The "what if army", A fun way to learn about fun stuff

Introduction
Okay I admit it, I am bored today.
But sometimes that is a good thing. Below is a list of military equipment waiting to be filled by weapons that never really became adopted, the goal is to end up with a somewhat plausible but still extraordinary force. I will edit the first post as suggestions start dropping in. If you feel I have missed a certain category feel free to suggest it along with a motivation. It is my hope that this will bring attention to all the cool ideas that have passed through designers heads during the years, and I hope I will learn something in the process.



Rules
To be considered the item must be a real world design (no NS here) It should preferably be in the prototype phase but that is not a strict requirement. It may even be a finished design but it should not have been adopted by any military (exceptions can be made for extremely small volumes).

It is possible to "dethrone" an item if the motivation is good enough. The items will be judged by the standards of their time period, but with a slight bias towards more modern stuff to keep it somewhat coherent (no repeating crossbows here).

I am procurement general in the "what if" army and have final say about which items makes the list.

Vehicles
MBT: Strv 2000, O140/40
IFV:
"Jeep": LM003
Main hauler:
Engineering:

Hand held weapons
Main rifle: General Electric dual cycle rifle
Sniper rifle: IWS 2000
Main MG: Taden gun
Grenadier: Nepryadva
Pistol:
Shotgun:
SMG/PDW: KRASA PDW
Anti tank: NIVA XM1970
Anti air: Thunderbolt missle

Crew served weapons
Artillery: XM204
Mortar:
Heavy MG:
Anti tank: Steyr IWS 2000
Anti air: Guardian (Land dart)

I will now go on and try to nib the first spot myself.
For the MBT spot I put forward the strv 2000 O140/40
This was the unmanned turret(“Obemmanad” that is where the O comes from) version of the strv 2000 It was going to have two auto loaded weapons in the turret a 140mm main gun and a coax bofors 40mm (fed from a rear mounted magazine). It was designed as a minimal hull, forward engine tank with modular armor. It was supposed to be crewed by only two soldiers to even further reduce the already low total weight (calculated o be 52 tones with combat load) the main gun only brought along 34 rounds while the 40mm had 140 rounds available. As an extra measure against infantry it was equipped with two 7,62 mgs

The following stats was projected:
Engine: Diesel 12cyl, 1100 kW
Transmission: Auto 4+2 gears
Road speed: 70 km/h
Range: 500 km
Fording: 1,5 m
Trench passing: 2,5 m
Obstacle clearing: 1,2
Smoke launchers: 6 x 2
Protection RSV/KE
Front: 800/1200mm
Side: 90/450mm
Roof: 100/200mm

For the Main Rifle I submit the EM-2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EM-2

And to tie in the cartridge, probably the Taden Gun for the Maim MG.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taden_gun

Main rifle should be NIVA XM1970

Snipes shold be the Steyr IWS 2000

Well good sir, here is the verdict of the "what if" General

EM-2 This would certainly qualify as a good "what if" weapon, if them meddling Yankees had just kept their fingers out of the queens rifle selection we might have seen this weapon still in use by former British colonies. Both layout and round could be considered ahead of it time so it certainly earns it spot in the armory, the big question would be if it could be saved from the same exquisite British craftsmanship that its spiritual successor suffered from.
Pass

Taden Gun Ah something unknown to me, it is a good choice to match the EM-2 but the general is saddened by its (from the looks of it) less than radical layout. Though he is exited by the fact that it is referred to as a Maim MG, the logistic officer insists that it is still listed main mg. The logistic officer also seems pleased that they share caliber though the general isn't that easily impressed.
Pass for now...

*edit*
It seems as the general is a bit slow to react to the papers piling on his desk, and he will consider the other application in the next post

The good general picks up another folder from the stack and inspects the content.

NIVA XM1970 Lovely with this beast our soldiers will be able to defeat the enemies through application of superior firepower. (It is also rumored that the good general has a soft-spot for Sweden) However One of the NCO's in charge of the testing seems very bothered by the weight of the system, and states that equipping every soldier with this weapon would literally be a heavy blow to troop moral. But our good general is smarter than a lowly NCO and therefore decrees that it will be used as a hand held anti tank weapon.
Pass as hand held anti tank

Steyr IWS 2000 Radical looks, check. Radical projectile, check. Radical operating system, check. The general is very keen on this gun that look like a space ship. Telemetric data from the firring range indicates a fast projectiles with good armor penetration and they report that it would serve good as an anti material rifle. The general is thoroughly upset by this as he was hoping to see people ripped to shreds by tungsten darts, but apparently the 18kg was a bit more than the average Joe could handle, even though the long recoil system made the maximum impulse similar to a regular sniper rifle.
Pass as crew served anti tank

*edit* the NCO was apparently wrong the NIVA was not to heavy... simply unwieldy...

KRASA assault rifle for SMG.

For the Jeep it has to be the Rambo-Lambo LM002:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamborghini_LM002


Crew served AA is difficult but if you want biggish system then Land dart/gaurdian is an absolute must.

Alternatively the BAC thudnerbolt for both manportable and crew served:

http://www.armyrecognition.com/forum/viewt...php?p=1743#1743

Basically it was BAC's competitor to Starburst/streak

Artillery: Definitely the XM204.

Nepryadva launcher should be worked in too.

Fear this mongrel and fix bayonets.

