The SMSWorld

[Colosseum]

Thanks! I think I'll stick with Aufklärungsgeschwader for AEW&C, and go with the Luftbetankungsgeschwader for tankers. I need to also provide the Staffel numbers in these drawings as I remember eswube explaining that "geschwader" translates to the English "wing" and is composed of "Staffels" (akin to USAF/RAF squadrons).

[eswube]

@Colosseum
Great work on paint schemes.

@Cascadia
I just got an idea, that maybe for AWACS unit a term "Früherkennung" (lit. Early Detection) could work? (Just a loose idea - after all, German is not my native language)

Perhaps it should be noted, that in post-war Luftwaffe the (ground-based) EW radar units are euphemistically named as "Fernmelde" (roughly "long-range reporting") units.

[Colosseum]

Thanks guys.

A final one for today, the Tu-22M3 Backfire (in the SMSWorld fiction, built by Saeil Aeronautics in Hanseom) as operated by Valmiero during a small war with North Point. The scheme is from an Argentine Canberra flown during the Falklands War (roughly akin to the fictional war between Valmiero and NP):

[Kattsun]

Air defense systems of the Principality of Galla:

- Short range (<10 km)

Battalion: Air defense in battalions is the responsibility of the battalion HQ, which has a section of missile troops, consisting of three two-man Stinger missile teams and their carriers.
- Pbv 25196 with RBS 96 team and quad launcher on turret. It's literally a stretched Linebacker, but I might give it a gun radar like Lvkv 9040.
- The real air defense at short range in a battalion is the air defense missile team, which is two guys with a FIM-92 CLU and some Stinger missiles. Sometimes they're carried in a badass tank like in that picture, but most of the time they ride in special HMMWVs with Stinger missiles on the back, either using the Vought Crossbow or just boxes with Stinger missiles stored and a CLU in the passenger's lap.

Regiment (Brigade): Brigades are the next largest component of a Gallan division, and they have one air defense artillery battery in them, with two platoons each of cannon and missile air defense vehicles.
- A generic ZSU-23-4/SA-13 combination. The GE Blazer ripoff has a range-only radar in some versions (i.e. 9S86 Snap Shot or AN/VPS-2) on the near side of the turret, but not the one shown because I haven't gotten around to drawing that yet. I will eventually. The far side always has a Stinger missile box. Additional ammunition is carried in the vehicle itself. The turret has two crewmen, a gunner and a commander, and the driver lives inside the hull.
- The Chaparral has four AIM-95s on missile rails, and an extra eight rounds carried underneath the pedestal launcher. It is mounted on the XM1108 universal carrier, a sort of supercharged M548 carrier, but with the 6V92 instead of the M113's actual 6V52 as part of a RISE-type package that replaces the powerpack with the same from M8 AGS. Sometimes it also has a range-only radar mounted on top of the pedestal, but that is probably a recent upgrade that moves the operator from the turret to the cab.

This replaces the M163/MIM-72 combinations that lived in Gallan units for a long time, so it's probably pretty scattershot in who has received the new equipment.

- Medium range (10-30 km)

Separate Regiment: Sep. regiments are regiments which are not part of brigades. Generally these are part of a Corps and have their own air defense and logistics support equivalent to what would be provided to a regiment/brigade if they had a parent division.
- The Lvrpbv 2517 complex is basically Bradley Crotale, but worse. It has a 1S91-type radar carrier that incorporates a fire control illuminator and a medium-range air search radar. In more modern vehicles, the paraboloid antenna has been replaced by a mechanically rotated AESA. The carrier itself just has a Crotale Shahine type launcher for its AIM-152 (MIM?) missiles.

Division: Divisions are the largest tactical unit in the Gallan Army and have a single air defense artillery battalion equipped with a full suite of air defense systems.
- Lvrpbv 25114 is basically a RIM-66 fired from a Kub-like missile rail on the back of a Bradley. It's directed by a medium-range PESA acquisition radar (9S18 Snow Drift) and a STIR serves as the fire control illuminator component. The most advanced versions dispense with the STIR in favour of a combined acquisition/fire control AESA and a modified missile. The most advanced missiles for both versions incorporate a backup imaging infrared seeker for high ECM environments, like the AIM-152 or RIM-66M.

- Long range (>30 km)

Corps: The corps is the smallest operational level unit in the Gallan Army, generally controlling several brigades, a separate regiment, and three or four mechanized/armoured divisions. It has an air defense brigade with two to four long-range missile battalions.
- Lvrpbv 15114 is essentially MIM-104 in operation. It has a single fire control/acquisition radar on a self propelled carrier, which uses TVM to guide its suspiciously RIM-156A looking missile to the target. It is, confusingly, not related at all to Lvrpbv 25114. It originally was, and I tried to draw a good looking radar vehicle for it, but I couldn't. I may give it something dumb, like a STIR on the carrier, though.

Front: The front is the largest permanent organization of the Gallan Army. It controls several Corps, and integrates the air-ground battle of the corps divisions and the Army Aviation regiments, as well as having the longest range artillery (including WMDs), responsibility for deep attack missions, and longest range air defense systems.
- Lvrpbv 15112 is a long-range air defense system that performs a similar role to S-400. The Gallan Army has two battalions of these long-range air defense systems, but it would ideally like three, and the large Typhon lookalike has a range of something slightly over 400 km. It is intended for destroying ISR aircraft like AWACS and Joint STARS and medium and short-range ballistic missiles. The long-range RIM-67 lookalike is probably closer to 200 km in range and meant for "general use" against aviation. I'm not entirely convinced of the seriousness of the SPG-62-on-a-tank though, I may delete that in favour of a more boring "large PESA panel on a tank" and put a large-ish CW illuminator on the the tank itself, or just have the PESA do both jobs like MPQ-53/65. The SPS-48-on-a-tank stays because it is very cute and important for early warning. It may be complimented by an SPS-49-on-a-tank as Galla's equivalent of 1S12 Long Track.

[Colosseum]

Time for the F-4s...

[Colosseum]

... and work has started on the F-18s...

[Obsydian Shade]

Question I forgot to ask you last time you did Phantoms...have you considered a variant based on the Phantom CCV? We actually have that aircraft at the NMUSAF here in Dayton. Otherwise, as you proved with the F-2, everything is sexier with canards.

[Colosseum]

Interesting, I had never seen that before. I might make a version of it as an "improved" Phantom FGR.4 that gets proposed in the 1990s. As it stands though, the F-18 basically replaces all the F-4 Phantoms in service by the year 2000. Only Questers (the large but poor Commonwealth country) continues to operate F-4s past 2010. Praetonia and North Point (the smaller but wealthier and more advanced Commonwealth countries) have since retired their F-4s and replaced them with F-18s for the navy and either F-2s or the Wentworth Mosquito (a sort of Eurofighter-meets-F15E aircraft that I think may have been posted earlier on in this thread) by 2010.

Anyway, added a new KC-135E scheme based on the "Orca" USAF scheme from the 1980s:

[Colosseum]

The first of the carrier wing aircraft:

[pegasus206]

Again realy great work Colo. I realy love this AU