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st_lawrence
Post subject: Diverging Cold War AU in FDPosted: December 8th, 2022, 4:28 am
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Joined: February 8th, 2022, 7:01 pm
Greetings everyone, and welcome to my personal AU

After some thoughts on the exact format I would use to introduce my universe, I decided to focus my first thread on aircrafts, mainly because this is the style I’m most comfortable with at the moment. But I’m not closing the door on an eventual spin into SB scale later on.

So what exactly is this AU?

Some years ago I started working on an alternate history timeline based around a different year 1708. Back then it wasn’t very much but about five years down the line let’s just say it has taken proportions I wasn’t planning on initially. My old spreadsheet now takes some time to open up, even with a decent computer.

Basically this thread is a snapshot into this timeline, set during my AU’s version of the Cold War. When I started working on it, my initial focus was on Sweden but here I’m not going to limit myself to a single country and instead I plan to give you drawings from various nations. A decent amount of lore should also be included via the development histories of each aircrafts, but if you have specific questions go ahead and ask them, I have so much stuff written I probably have some kind of answer buried somewhere.

Now, enough rambling and on with the good stuff!

***

A Diverging Cold War

Europe, 1950
[ img ]

As the Copenhagen Crisis comes to an end and the Soviet Navy ends its blocus of Zealand, the threat of a Third World War fates away, at least for the time being.

In the West, the United States are trying to use this crisis as a rally point for the democracies of Europe to strengthen their collaboration through an official military organisation, something they have been trying to do since the end of the war in 1947, but to no avail. France is rebuilding, gearing up like the rest of the continent for a new war that seems inevitable with tensions everywhere: From the ongoing and uncertain transition of Spain from a Marxist dictatorship to a semi-democratic republic, the never-ending skirmishes between the two Greek states and the progressive end to British rule in the Middle-East, to name but a few. The United Kingdom is sailing through uncharted waters, its empire nominally at its greatest historical extend, but at the same time riddled with dissidence and independence movements. At least London can count on the Imperial Parliament and the steadfast support of its Commonwealth partners.

In the East, the all-conquering Soviet Union is digesting its newly acquired lands. After the Red Army steamrolled eastern Europe and the Balkans in the summer of 1945, stabbing the Kaiser in the back while his armies were fighting the Allies in Scandinavia and France, the USSR became the third superpower, competing against the US and the UK for world supremacy. The renewed Communist Internationale, a closely-tied political-military alliance led by Moscow has a fearsome reputation, but it still has to be seen if it can rally its sometime unwilling participants to the cause of the Revolution. For the moment, Russia is sitting with the others big five at the Security Council of the League of Nations, trying like everyone else to uphold her political agenda while not triggering a new global conflict.

***

Aircrafts

Kingdom of Sweden
FFVS J 36

United States
Northrop F3T Shark


Last edited by st_lawrence on January 20th, 2023, 8:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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st_lawrence
Post subject: Re: Diverging Cold War AU in FDPosted: December 8th, 2022, 4:29 am
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Joined: February 8th, 2022, 7:01 pm
For my first entry, I decided to expand on the FFVS J 36 Näcken, which I first draw earlier this year of nestor_d's unofficial air superiority jet fighter challenge. I corrected some errors in my work and came up with a couple more versions for it. So here it goes:

FFVS J 36 Näcken
Naval fighter - Sweden - 1957

In 1954, just as Saab’s new Draken fighter was taking off, the Royal Swedish Navy was starting to look for a modern interceptor to eventually replace the navalized Lansens they were in the process of acquiring and protect the two new carriers they were planning to build. Early on in the process, Saab proposed the navy a heavily modified version of the J 35, but because of all the extra equipment required by a carrier-borne fighter, the adapted design was, already on paper, overweight and it lacked the Draken’s most attractive feature, namely its manoeuvrability. Unsatisfied, the Swedish navy started looking for a foreign design. But before a choice could be made, FFVS approached the navy with an idea of its own, based around an abandoned design they had previously drafted for a light bomber. The Swedish government had maintained the firm afloat since the war and FFVS had survived thanks to maintenance contracts and the production of licensed aircrafts like the J 28 (de Havilland Vampire and Sea Vampire) and the T 20 (English Electric Canberra). FFVS proposition's raised some concerns over the company's capacity to deliver but their design was deemed interesting enough for a prototype to be ordered.

J 36A

[ img ]

The J 36 Näcken flew for the first time on 2 May 1957 and after a series a successful trials, was ordered into production. Because the new 33,000 tons carriers of the Riksnyckeln-class were yet to be completed, the first deck landing trials took place aboard the 20,000 tons Dristigheten and Norrköping until October 1958 when an aircraft was destroyed after a failed landing on Norrköping. The crew escaped unscathed, but the trials were suspended until March 1960 when HSwMS Riksnyckeln was ready to receive the aircrafts. At this point, a full squadron of J 36 A was operational.

[ img ]

The armament usually consisted of two IR-guided Rb 24 mounted on pylons under the wings and up to four SARH Rb 28 (AIM-4F Falcon) in the missiles bay under the fuselage. When this bay was loaded with four missiles, each falcon was mounted on top of each other, separated by the rotary door with two missiles inside and two out. In 1966, the more performant Rb 27 (AIM-26B) was introduced and was adapted to the Näcken. The missile bay could also accommodate extra fuel inside of it and on later variants of the J 36, it was more common to use it in this way, with the Falcon missiles instead replaced by wing-mounted Rb 72.

