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With what engine? The Soviets don’t have an engine comparable to the J79 in the early 60s. The Lyulka AL-7 has the power - more power, in fact - but does so by being very large. The Tumansky R-11 series is too small and not powerful enough.

The Venezuelan version was, IIRC, supposed to get radar. So the best POD is to get that sale through, which would open up the purchase of the variant by others. The M53 is probably a no-go replacing the Spey. You'd get more thrust, but it appears you'd lose out on fuel consumption, and as the...

Thailand was a strong candidate to buy the plan, but financial cutbacks scuppered it and they ended up buying 18 ex-USN Corsairs instead. As far as new operators, Indonesia is a good candidate. Just need to muscle in on their Hawk 200 purchase, and you've got a good replacement for their...

Extraordinarily unlikely. Even in the event of, say, a successful Business Plot, the geopolitics of both the Nazis and Japanese are going to have the effect of pushing them away from the US.

Friendly reminder that the Gallipoli campaign is ongoing and the Entente has nothing heavier than a predreadnought covering the landings. The Italians have to keep the French occupied, but the Austrians could very well take the opportunity to try and support the Turks by hitting the landings. I...

Yes, but mostly in 1942/1943, which is when their oil stores ran out. Yes. It would almost certainly prompt Italy to pay more attention to convoy defense and ASW - they got the hang of it OTL through bitter experience, but it would be nice to shorten the learning curve going in. As far as...

Well, for one, your premise falls apart from the start. The Ye-8 was a prototype when the MiG-21 hit operational service, and was years away from actual service when the prototype exploded. And fitting the older Tumansky engines in the plane is a major retrograde step compared to the R-21 that...

The Germans figured they could get 8 13.8“ guns, 28 knots, and 13.8 inches of belt armor on 37,000 tons or so. The increase in belt armor and gun power to match KGV is going to push the German design to 40,000 tons, easy. As far as a British Scharnhorst, you’re probably looking at something...

The F-14A could fly about as far with a load of 6 500-lb bombs and no external fuel as the A-7 could in a similar configuration. The primary advantage of the F-14A over the Corsair would be that it could carry a heavier bombload and still lug external fuel tanks than the A-7. On the A-7, the...

Trident, yes, that changed the equation. But Trident took time to join the fleet. As for Poseidon, you may be correct on those range figures. I’ll need to do more cross-referencing to confirm, because my source used different range numbers for Poseidon than yours. Edit: Yeah, Wiki (and you) is...

It’s worth noting that clear to the end of the Cold War the majority of NATO boomers needed to operate to the southeast of Greenland, just past the GIUK gap, to be in range to hit Moscow. Soviet offensive plans were most likely centered upon that operational area, rather than any sort of push...

I forgot they were Portuguese, lol.

Also, the fact that the Mirages couldn’t launch Exocets. The only Argentinian aircraft that could was their small fleet of Super Etendards.

I did a little more digging on the timing - and yeah, the British battlecruisers are back in the North Sea by now. Which is bad news bears for the Entente. Until the Brits can get them back into the theater, the Italians are going to have a pretty significant scouting advantage over the Entente...

French: 4 Dreadnoughts (Courbet-class) 6 Semi-Dreadnoughts (Danton-class) 6 Armored Cruisers (2 Leon Gambetta, 2 Edgar Quinet, Jules Michelet, Ernest Renan) 17 Destroyers (11 Bouclier-class, 6 Bisson-class) Italo-Austrian 9 Dreadnoughts (Dante Alighieri, 3 Conte di Cavour class, 2 Andrea...

Nah. The lack of scouting assets, especially once the British battlecruisers are withdrawn, and their small margin of dreadnought superiority over the Italians means they'll have no interest in trying such. And, in fact, the Italians have a small window in late 1915/early 1916 where they have a...

Submarines were absolutely expected to fight other submarines. US carrier battle groups had an SSN riding shotgun for a reason: that SSN is their single best ASW asset.

Quite. I was just addressing the point that the Phantom was not, in fact, faster than the Eagle. For general maneuvering, the fact that the Eagle has the best acceleration and more power available matters more.

Bulwark was seriously considered IOTL for the Falklands but couldn't be made ready in time. As far as the Spanish Navy, it's less formidable than it sounds. Those twelve destroyers are all WW2-era gun destroyers; the only modern air defense the Spanish Navy possesses are their five...

The Pk of the Phoenix during the Iran-Iraq war, based on kill claims for the missile and the fact that the Iranians very evidently shot off their entire stock, was about 30%. Which is a significant improvement over Vietnam-era Sparrows (9.2%), but considerably lower than the post-Vietnam F and M...