Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

High tech intrigue and Cold War
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Acatalepsy
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Acatalepsy »

Yeah, your not going to be able to actually surpress the thermal signature of the suit unless you're actually putting the heat somewhere - like a heat sink. And that has limited range. You could make it be an optional heat sink; where most of the time the suit is radiating like mad (and therefore highly visible to anyone with an IR scope) but can temporarily divert that energy to a heat sink, as a way to baffle IR detection for a few crucial minutes.
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Siege »

That would still require something outlandish like mature room temperature superconducting technology however, and ruggedized for military use in something as small as personal powered armour no less. And that sort of technology just isn't available in CSW. I think a better explanation is that the ceramic plating distributes the heat more or less evenly over the whole of the suit, reducing its overall thermal signature on IR equipment by evening out spikes in really hot bits of the suit.
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Nice. I'd imagine they'd be big and bad, though for the life of me I can't imagine why they'd just be carrying P90s and jumping on to jeeps where they can be shot in the face at close range or run over, and don't just haul fifty-cal machineguns or Barrett sniper rifles and shoot the crap out of ragtag heroes from a safe distance. Sorry Moby. :P

Could they conceivably haul around some kind of coolant to aid in heat regulation? Perhaps every once in a while, when they get really hot, they can LET OFF SOME STEAM and an INTEGRAL TEMPEST can make a *hiss* sound as it vents gas out off some ports?

Or perhaps they have RADIATORS? Some kind of conductive nano-fabric that is "worn" by the INTEGRAL TEMPEST like a cape or a ghillie suit? So aside from making them look like General Grievous, the thermal cape's large surface area will also help disperse heat?
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Siege »

That is a stupid idea and I hate it. Honestly, I could see a thermal shroud being wrapped around the batteries or something, but a cape? Nah. INTEGRAL TEMPEST operators are driving powered exoskeletons for the explicit purpose of fucking shit up on an epic scale. Once these things hit the ground running no-one is going to miss that they're there anyway, so it's silly to devote room to stealthy cooling when it could also hold more batteries or ammo or some fancy hydraulics.

Really, the only one who gets away with being somewhat stealthy despite being a ten-ton atomically powered flying brick is Comrade Hammer, and only then because he cost $6 billion to build over the course of two decades.
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Siege »

LIM-69 Minotaur Orbital Defense Missile System

The Minotaur Defense Missile System is fielded with the US Army and US Marine Corps, as well as several foreign militaries (notably amongst which the Kingdom of Iraq) as an orbital defense precision weapon, capable of engaging time critical targets in orbit at high precision under all weather conditions. Designed in the 1990s to provide defense against the proliferating USSR orbital weapons platforms (notably the Klysht and Sólntse systems), the missile is based on the Spartan family of high-speed anti-ballistic missiles.

The Minotaur is fired from the Multiple Launch Rocket System family of launchers, including a purpose-modified MLRS M270A1 launcher and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launcher. Missiles utilize the same tactical nuclear warheads as mounted on the RIM-204 SSCAM, owing to the US Military's integrated nuclear defense program. During large Army or Marine Corps operations at least one battalion of such launchers will be attached at the division level to provide a comprehensive defense against possible orbital strikes.

At the start of the 21st century the US Army embarked on a project to upgrade the capabilities of the LIM-69. The Minotaur Block II program intended to improve agility and range of the missile, to allow to engage targets beyond LEO as well as manoeuvering targets in sub-orbit, i.e. Soviet space fighters. This program, in conjunction with the development of the MVQ-66 Lima maser cannon and the deployment of traditional air defense assets, ensured that US armed forces operating on the ground are protected against orbital strikes even when operating under unfriendly skies.
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

I wonder how accurate and effective these things are against Soviet space fighters and other orbital weapons platforms. Certainly the ones that can maneuver can and will maneuver out of the thing's way, since these anti-space missiles have to travel quite a distance and despite their speed, it will take them longer to reach space then a space-weapon to reach the surface (due to gravity and shit). Perhaps the primary purpose of this weapon, aside from destroying less-maneuverable space targets, is to impose virtual attrition on enemy/Soviet space weapons? If it shoots down an incoming space-missile/projectile, or if a salvo forces a space fighter to dodge and consume its fuel, then even without shooting down the enemy spacecraft it still does damage and virtual attrition on the enemy.
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Siege »

At the very least Minotaur will impose a minimal safe operating ceiling on Soviet space assets. The LIM-49 Spartan missile on which it is based had a flight altitude of 560km and whilst that probably hasn't been extended significantly, in the twenty years that passed between the introduction of Spartan and Minotaur the time required to reach that ceiling has decreased a lot. I'd expect Minotaur to accelerate to its maximum ceiling in something like 30-45 seconds. Which translates to an utterly outrageous top speed of 12 km/s, or Mach 35. It's more than enough to blow approaching killer satellites away, and whilst I'm sure 45 seconds is more than enough time for unmanned Soviet fighters to maneuver out of the way, that number of course represents the missile's maximum flight altitude of 560km. At lower altitudes, time-to-intercept will be correspondingly lower (and the missile will have more fuel to waste on delta-v). Furthermore, one doesn't need to score a direct hit to disable a space fighter when using an enhanced radiation warhead, which the 10 Kt dual-mode warhead fitted atop the Minotaur would classify at. Even unmanned AI fighters probably don't respond too well to having their systems bathed in x-ray radiation. So sure, virtual attrition would be a factor (as it always is with these kinds of things), but the missile itself is definitely a credible threat to space fighters operating below a certain 'safe' ceiling.
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Siege »

