Armoured Reconnaissance Vehicle

The ARV combined Vehicle?

It is strange how in modern warfare the Main battle tanks are being replaced by a newer battlefield multirole vehicle that combines the armoured car, and armoured personnel carrier with a smaller fire power than the tank and on at least six wheels.

The U.S. LAV and the Swiss MOWAG with the Finnish SISU are the bases of a new range of ARV, they being more an APC with addons?  Experience worldwide has seen the demise of the armoured car and the APC apart from para-military security operations and some UN work.

The ARV will not fully replace the MBT as yet, but robotic and drone vehicles of various types under development and secret trials probably will?

What this new generation of armour provides is the transportation of specialised troops, light artillery and rocket power combined with speed and maneuverability and much computerised and military satellite software for more accurate aiming of moving as well as static targets! 

The Peoples Republic of China, N-Korea and Russia have also developed their own versions along side their traditional fleets and newer versions of their mobile missile sytems?

Spains Long-standing Military Industry! Part-One.

Casa aviation to ground Vehicles.

Not many people know much about Spain and their exhaustive arms industry, the Casa corporation with the famous CN-212 transport an the Avio-Jet are perhaps its most know fame?

But co-operation with Indonesia has been a success in producing the widely exported Casa-Nuranto CN-235 and its larger variant the 265 medium transport and maritime reconnaissance aircraft!

But there is much more to Spain's arms industry with a extensive shipbuilding and both arms and vehicle industries. Spain has always been a European power to be faced with since the 14th Century, with the Spanish Armada and colonial expansion into the Americas!

Rockwell/North-America A-10 Bronco. Part-One.

Origins of!

The appearance of the A-10 Bronco of  the Vietnam war 1967-74 was an amazing site at this years Wales National Air show in Swansea (WNAS16), but I knew that I had seen something similar in aviation books about World-War-II (1939-45).

The A-10 Bronco is one of those types that seem to come out of the blue and the United States don't normally do that type of design idealism, but rather improve and expand on what they already have.

This aircraft was used in the role of reconnaissance during the Vietnam war, but it had several other roles in transport and light or counter insurgency (COIN). West-Germany was one of its first to receive the export versions, apart from Thailand.

But this aircraft looks very similar to Nazi-German Focke-Woulf  Fw-189 deigned in 1937 as a short range tactical reconnaissance aircraft. It entered service with the Luftwaffe in 1938 and into serious production in 1940, by the end of World War-II 864 had been built by Aero in Czechoslovakia 17 by Sud-Quest in France. Fourteen of the type was supplied to Slovakia and 30 to Hungary.

After the second world war many German aircraft and other military equipment became as always the spoils of war and were returned for storage in Britain, Russia and the United States, who got what is still not known today, but it can be easily guessed upon?

Satallites Military and Commercial. Part-One.

Reagans Laser Satellites Plus.

About two years ago amateur astronomers noticed a unidentified flying object making regular orbits of the Earth, at first they thought it was a satellite in an inner orbit?

But that would mean it might collide at some point with the International Space Station, NASA then had to reveal it was a new type of mini Space Shuttle known as the X37.

Science fiction and the dupe of former U.S President Mr. Ronald Reagan had become a reality. In one of the James Bond films a recovery vehicle was deployed to capture satellites from both the Soviets and the Americans.

The X37 was being used to maintain damaged military reconnaissance equipment in lower orbit, if not replace or update. Speculation arose that Israel and NATO were probably also having a share in the U.S. Project?

ARV's.

Does the ARV still have a value?

Ever army needs reconnaissance, you need to know where the other side is, how many of them and what equipment is being deployed. In the second world war (1939-45), various types from motorbike and side car to armoured cars were deployed.

But in desert conditions small light tanks, such as the Crusader, German and American half-tracks were deployed. Special forces used there own adaptions based on the Rolls-Royce car chassis and later the American Willy's Jeep.

Today some wheeled and tracked vehicle's have been designed such as the Scorpion tank and variants from it. These vehicles are limited in armour, so if they get hit they are a small price to pay for in the reality of war and conflict.