J 36B

In 1961 the new B model was introduced, it featured new avionics and radar it was the first variant of the J 36 to accommodate the AIM-9 Sidewinder, known in Swedish service as the Rb 24. An infrared search and track sensor was added under the nose starting at the 101st airframe. With 228 units built, plus 22 conversions from the A model, the J 36-B would be the most-produced version of the Näcken. The J 36 first operational carrier deployement with the Swedish navy took place in the winter of 1960-1961 when the new Carrier Riksnyckeln was sent on a cruise into the Barents Sea. The ship made port calls in Denmark, Norway, Iceland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and North Germany before returning to Göteborg in late February. During these four months at sea, the new fighter proved to be an excellent asset to the Royal Swedish Navy and compared favourably with most of the British and American fighter designs that it encountered during the different excercises.

[ img ]

The FFVS J 36 was designed around a pair of Roll Royce Avon turbojets and featured a characteristic high swept-wing. The sheer power of the pair of Avons gave the Näcken a thrust-to-weight ratio of 0.9 when armed and fueled-up, better than most contemporary western fighter of the time. It allowed the Näcken to perform zoom climb and gave it excellent acceleration, even if its aerodynamics somewhat limited its top speed. It was manned by a crew of two: the pilot and the radar operator. The latter was in charge of the radar and the weapon system designed in order to require minimal ground instruction when in flight.

In the summer of 1961, it was the turn of HSwMS Gotland to enter service and Näckens first landed on July 23. A year later, between April and September 1962, HSwMS Riksnyckeln was sent alongside the battleship HSwMS Gustav V to Swedish Gold Coast in Africa to help support the ongoing transition to independence of the colonial administration. In June 1964, HSwMS Gotland was sent in emergency to the Swedish Gold Coast, now the Republic of Volta, to help the newly independent country after a failed communist coup had turned into a rebellion against the government. The J 36 carried bombing sorties against the communist rebels in Volta until December when Gotland and her complement of Näckens went back to Sweden. The rebellion would be quelled in early 1965 and civil war was averted.

[ img ]

The height of the career of the J 36 in Swedish service came during the Benin-Voltese War. In 1972, when socialist Benin invaded Volta, Näckens were once again called to Africa. As Volta was overrun and the Swedish military lost its bases of operation on the continent, HSwMS Riksnyckeln and HSwMS Gotland deployed in alternance in the Gulf of Guinea to provide close air support and air cover to the Voltese army. Facing against the Swedish Navy's J 36s were the Soviet-supplied MiG-21s and Su-7s of the People's Army air Force of Benin. Over the course of the 20 months of the war, Näckens shot down nine Beninese aircrafts (4 Su-7, 3 MiG-21, 1 C-47 and 1 An-2) and lost only one of their numbers in air-to-air combat.

J 36C

[ img ]

Starting in 1966, the Swedish Air Force also operated the Näcken. The specially-build version J 36C had received strengthened non-folding wings allowing for more and heavier ordnance to be carried. Three squadrons were equipped with the type and served until 1981. As they spent all of their carreers deployed in Finland and Northern Sweden in the quick response force, the land version of the Näcken never saw action with the Swedish Air Force. But after their retirement, the Netherlands bought two dozens airframes with reasonable flight hours and deployed them with their air force in the war in the Congo.

J 36N1 - J 36N2

In early 1958, the Dutch Navy issued specifications for a new jet fighter to replace their Hawker Sea Hawks and Sea Eagles currently flying with their naval aviation. The Dutch carrier HNLMS Conrad Helfrich had just entered drydock in Rotterdam for a massive rebuilding program that would last two and a half years and would allow her to operate modern jet aircrafts. Despite this rebuild, the Centaur-class carrier bought from the United Kingdom at the end of the Second World War was still considered somewhat cramped and the Netherlands were looking for a small aircraft that would allow more of them to be carried. FFVS officially proposed the J 36 to the Dutch government in June 1958 and in February 1959 two Näckens flew to the Netherlands to demonstrate their capabilities. The Dutch Navy liked the aircraft and two Dutch pilots were allowed to fly the J 36. Other designs were considered, most notably the Vought F-8 Crusader II and the Fairey Stingray, but the two-seats design of the J 36 was preferred to the singe-seater F-8 and its developement was more advanced than the Stingray. The J 36 Näcken was thus selected by the Dutch government in August 1959.

[ img ]

Dutch J 36s were famously involded in the Indonesian attempt to sink HNLMS Conrad Helfrich in May 1968 during the Papua War. On 21 May, Näckens and Sea Eagles from HNLMS Conrad Helfrich carried out a morning airstrike on the Indonesian landing operations near Manokwari, after which an Indonesian reconnaissance plane was able to find the carrier group. In the early afternoon, the Indonesian carried out a major air attack with Il-28 and Tu-16 bombers. During the battle, Dutch Näckens shot down eleven Indonesian aircrafts (6 Tu-16, 3 Il-28 and a single MiG-19) and damaged several others. No J 36 were lost to enemy action on that day, but their efforts did not prevented the Conrad Helfrich to be hit by an AS-5 Kelt supersonic anti-ship missile, severely damaging her and forcing the task force to retreat. The Papua War would last for another two years but Näckens only returned to the conflict in 1970 -on board the repaired HNLMS Conrad Helfrich- to protect the evacuation of Hollandia.

