a flight of 6 and late 4 aircraft.

That would make sense, the 1980s where the darkest period in Argentina, even darker than the Dirty War period before, first having a city nuked, the Chilean-Argentine War of 1986 and a leftist guerrilla movement being formed in Argentine who between 1986 to 1991 conducting several attack and bombing across in a attempt to overthrow the Argentina government and to join Soviet Union in their war against the United Kingdom and United States.

[Lordroel]

Photo: Oberon class submarine HMS Opossum (S19) returning to Gosport, she can been seen flying a Jolly Roger indicating she has sunk a Soviet ship, 1989.

[Matt Wiser]

U.S.S. Ranger (CV-61) at Pearl Harbor after operations during the Second Kamchatka Raid, 1988:

[Matt Wiser]

A defecting Cuban AF MiG-23BN at NAS Key West, FL, prior to the Castro Regime's accepting the Armistice Terms, February, 1990. The aircraft is now on display at the Air Park just outside the main gate to the base.

[Matt Wiser]

Two MiG-25PD interceptors on patrol over Occupied Alaska, 1987. The Voyska PVO handled air-defense responsibilities in Alaska and Occupied parts of Northern Canada, though Frontal Aviation regiments were also based in Alaska as well.

[Poohbah]

Two MiG-25PD interceptors on patrol over Occupied Alaska, 1987. The Voyska PVO handled air-defense responsibilities in Alaska and Occupied parts of Northern Canada, though Frontal Aviation regiments were also based in Alaska as well.

I recently read an EPW interrogation of a PVO pilot--he got snagged by a First Nations resistance group in Northern British Columbia, and got ratlined to Canadian Forces when they realized that he was a regimental CO. Apparently, nobody had realized that they were going to need air defense until the recon units were running out of gas just short of the 49th Parallel. And their deployment was an absolute fiasco. They ended up having to get stuff overland from Alaska. Half the time the truck convoys just disappeared, they never knew what happened. In at least one incident, a bear are the convoy commander.

[jemhouston]

Give that bear a medal.

[Belushi TD]

Two MiG-25PD interceptors on patrol over Occupied Alaska, 1987. The Voyska PVO handled air-defense responsibilities in Alaska and Occupied parts of Northern Canada, though Frontal Aviation regiments were also based in Alaska as well.

I recently read an EPW interrogation of a PVO pilot--he got snagged by a First Nations resistance group in Northern British Columbia, and got ratlined to Canadian Forces when they realized that he was a regimental CO. Apparently, nobody had realized that they were going to need air defense until the recon units were running out of gas just short of the 49th Parallel. And their deployment was an absolute fiasco. They ended up having to get stuff overland from Alaska. Half the time the truck convoys just disappeared, they never knew what happened. In at least one incident, a bear are the convoy commander.

Who was going to need air defense? There's a lot more to this story that I want to hear!

Belushi TD

[Poohbah]

Two MiG-25PD interceptors on patrol over Occupied Alaska, 1987. The Voyska PVO handled air-defense responsibilities in Alaska and Occupied parts of Northern Canada, though Frontal Aviation regiments were also based in Alaska as well.

I recently read an EPW interrogation of a PVO pilot--he got snagged by a First Nations resistance group in Northern British Columbia, and got ratlined to Canadian Forces when they realized that he was a regimental CO. Apparently, nobody had realized that they were going to need air defense until the recon units were running out of gas just short of the 49th Parallel. And their deployment was an absolute fiasco. They ended up having to get stuff overland from Alaska. Half the time the truck convoys just disappeared, they never knew what happened. In at least one incident, a bear are the convoy commander.

Who was going to need air defense? There's a lot more to this story that I want to hear!

Belushi TD

The Northern Theater commander figured that the war would be over before the capitalist scum could threaten his rear with airstrikes, so no PVO units of any kind (SAM or interceptor regiments) were in the initial TPFDL. His successor made them a priority after the Northern Theater HQ got hit by an ARC LIGHT strike in November 1985, and completely wrecked the TPFDL until summer of 1986. One historian thinks that if ADVENT CROWN had gone into Canada, that would have been that for the Northern Theater.

[jemhouston]

I have to ask, when did Moscow tell their commanders not to smoke the war reserve stock when deployed? The US always go for deep strikes even when it's not a good idea. I present the Doolittle Raid.

[Wolfman]

I have to ask, when did Moscow tell their commanders not to smoke the war reserve stock when deployed? The US always go for deep strikes even when it's not a good idea. I present the Doolittle Raid.

The Doolittle Raid was as much a morale boosting operation as a damage dealing operation, and in that regard, worked very well, indeed. It also made the Japanese rush the Midway Operation and we all know how that turned out.