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Farks

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  1. I took the time to translate some of the parts featuring the Viggen in the book Operation Garbo to English. I left the comments open for any suggested improvements or language errors (spelling, grammar, etc). Viggen excerpts from Operation Garbo
  2. Link to pdf It's unfortunately only available in swedish, but it does have plenty of pictures and stuff. I suppose one could take to Google Translate, but making sense of what it comes up with can be a translation job on its own. Or maybe some of us native speakers can help out if we're in the mood and asked nicely or given belly rubs, etc. :music_whistling: For the uninitiated; this book covers Swedens air attack aviation during the cold war, which includes the Viggen. The air attack units were often informally refered to as "ÖB:s Klubba", hence the book title. To quote myself from another thread: A couple of other air force books by the same author is also available for free: "Fienden i Öster" - covers swedish fighter units of the same era. "Flygvapnets Spaningsflyg" - covers swedish aerial recce units of the same era. Enjoy!
  3. The AJS 37 pylons were wired so it could carry up to four BK 90, but it affected the flight performance too much for it to be a realistic option.
  4. Since I'm a loser with no life... I mean a totally awesome dude, I took the time to translate this thing with english subtitles because why not. (remember to turn on the subtitles) This is a mockumentary depicting what Swedens involvement in a "Cold War gone hot" could have looked like. It's made using archive and stock footage, and is similair to the German film "Close To World War III" from 1998. I would love some feedback and notes on grammar, spelling, etc or the translation in general. The video will remain unlisted until potential errors are corrected (update: the video is now live).
  5. The AJ 37 (I presume JA 37 is a typo) could use the Rb 04 from the get go. This picture is slightly misleading: the AJS 37 could carry four BK 90 capsules at the same time, but the weight impacted the flight performance too much for it to be a realistic option. So two capsules became standard.
  6. Road runways are or have been fairly common around the world. What made the swedish system unique is the dispersal doctrine itself. The Bas 90 system called for dispersal both between and within bases, meaning that one wartime base would only house one or half a squadron of aircraft (1 squadron = 8 aircraft, plus some reserves) and that ground operations on a base would be spread out over a large area in and around the base. The aircraft groundcrew on a base were fully mobile, operating out of trucks and trailers, instead of being stationed at permanent flightlines and revetments.
  7. Doesn't the seeker select target(s) diagonally rather than horizontally in group targeting mode (from the seekers POV)? The new manual describes it as selecting targets horizontally. This thread and the diagrams therein describes it that way at least, unless I'm misunderstanding it. Because selecting targets horizontally could already be achieved relatively easily by simply re-aligning the aircraft towards another target after firing the first missile, as I described in this thread (shameless self promotion :music_whistling:). EDIT: Nvm, the manual seems to be correct, I'm the on who can't read.
  8. In the case of the Swedish Air Force during the cold war, no. Tank busting or other tactical missions was not part of the air-to-surface doctrine, the air units didn't train for that type of mission and neither the army or the air force had units that could call in and coordinate such strikes. Risking valuable air strike assets for the gain of maybe taking out a few armored vehicles (of an opponent that counted theirs in the thousands) was simply not economical. The AJ(S) 37 squadrons were to fly either anti-ship or interdiction missions.
  9. According to a forum post on soldf.com the Rb 75T had 135 kg of explosives in its warhead, but I don't know how reliable that info is.
  10. The Rb 75 was based on the A-version of the missile, with some seeker improvements. According to Arboga Missile Musuem, the Rb 75T weighed 295 kg compared to the 210 kg of the regular version. The Rb 05 had a 160 kg warhead.
  11. "Med Invasionen I Sikte" does hint at a possible reason for why the Viggen was only equipped with light bombs. On page 22/23 (my translation): It does also mention on page 39 that the transition to lighter bombs was indeed questioned during the time period. But as the posts above explain, the swedish plans were indeed to target bridges with Rb 05's and Mavericks. The swedish version of the Maverick was modified specifically to work better against ships and bridges. It's also possible they planned to hit bridges with a mixture of ordinance, some aircraft firing missiles and other dropping bombs. But of course it's also possible the air force perhaps misjudged these scenarios.
  12. Well, I do know. The JA 37 was a whole new development in terms of radar, avionics and other on-board systems. It was an almost completely digital aircraft compared to the other Viggen versions. In fact, the leap between the JA 37 and the AJ/SF/SH 37 is greater than the leap between the JA 37 and the JAS 39.
  13. The JA 37 was practically a new aircraft compared to the other Viggen versions, the airframe was more or less the only thing they had in common. So a making a JA 37 for DCS would mean developing it from scratch.
  14. It's been revealed after the fact that Sweden had various "under the table" arrangements with NATO. And the soviets were aware of it to some extent, or at least suspected as much. See the Catalina Affair. It's been suggested by some historians and strategists that Sweden deliberately misbalanced its armed forces, focusing on defending the southern half of the country from a seaborne invasion with aerial and naval assets (where the Viggen would play a key role) at the expense of the army. The implication being that Sweden would focus on defending its lower half and NATO would take over the defense of the upper half in order to defend its positions in northern Norway. Which makes some sense when you look at it. But it's just speculation as far as I know.
  15. Air bases in the northern most part of Sweden during the '70s and '80s, since that's the time period of interest: * 21st Air Wing (F 21) in Luleå. x2 fighter squadrons (J 35D Draken, JA 37 Viggen from 1985) and x1 recce squadron (S 35 Draken, SF/SH 37 Viggen from 1979). * Kiruna. Military and civilian airport. You can still see the military flightline positions at the southern part of the runway. * Jokkmokk. Military air base. This one was built to Bas 90 in the late '80s, adding three short runways just to the south-west of the main runway. * Vidsel. Military air base. Also built to Bas 90 in the late '80s, with two short runways just south and west of the main runway and a third one a bit further west. * Heden. Military air base. Remained Bas 60, i.e not built to Bas 90. * Piteå. Military air base. Also remained Bas 60. * Fällfors. Military air base. Built to Bas 90 in the early '80s with three short runways. * Gunnarn. Military air base. Built to Bas 90 sometime during the '80s, with one short runway just to the west and and another two to the south-east. * Åmsele. Military air base. Built to Bas 90 sometime during the '80s, with three short runways. * And there were a few road runways as well. Jokkmokk (just to the east of the main base), Vidsel (also just to the east of the main base), Långträsk and Finnträsk. The road runways were technically different from the mentioned short runways, in case you're wondering. :music_whistling: * A couple of civilian airports were earmarked for military use as well, namely Gällivare, Arvidsjaur and Skellefteå. A couple of these bases may be located a bit too far south to be included in the suggested map layouts, but I suppose its possible to cheat a little and move them for the sake of fun or something.
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