Like their Swedish counterparts, Dutch J 36s also saw a lot of action in Africa. In 1973 the intensification of guerilla warfare in New Holland and the open support granted by Angola to the rebels had led to an abrupt escalation of the conflict when the New Holland Air Force launched an all-out attack on Angola. In response, the Soviet Union enrolled the support of the South American Triad States to provide more direct support to Angola. Between 1974 and 1975, the New Hollander military began suffering significant setbacks, to the point they officially requested the help of the Netherlands. During the war in the Congo, the J 36 Näcken shot down 14 confirmed enemy aircrafts for a total loss of 37 aircrafts, 11 to enemy air-to-air actions, 20 from ground fire and 6 accidents. J 36s were flown by the Dutch Navy from carriers and airbases and starting in 1976 were also operated by the Dutch Air Force and later on the New Holland Air Force. While dominant in the opening stages of the conflict, the Näcken suffered from the introduction of modern Soviet fighters such as the MiG-23 and the MiG-27. The proliferation of SAM also contributed to increasing losses.

[ img ]

When New Holland collapsed in 1985, about 30 Näckens in various conditions were captured by the Congolese forces. These aircrafts came mostly from the New Holland Air Force base of Wilhelmstad but some, belonging to the Dutch Air Force, were captured on Makal airfield and it is known that two Dutch Navy J 36 were left on the ground at Muanda Air Station when the evacuation ended on August 28th. During the war in the Congo, the Dutch J 36s had accumulated flying hours to the breaking point and when the war ended, most of the surviving airframes were severely worm out. As such, most of Navy and all of Army flown J 36 were retired from service during 1985-1986. Sixteen were refurbished and kept in operation to provide air cover for the sole Dutch aircraft carrier. But with the disparition of most Dutch overseas possesions, the decision was taken to retire the old Conrad Helfrich in 1987, without a replacement. Now without a role, the last Dutch Navy Näckens were also retired the same year.

With the help of Angolan and Soviet technicians, the Congolese People's Air Force repaired a number of the captured airframes, with an estimated peak of twenty J 36 in service at the same time in the late 1980s. A single airframe was also sent to the Soviet Union for evaluation. The Congolese seems to have used the J 36 more in a ground attack role, presumably due to the incompatibility of their Western electronics with the Soviet-issued hardware Congo was using. There are at least two recorded crashes of a J 36 in Congolese service, in 1987 and in 1993, and the last operational aircrafts were reported as officially out-of-service in 1996.

J 36H

After the establishment of a new right-wing military dictatorship in 1953, the Spanish government had in the late 1950s initiated a transition away from the obsolecent Soviet military adware their military was operating with. In 1956 they had purchased F-86 Sabres from the United States and the next year, were among the first customers of the new Sud Aviation Vautour built France. Thus, in 1961 the Spanish Air Force announced it was now on the market for a new all-weather interceptor. Designs from Convair, Lockheed, FFVS and Hawker were considered and Spain would eventually settle on the FFVS J 36 in 1963. First deliveries began in 1965 and by the end of the year the Näcken was accepted into service.

[ img ]

Spanish J 36s were similar to the land-based version designed for the Swedish Air Force but dispensed entirely of the landing hook and had a different radar. The last aicraft arrived in Spain in 1968, at which point the fleet reached 57. Spanish Näckens suffered from a single accident and were well-liked by their crews. Two facts that reasured the Spanish Junta in their decision to choose the J 36 when neighbouring Portugal started operating the Lockheed F-104 in 1966 and suffered a number of fatal crashes. Although J 36s in Spanish service never saw combat, they represented the backbone of the air force and Spain's first line of defense for almost two decades. In the early 1980s, Spain selected the F-18 Hornet as its new multirole fighter. Näckens served for a time alongside the Hornet but, as greater numbers of the new fighter came into service, the last J 36s were finally retired in 1983.

J 36E

The final version of the FFVS J 36 came in 1969 when the Swedish Navy started a modernization program of their B models. This new version included the improvements introduced in previous versions like the refueling probe and the improved avionics, and added some more to it. A new, more recent, radar suite was installed and the Näcken could now be armed with the Swedish-developed Rb 72 IR and SARH missiles. Although the capacity to carry Falcons was retained, they were rarely carried in the 1970s and the bay was usually filled with fuel. The infrared scanner was modernized and a radar warning receiver was installed, the latter being long demanded by the pilots and considered a vital improvement in light of the Dutch reports coming from the Congo.

[ img ]

The modernized Näckens continued to serve the Swedish Navy for the entire 1970s, even as their replacement, the Saab Viggen, was entering service. In 1982, the three squadrons still flying the Näcken (MF 100, MF 160 and MF 190) were merged into MF 190, which flew the J 36 until its final retirement from active service in September 1984.

Specifications for J 36E Näcken

General characteristics
Crew: 2
Lenght: 49 ft 6 in (15.07 m)
Wingspan: 27 ft 5 in (8.37 m)
Height: 13 ft 8 in (4.13 m)
Empty weight: 22,930 lb (10,401 kg)
Gross weight: 37,580 lb (17,046 kg)
Max Takeoff weight: 42,820 lb (19,423 kg)
Powerplant: Two Svenska Flygmotor RM6C afterburning turbojet engines, 12,700 lbf (56 kN) thrust each dry, 17,600 lbf (78 kN) with afterburner

Performance
Max speed: 1,500 mph (2,414 km/h, 1,303 kn) at 35,000 ft (10,668 m)
Combat range: 684 mi (1,100 km, 594 nmi)
Ceiling: 60,000 ft (18,288 m)
Rate of climb: 31,500 ft/min (160 m/s)
Thrust-to-weight ratio: 0.9 at gross weight