Battle-Rifle: Swedish Krag-Jorgenson
Automatic Rifle: M1918A1 (Kg m/21) + AG-42 Ljungman
GPMG: FN MAG 60.20 (ksp 58)
Heavy 'infantry' Machine gun: M1917 (ksp 37)

Substitute-standard:
'Battle rifle': Berthier M1916
Machine gun: Hotchkiss Portative + Hotchkiss M1914
Automatic Rifle: RSC 1918 + Chauchat CSRG 1915

Grenade: Japanese Type-99 and Type-91

SMG: Japanese Type 100/44
Pistol: Nambu 94
Shotgun/Grenade-launcher: KS-23

Tank: FT-17 and/or Type 98 Light tank with a Davey-Crockett launcher on the turret-roof, BRDM-style (you know you want to)

Transport-aircraft: C-27J Spartan and C-17 Globemaster III
COD: MV-22
Bomber: Tu-95 + Tu-142
Rotorcraft: Mil Mi-6, CH-47, MH-53E

Landing-craft: Diahatsu 14-meter LCVP.
?? : Shirane class helicopter-destroyer

Helmet: French Adrian steel helmet.
Footwear: Ankle boots, putees, and breeches (scarlet or GTFO).

As our brave general enters his office in the morning he spins on his heel in the doorway after noticing the big pile of work at his desk. After one hour of guard duty by the coffee machine the other general’s start giving him weird looks. He decides that attack is his only option and he bravely enters his room.

Rambo-Lambo LM002 The general is heartened by the fact that the first item he would decide upon is a Lamborghini, he had wanted one since he saw the Miura as a kid. And when he learns that the LM002 is equipped with a modified Countach V12 he is even more excited. Then he finds the attachment from the logistics officer… Damned civilian brochure! Apparently the military LM003 version is equipped with a much smaller 150bhp diesel. Apparently the vehicle has to run on diesel to fit in the logistic chain, and apparently burning soildiers is considered bad form. A well he can still pretend he is Rambo (Stallone) when inspecting troops.
Pass reluctantly as the LM003


Thunderbolt missle
The general is very satisfied with the marketing material giving him a good understanding of how the missile works, until he realizes that it lacks the word explosives… The engineers say it will use a tungsten penetrator instead. Our hero is not convinced about the weapons capability but is won over by the fact that the missile can also be used for light anti armor work. (Reports from the field indicate that the NIVA needs all the help it can get)
Pass but only as a man portable system

Land dart/guardian After some initial confusion with the Guardian AMS the general decreedse that this system definitely could have been, and that makes him very happy. Based on the sea darts performance in the Falkland’s the land based variant will make a fine addition to the armory.
Pass

XM204 This Howitzer represents a great unfulfilled promise. The recoil reduction inherent to the design meant that the weight of the system could be very low, in fact the recoil was so low that it was purposed for a dual mount on the Chinook, were it could be fired from the air! One concern with the design was accuracy but in the age of GPS guided munitions, the general feels that this is not really an issue
Pass and two on every dignitary helicopter for close protection.

Nepryadva General Allanea briefed me about this design. What a splendid weapon for our grenadiers, the “what if” general feels that this item certainly can move away from it’s maritime origins and into the army proper. This weapon system combined with the NIVA will allow our squads to rain explosive destruction upon the enemy force. It will be glorios.
Pass as a grenadier weapon

Krasa AR/PDW A Czech weapon with interesting two stage feeding to allow the chamber to be behind the magazine, it’s very short and supposedly it worked well to. What is not to like? Our always boundary breaking general is especially interested in the PDW version of the weapon, which he supposedly fits well in his briefcase.
Pass

As the “what if” general opens the largest folder on his desk, he realizes that he will have to hurt the feelings of a fellow general who apparently has not read the rules.

But do not be disheartened you can always start your own army and we can fight it out with a glorious war.

The “what if” generals also wishes to note, that he is a general of the army not the air force. And that such a job would have to fall to someone more competent in that area of expertise. He also wishes to point out that in order to successfully dethrone something already in use by the forces, the applicant will have to provide motivation as to why the new item is more deserving than the previous. (To make it worth the hazle of overriding the logistic officer)

tkb-059, general electric dual cycle rifle, or kba-105 shkval for ar

principally because all three mentioned are 10x cooler than em-2

The general is disturbed in his mid day nap by a ringing telephone.

-What is the meaning of this?
-A triple threat to our assault rifle?
-Don’t worry I will sort this out!

kba-105 shkval Thanks to the generals google skills he has come to the conclusion that this is the weapon module of the BTR-3. And even though he has sometimes been accused of over doing things, he feels that it might be a bit inappropriate to it use as the main assault rifle of the army.
Fail until the general receives an explanation of what you really intended

tkb-059 VS general electric dual cycle rifle Two different weapons trying to accomplish roughly the same thing. In line with the findings of the SALVO study both sides of the iron curtain tries to find weapons with fast bursts the approach is a bit different though. The triple barred tkb-059 does a great case for the motherland thanks to the early bullpup layout with downwards extraction. The general electric rifle instead employs a solution with tree rounds kept ready in a revolver for extra fast fire (with an amazing 4900 rpm) sort of like an bader older brother of the 94 Abakan. Both weapons would sore your shoulder when fired in bursts, but in the end victory goes to the general electric design thanks to the rate of fire and the fact that the much later adopted Abakan proves that there was some merit it the idea.
Pass for the General Electric dual cycle rifle (Right now the Taden gun is a replacement waiting to happen)

mainline tkb-022

Though the general is intrigued by the thought of once again switching main rifle he will need to hear a motivation as to why it is more worthy than the current one. Because if he lacks a good explanation the logistics officer won’t agree to the change.