Armament
Missiles: Up to four Rb 72 IR and SARH air-to-air missiles on wing-mounted hardpoints
Bombs: Up to 12,000 lb of ordnance


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Cruz-del-Delta
Post subject: Re: Diverging Cold War AU in FDPosted: December 20th, 2022, 10:53 pm
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Posts: 8
Joined: September 8th, 2018, 3:28 pm
st_lawrence wrote: *
For my first entry, I decided to expand on the FFVS J 36 Näcken, which I first draw earlier this year of nestor_d's unofficial air superiority jet fighter challenge. I corrected some errors in my work and came up with a couple more versions for it. So here it goes:

FFVS J 36 Näcken
Naval fighter - Sweden - 1957

In 1954, just as Saab’s new Draken fighter was taking off, the Royal Swedish Navy was starting to look for a modern interceptor to eventually replace the navalized Lansens they were in the process of acquiring and protect the two new carriers they were planning to build. Early on in the process, Saab proposed the navy a heavily modified version of the J 35, but because of all the extra equipment required by a carrier-borne fighter, the adapted design was, already on paper, overweight and it lacked the Draken’s most attractive feature, namely its manoeuvrability. Unsatisfied, the Swedish navy started looking for a foreign design. But before a choice could be made, FFVS approached the navy with an idea of its own, based around an abandoned design they had previously drafted for a light bomber. The Swedish government had maintained the firm afloat since the war and FFVS had survived thanks to maintenance contracts and the production of licensed aircrafts like the J 28 (de Havilland Vampire and Sea Vampire) and the T 20 (English Electric Canberra). FFVS proposition's raised some concerns over the company's capacity to deliver but their design was deemed interesting enough for a prototype to be ordered.

J 36A

[ img ]

The J 36 Näcken flew for the first time on 2 May 1957 and after a series a successful trials, was ordered into production. Because the new 33,000 tons carriers of the Riksnyckeln-class were yet to be completed, the first deck landing trials took place aboard the 20,000 tons Dristigheten and Norrköping until October 1958 when an aircraft was destroyed after a failed landing on Norrköping. The crew escaped unscathed, but the trials were suspended until March 1960 when HSwMS Riksnyckeln was ready to receive the aircrafts. At this point, a full squadron of J 36 A was operational.

[ img ]

The armament usually consisted of two IR-guided Rb 24 mounted on pylons under the wings and up to four SARH Rb 28 (AIM-4F Falcon) in the missiles bay under the fuselage. When this bay was loaded with four missiles, each falcon was mounted on top of each other, separated by the rotary door with two missiles inside and two out. In 1966, the more performant Rb 27 (AIM-26B) was introduced and was adapted to the Näcken. The missile bay could also accommodate extra fuel inside of it and on later variants of the J 36, it was more common to use it in this way, with the Falcon missiles instead replaced by wing-mounted Rb 72.

J 36B

In 1961 the new B model was introduced, it featured new avionics and radar it was the first variant of the J 36 to accommodate the AIM-9 Sidewinder, known in Swedish service as the Rb 24. An infrared search and track sensor was added under the nose starting at the 101st airframe. With 228 units built, plus 22 conversions from the A model, the J 36-B would be the most-produced version of the Näcken. The J 36 first operational carrier deployement with the Swedish navy took place in the winter of 1960-1961 when the new Carrier Riksnyckeln was sent on a cruise into the Barents Sea. The ship made port calls in Denmark, Norway, Iceland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and North Germany before returning to Göteborg in late February. During these four months at sea, the new fighter proved to be an excellent asset to the Royal Swedish Navy and compared favourably with most of the British and American fighter designs that it encountered during the different excercises.

[ img ]

The FFVS J 36 was designed around a pair of Roll Royce Avon turbojets and featured a characteristic high swept-wing. The sheer power of the pair of Avons gave the Näcken a thrust-to-weight ratio of 0.9 when armed and fueled-up, better than most contemporary western fighter of the time. It allowed the Näcken to perform zoom climb and gave it excellent acceleration, even if its aerodynamics somewhat limited its top speed. It was manned by a crew of two: the pilot and the radar operator. The latter was in charge of the radar and the weapon system designed in order to require minimal ground instruction when in flight.

In the summer of 1961, it was the turn of HSwMS Gotland to enter service and Näckens first landed on July 23. A year later, between April and September 1962, HSwMS Riksnyckeln was sent alongside the battleship HSwMS Gustav V to Swedish Gold Coast in Africa to help support the ongoing transition to independence of the colonial administration. In June 1964, HSwMS Gotland was sent in emergency to the Swedish Gold Coast, now the Republic of Volta, to help the newly independent country after a failed communist coup had turned into a rebellion against the government. The J 36 carried bombing sorties against the communist rebels in Volta until December when Gotland and her complement of Näckens went back to Sweden. The rebellion would be quelled in early 1965 and civil war was averted.

[ img ]

The height of the career of the J 36 in Swedish service came during the Benin-Voltese War. In 1972, when socialist Benin invaded Volta, Näckens were once again called to Africa. As Volta was overrun and the Swedish military lost its bases of operation on the continent, HSwMS Riksnyckeln and HSwMS Gotland deployed in alternance in the Gulf of Guinea to provide close air support and air cover to the Voltese army. Facing against the Swedish Navy's J 36s were the Soviet-supplied MiG-21s and Su-7s of the People's Army air Force of Benin. Over the course of the 20 months of the war, Näckens shot down nine Beninese aircrafts (4 Su-7, 3 MiG-21, 1 C-47 and 1 An-2) and lost only one of their numbers in air-to-air combat.

J 36C

[ img ]

Starting in 1966, the Swedish Air Force also operated the Näcken. The specially-build version J 36C had received strengthened non-folding wings allowing for more and heavier ordnance to be carried. Three squadrons were equipped with the type and served until 1981. As they spent all of their carreers deployed in Finland and Northern Sweden in the quick response force, the land version of the Näcken never saw action with the Swedish Air Force. But after their retirement, the Netherlands bought two dozens airframes with reasonable flight hours and deployed them with their air force in the war in the Congo.

J 36N1 - J 36N2

In early 1958, the Dutch Navy issued specifications for a new jet fighter to replace their Hawker Sea Hawks and Sea Eagles currently flying with their naval aviation. The Dutch carrier HNLMS Conrad Helfrich had just entered drydock in Rotterdam for a massive rebuilding program that would last two and a half years and would allow her to operate modern jet aircrafts. Despite this rebuild, the Centaur-class carrier bought from the United Kingdom at the end of the Second World War was still considered somewhat cramped and the Netherlands were looking for a small aircraft that would allow more of them to be carried. FFVS officially proposed the J 36 to the Dutch government in June 1958 and in February 1959 two Näckens flew to the Netherlands to demonstrate their capabilities. The Dutch Navy liked the aircraft and two Dutch pilots were allowed to fly the J 36. Other designs were considered, most notably the Vought F-8 Crusader II and the Fairey Stingray, but the two-seats design of the J 36 was preferred to the singe-seater F-8 and its developement was more advanced than the Stingray. The J 36 Näcken was thus selected by the Dutch government in August 1959.

[ img ]

Dutch J 36s were famously involded in the Indonesian attempt to sink HNLMS Conrad Helfrich in May 1968 during the Papua War. On 21 May, Näckens and Sea Eagles from HNLMS Conrad Helfrich carried out a morning airstrike on the Indonesian landing operations near Manokwari, after which an Indonesian reconnaissance plane was able to find the carrier group. In the early afternoon, the Indonesian carried out a major air attack with Il-28 and Tu-16 bombers. During the battle, Dutch Näckens shot down eleven Indonesian aircrafts (6 Tu-16, 3 Il-28 and a single MiG-19) and damaged several others. No J 36 were lost to enemy action on that day, but their efforts did not prevented the Conrad Helfrich to be hit by an AS-5 Kelt supersonic anti-ship missile, severely damaging her and forcing the task force to retreat. The Papua War would last for another two years but Näckens only returned to the conflict in 1970 -on board the repaired HNLMS Conrad Helfrich- to protect the evacuation of Hollandia.

Like their Swedish counterparts, Dutch J 36s also saw a lot of action in Africa. In 1973 the intensification of guerilla warfare in New Holland and the open support granted by Angola to the rebels had led to an abrupt escalation of the conflict when the New Holland Air Force launched an all-out attack on Angola. In response, the Soviet Union enrolled the support of the South American Triad States to provide more direct support to Angola. Between 1974 and 1975, the New Hollander military began suffering significant setbacks, to the point they officially requested the help of the Netherlands. During the war in the Congo, the J 36 Näcken shot down 14 confirmed enemy aircrafts for a total loss of 37 aircrafts, 11 to enemy air-to-air actions, 20 from ground fire and 6 accidents. J 36s were flown by the Dutch Navy from carriers and airbases and starting in 1976 were also operated by the Dutch Air Force and later on the New Holland Air Force. While dominant in the opening stages of the conflict, the Näcken suffered from the introduction of modern Soviet fighters such as the MiG-23 and the MiG-27. The proliferation of SAM also contributed to increasing losses.

[ img ]

When New Holland collapsed in 1985, about 30 Näckens in various conditions were captured by the Congolese forces. These aircrafts came mostly from the New Holland Air Force base of Wilhelmstad but some, belonging to the Dutch Air Force, were captured on Makal airfield and it is known that two Dutch Navy J 36 were left on the ground at Muanda Air Station when the evacuation ended on August 28th. During the war in the Congo, the Dutch J 36s had accumulated flying hours to the breaking point and when the war ended, most of the surviving airframes were severely worm out. As such, most of Navy and all of Army flown J 36 were retired from service during 1985-1986. Sixteen were refurbished and kept in operation to provide air cover for the sole Dutch aircraft carrier. But with the disparition of most Dutch overseas possesions, the decision was taken to retire the old Conrad Helfrich in 1987, without a replacement. Now without a role, the last Dutch Navy Näckens were also retired the same year.

With the help of Angolan and Soviet technicians, the Congolese People's Air Force repaired a number of the captured airframes, with an estimated peak of twenty J 36 in service at the same time in the late 1980s. A single airframe was also sent to the Soviet Union for evaluation. The Congolese seems to have used the J 36 more in a ground attack role, presumably due to the incompatibility of their Western electronics with the Soviet-issued hardware Congo was using. There are at least two recorded crashes of a J 36 in Congolese service, in 1987 and in 1993, and the last operational aircrafts were reported as officially out-of-service in 1996.

J 36H

After the establishment of a new right-wing military dictatorship in 1953, the Spanish government had in the late 1950s initiated a transition away from the obsolecent Soviet military adware their military was operating with. In 1956 they had purchased F-86 Sabres from the United States and the next year, were among the first customers of the new Sud Aviation Vautour built France. Thus, in 1961 the Spanish Air Force announced it was now on the market for a new all-weather interceptor. Designs from Convair, Lockheed, FFVS and Hawker were considered and Spain would eventually settle on the FFVS J 36 in 1963. First deliveries began in 1965 and by the end of the year the Näcken was accepted into service.

[ img ]

Spanish J 36s were similar to the land-based version designed for the Swedish Air Force but dispensed entirely of the landing hook and had a different radar. The last aicraft arrived in Spain in 1968, at which point the fleet reached 57. Spanish Näckens suffered from a single accident and were well-liked by their crews. Two facts that reasured the Spanish Junta in their decision to choose the J 36 when neighbouring Portugal started operating the Lockheed F-104 in 1966 and suffered a number of fatal crashes. Although J 36s in Spanish service never saw combat, they represented the backbone of the air force and Spain's first line of defense for almost two decades. In the early 1980s, Spain selected the F-18 Hornet as its new multirole fighter. Näckens served for a time alongside the Hornet but, as greater numbers of the new fighter came into service, the last J 36s were finally retired in 1983.

J 36E

The final version of the FFVS J 36 came in 1969 when the Swedish Navy started a modernization program of their B models. This new version included the improvements introduced in previous versions like the refueling probe and the improved avionics, and added some more to it. A new, more recent, radar suite was installed and the Näcken could now be armed with the Swedish-developed Rb 72 IR and SARH missiles. Although the capacity to carry Falcons was retained, they were rarely carried in the 1970s and the bay was usually filled with fuel. The infrared scanner was modernized and a radar warning receiver was installed, the latter being long demanded by the pilots and considered a vital improvement in light of the Dutch reports coming from the Congo.

[ img ]

The modernized Näckens continued to serve the Swedish Navy for the entire 1970s, even as their replacement, the Saab Viggen, was entering service. In 1982, the three squadrons still flying the Näcken (MF 100, MF 160 and MF 190) were merged into MF 190, which flew the J 36 until its final retirement from active service in September 1984.

Specifications for J 36E Näcken

General characteristics
Crew: 2
Lenght: 49 ft 6 in (15.07 m)
Wingspan: 27 ft 5 in (8.37 m)
Height: 13 ft 8 in (4.13 m)
Empty weight: 22,930 lb (10,401 kg)
Gross weight: 37,580 lb (17,046 kg)
Max Takeoff weight: 42,820 lb (19,423 kg)
Powerplant: Two Svenska Flygmotor RM6C afterburning turbojet engines, 12,700 lbf (56 kN) thrust each dry, 17,600 lbf (78 kN) with afterburner

Performance
Max speed: 1,500 mph (2,414 km/h, 1,303 kn) at 35,000 ft (10,668 m)
Combat range: 684 mi (1,100 km, 594 nmi)
Ceiling: 60,000 ft (18,288 m)
Rate of climb: 31,500 ft/min (160 m/s)
Thrust-to-weight ratio: 0.9 at gross weight

Armament
Missiles: Up to four Rb 72 IR and SARH air-to-air missiles on wing-mounted hardpoints
Bombs: Up to 12,000 lb of ordnance
I really like the design but why would sweden adopt carriers in this au?


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st_lawrence
Post subject: Re: Diverging Cold War AU in FDPosted: December 21st, 2022, 8:34 pm
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Thank you! I always liked the Crusader and I wanted to explore the possibility of a similar aircraft more focused on the all-weather interception role. I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out.

As for the Swedish carriers. The thread is focused on the Cold War area but since this timeline diverges from ours in the early 19th century, a lot of stuff happens in the intervening time. In short, by the 1910s, Sweden is still an influentional European power. (As an example: in the AU, WW1 is triggered by Swedish-Russians tensions in the Baltics States.) Not a great power, but something akin to Italy during the same period: befriended the Germans, hostile to Russia, small but modern fleet and minor colonies in Africa. So the Swedish navy follows the trend and starts operating seaplane tenders in the 1920s, then aircraft-carrying cruisers in the 1930s. During WW2 their first true aircraft carrier is quickly sunk but postwar they built a pair of light carriers out of unifished cruiser hulls and then two larger ones closer in size to Clemenceau and Foch of the French navy. In this AU, during the Cold War, Sweden very much maintains a true blue water fleet, albeit a small one. Both to protect her overseas interests and to serve as a deterrent against Russia.


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st_lawrence
Post subject: Re: Diverging Cold War AU in FDPosted: January 20th, 2023, 8:35 pm
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Second entry, again taken from a challenge submission, this time the Falklands War light naval attack aircraft. I made a few changes my design -thanks to the feedback from everyone after the challenge- and at the same I tried to keep it in the spirit of my original idea which broadly was "how small can I make it?" It takes inspiration from the different designs pitched by Northrop during the elaboration of the N-156, the real F-5, and combines a couple of them togheter. Without further ado, here's the American version of the Folland Gnat, the F-7 Shark:

Northrop F3T/F-7 Shark
Naval fighter - United States - 1957

During the early part of the 1950s, the United States Navy had developed a new anti-submarine doctrine to protect the North Atrantic sea lanes in the event of a conflict with the Soviet Union. Dedicated task forces, based around light carriers would represent the backbone of this new doctrine. The idea was to retain the Essex and Midway classes for frontline fleet duties while the light carriers focused on fighting Soviet submarines. Three Independence and five Saipan class CVLs were modernised and deployed for this new role. The small size of the light carriers however soon proved to be a challenge, and already in 1953 the Independences were retired from service because their short decks couldn't handle modern F9F jet fighters, thus limiting them to piston-engined aircrafts, an unacceptable trade off in the face of the powerful and increasingly numerous Soviet surface fleet. The larger Saipans, capable to handle Panthers and Cougars remained in service but it was obvious to the US Navy that a new dedicated light fighter would be needed in the future. It was Northrop that would answer the call with their N-156 lightweight carrier fighter.

F3T1 / F-7A

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Designed around a pair of the new (and very small) General Electric J85 engine, Northrop's new fighter first flew on 22 September 1957 and was met with a lot of enthusiasm by both the navy staff and the company's management. Indeed, the small jet performed very well and seemed to have lots of potential to exploit, particularly on the export market given its simplicity, small size and reduced cost. The N-156 was accepted by the US Navy and ordered into production under the designation F3T Shark. Fast and nimble, the Shark proved to be able to achieve transonic speeds at altitude and to carry a pair of 1,000 pounds bombs under its wings. In fact, at the time, it exceeded in performance the latest Russian carrier fighter, the Lavochkin La-17, albeit at the cost of range. The F3T had only a limited internal capacity in fuel, with two small separate tanks behind the pilot between the engine air intakes and even smaller tanks in the root of each wing. Heat was also a problem, with the two engines closely spaced in the back of the short fuselage, and Shark pilots -especially when flying in tropical weather- always had to monitor their engines temperature to avoid overheating them.

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The service of the F3T1 with the US Navy was famously short. In fact, to this day the Shark still holds the record of the shortest-lived frontline fighter of the US Navy. If we ignore the training and integration phase, the F3T was in active service for only eight months between April and December 1959 with VA-151 'Vigilantes', the only operational squadron to complete its adoption of the type. This comically short carreer is not however due to dissatisfactory performances of the Shark in frontline units, it is rather linked to budget cuts and the decision of the US government to scrap its light carrier program. VA-151 itself made a single deployment aboard USS Curtiss between April and July 1959 before the carrier was paid off in September and the squadron dissolved three months later.

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All was not lost however for the Northrop fighter. In 1958, the Chinese government had ordered a batch of 23 F3T1 to equip its aircraft carrier Zhenyuan (the former Saipan-class USS Wright), then undergoing a complete rebuild in the US. The following year, the Sino-American Split of 1959 brought down the whole deal, and the US government quickly seized both the carrier and the fighters. At the same time down in South America, the Argentine Navy had been looking for a replacement for its own carrier, the barely-modernized, strait-decked, ARA Independencia, former HMS Warrior. Britain had offered the possibily to bring the carrier to the UK and refit it with modern equipments such as a steam catapult and an angled flight deck but the US soon offered an alternative: the modernized Zhenyuan with a modern air complement included. The Argentine government accepted the deal and in 1963 the carrier, renamed ARA Veinticinco de Mayo entered service with the Armada Argentina equipped with Northrop Shark jet fighters, Grumman Tracker ASW patrol aircrafts and Sikorsky Sea King helicopters.

F3T2 / F-7B

In 1959, just before the US government cancelled its F3T order, Northrop was a very busy place. The company was both marketing the Shark to foreign governments and beginning fly tests of its newest design derived from it, the F-5 Tiger. The Northrop Corporation placed a lot of hope in this new privately-funded design but also needed to sell more of the "old" Shark to sustain the development of the Tiger. As such, their had designed a new land-based version, the F3T2, that replaced the large tailhook designed for carrier ops with a smaller one, had fixed wings and was fitted with a different landing gear. All these modifications had the advantage to make this new F3T2 considerably lighter.

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Northrop's next customer would turn out to be Mexico. The Mexican Air Force, flying a collections of early jet fighters like the De Havilland Vampire, Lockheed Shooting Star and North American Sabre needed a new modern aircraft to counter the MiG-17s recently acquired by communist Colombia. In turn, the US government was keen to help its closest ally in the region, especially in the face of the collapse of social order in the Central American Federation, where incursions by Colombian revolutionnaries threaten to trigger a civil war. Mexico thus became the largest operator of the Shark, purchasing 54 F3T1, delivered in 1960, and 82 F3T2, delivered between late 1960 and early 1962. In the meantime, the introduction of the 1962 Tri-Service aircraft designation system in the United-States officially changed the designation of the Northrop Shark from F3T to F-7 (the reverse numerical order with its successor, the F-5 Tiger, being due to the fact the Tiger already had its designation assigned at the time of the introduction of the new designation system). F3T1 became F-7A and F3T2, F-7B.

Mexican Sharks would go on to serve brilliantly during the Centroamerican Revolution. From the beginning of the war in 1969 to its conclusion in 1984, they flew a third of all of the Mexican Air Force sorties during the conflict, mostly dropping iron bombs and napalm tanks but also performing fighter cover on occasion, notably during the first years of the war when Mexico had only a handful of F-5 Tigers to perform the role. During those years, Mexican pilots managed to shoot down ten MiGs, making them the most successful users of the F-7 in air-to-air engagements. Mexico retired its Sharks in 1989, after almost 30 years of service. With a fleet that never exceeded 125 aircrafts in service at the same time and 15 years of uninterrupted wartime operations, it truly is a testament to the ruggedness and the quality of Northrop's design.

F3T3 / F-7C

Back in 1958, at a time when the light carrier fighter program was still actively pursured, the US Navy had requested from Northrop a radar-equipped design to allow for a minimum of all-weather capacity. The idea had been abandonned in 1959 by the navy but Northrop had not completely shelved the project, keeping in mind that such a fighter could very well become interesting to foreign navies operating small aircraft carriers. In 1960, with the production of the T-33 Talon ramping up and the F-5 project up and running, Northrop turned back to the Shark and decided to complete the work initiated on the third variant of the F3T. The F3T3 first flew in 1961, only to be redesignated F-7C the next year even though the US military never operated the type. Equiped with a more powerful version of the J85 and a marginal fuel capacity increase in the wings, the distinctive feature of this new version was the nose-mounted radar. It was a small, very simple, short-range, fire-control radar developped by Emerson Electric, destined to help the pilot during interception missions. It couldn't rival with the interception radars of the Demon or Skyray, but it could provide a small navy with an improved air-to-air capability.

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The F-7C was proposed to a number of countries and the first to order it were the Argentines, who also later ordered A-4 Skyhawks as part of an increase of their naval aviation corps during the early 1970s. Then followed the Mexican Air Force, with a small order of six aircrafts to be operated from their land bases. Mexican pilots found the C model too heavy compared to their lightened B version and never used it on the frontlines in Central America. Finally the final customer was Brazil, who bought thirty F-7Cs and operated them from their aircraft carrier Minas Gerais.

During the 1982 Falklands War between Britain and Argentina, the Argentine military had eighteen F-7 in Navy service (eight A and ten C models) as well as ten B models in Air Force service. Against the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm, the Argentine Sharks would suffer heavily. During the 1st of May Battle, where the Armada Argentina and the Royal Navy fought the first -and so far only- carrier versus carrier naval battle since the end of the Second World War in 1946, the F-7 played a central role. Six F-7Cs armed with 250 pounds bombs and AIM-9 missiles were tasked with escorting the Argentine strike composed of four A-4MQ and six A-4P Skyhawks and six more F-7A Sharks. The British pilots, flying their vintage but far superior Fairey Stingrays, and the SAMs of the fleet inflicted important losses to the attackers, breaking their formation repelling them. On the other hand, Britain's own attack on the Argentine carrier was a lot more successful, sinking it and eliminating its entire airgroup. The Argentine Air Force F-7s were used later in the conflict, but lost only two of their number. After the war, to make up for its losses, Argentina bought the five remaining Mexican F-7Cs and maintained the Shark in service for the next decade.

F-7CM

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In the late 1970s Northrop had, in collaboration with Brazil and Argentina, initiated a life-extension programme for their fleet of F-7Cs. This programme led to the F-7CM, a modernized version of the C model equipped with a new AN/APQ-157 radar (later upgraded again to AN/APQ-159), an IR-scanner, flares dispensers, new electronics and a radar warning receiver. Brazil modernized twenty-three of its aircrafts to the new standard between 1982 and 1984 and Argentina, with a programme delayed by the war, followed in 1984-1985 with ten modernized Sharks. Brazil replaced its F-7s by F-18 Hornets in 1994 with the arrival of the new carrier Sao Paulo and Argentina continued to operate the F-7CM until 1999. It is worth noting that Brazilian Sharks flying from Minas Gerais, even though they were never engaged in a full scale conflict, had a single encounter with frontline actions in 1989 when three of them shot down a pair of Venezuelian MiG-21 during the Orinoco Delta Incident.

T-36A & T-36B

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Early in the development process of the F3T, Northrop had decided to produce a training version of its new aircraft. This trainer, designated T-36, removed the fuel tank behind the pilot and replaced it with a second seat placed in tandem. The already limited range of the Shark was thus even more reduced, but this was mitigated by the systematic use of the central hardpoint for an external fuel tank and the downrating of the J85 engines. In US Navy service, the T-36 had a long and prolific carreer, serving a the main advanced trainer of the navy until the late 1980s and even then, managed to endure in limited service until 1995. It was also used as an agressor aircraft, albeit in smaller numbers and for a shorter time than its F-5/T-33 cousins still in use today.

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Its land-based sibling, the T-36B, did not serve with the US military, but instead was flown by U.S. allies around the world and provided student pilots in these air forces with a modern aircraft to familiarize themselves with the new generation of jet fighters. Among the customers were of course Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, but also Norway, the Southern Philippines, Italy and Turkey, the latter of which is the largest overseas client of the T-36 and is still flying it as of 2020.

Specifications for the F-7C Shark

General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 36 ft 9 in (11.20 m)
Wingspan (without missiles): 24 ft 8 in (7.5 m)
Height: 8 ft 2 in (2.5 m)
Empty weight: 5,980 lb (2,713 kg)
Gross weight: 10,247 lb (4,648 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 11,875 lb (5,386 kg)
Powerplant: 2 x General Electric J85-GE-5A afterburning turbojet engines, 2,680 lbf (12 kN) thrust each dry, 3,850 lbf (17 kN) with afterburner

Performance
Max speed: Mach 1.1 (854 mph; 1,375 km/h; 742 kn) at 34,000 ft (10,360 m)
Combat range: 262 nmi (300 km; 186 mi) with two sidewinders and external fuel tanks
Ceilling: 41,000 ft (12,500 m)
Rate of climb: 29,000 ft/min (146 m/s)

Armament and avionics
Guns: 1 or 2 x 20 mm Colt Mk 12 cannon with 60 rounds per gun (portside gun can be removed and relaced with a refueling probe)
Hardpoints: one centerline and two underwings, plus two wingtips pylons
Bombs and missiles: up to 2,500 pounds (1,580 kg) of ordnance, including various bomb types and AIM-9 sidewinder air-to-air missiles
Radar: AN/APQ-153 fire-control radar


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