I'm done with boring mil-tech for now. So:

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The Cakra wing-in-ground effect yacht was designed in 2015 by Sudarto yacht-building company based in Surabaya, Indonesia. The yacht was intended as an alternative means of rapid transport for the beau riche of South East Asia, particularly those who loathed the long waiting times and increasingly strict safety measures of air travel. And with a top speed of 750km/h at 4m above the water's surface the Cakra, named after King Kresna's special weapon from Javanese myth, is easily capable of moving around the archipelagos and coastal cities of the region at speeds sufficient to make it a genuine competitor to private aircraft.

Like most modern Sudarto-conceived wing-in-ground effect vehicles the Cakra uses hydrogen fuel cells to power its turbines. The only emissions from a hydrogen-powered vehicle are water vapor and a small amount of hydrogen and this, combined with the yacht's sleek shape, blistering speed and sea-skimming flight profile further serve to make it very nearly impossible to spot or track. This feature has made Cakra and its sister designs very popular by those who might not want authorities to be able to accurately record their movements. Its stealthy nature is most likely far from accidental, considering many of Sudarto's designs were helped along by the former chief engineer of ARTYOM Experimental Design Bureau, the Ukrainian Freya Korovin, who was later revealed to have been intimately involved in some of WRAITH's experimental technology projects. Korovin was known to own at least one Cakra yacht, which was never recovered.
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Ford Prefect »

Okay this isn't a very intellectual thing to say but that owns.
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

I like the idea that, in the face of superpower techno-obscenities, a lot of these smaller powers in SEAsia are filling the seas with littoral stealth ekranoplans armed with AShMs.
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Siege »

I'm not entirely sure about this concept, but it seemed hilarious enough to at least show it off. Get ready for diving!


Blackfyre class SSCN

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Point of origin: United Kingdom

The Blackfyre class is the Royal Navy's most extravagant weapons system to date, a nuclear-powered submersible aircraft carrier, armed with up to 16 Blackwell-La Roche Basilisk fighters. These British SSCNs are larger than any other type of submarine, outmassing even the Soviet Akula boomers by nearly 200%.

The design history of these ships is an interesting one. The Royal Navy suffered painful cutbacks in the 60s and 70s, and when the United States once more prepared to expand its navy under the Republican '600 ship navy' plan in the early 1980s British Prime Minister Adelaide Drake-Carringdon had the Trident Naval Plan drawn up in response. Ever determined that "these fair Isles shan't be outdone by our wayward cousins", Drake-Carringdon believed it time to return the Royal Navy to its proper station. The ambitious Trident program would be key to achieving this goal: named after Neptune's three-pronged spear (also traditionally wielded by Britannia, the personification of Great Britain), Trident was a development program for a family of submarines that would share 80 percent or more of their parts, including their reactor. The three main models would be the Aggressor class ballistic missile submarine, the Terror class attack submarine and the Blackfyre class submersible carrier.

Design on the relatively more straightforward SSBN and SSN variants progressed swiftly, with the keels of Perilous and Tyrant laid down in 1986 and 1987 respectively. Development of the Blackfyre was far more slowly however: the admiralty publicly doubted if the goal - a usable submersible aircraft carrier - was achievable in the first place, and the program was plagued by numerous technical difficulties, not the least of which was that the aircraft intended to fly off the Blackfyre didn't even exist; Groupe Industriel Blackwell-La Roche S.A. had to design the Basilisk from the ground up to be compatible with the SSCN specifications it was given. The sheer scope of the technological problems encountered by the project meant it went massively over its initially projected budget and the Blackfyre came up for cancellation by the Commons defence committee several times, only to be narrowly saved each time by the PM's Tories.

Finally the keel of the first boat, HMS Ambuscade, was ceremonially laid on 3 September 1994 by Drake-Carringdon herself, who had at that point been out of office for several years. By that time it was becoming increasingly clear that Britain's large carrier program would not pay off for another decade at least, a lot of money had already been sunk into the Trident program, and the domestic British shipbuilding industry was noisily objecting to the WEU's Europa light carrier project, factors that together guaranteed the project's completion.

The class includes five boats: Ambuscade, Blackfyre, Claymore, Eclipse and Hyperborea. All five were built between 1994 and 2009 by Harland & Wolff in Northern Ireland. The class was named after HMS Blackfyre, the Vampire class submarine captained by Lord Alistair Drake. The father of Prime Minister Drake-Carringdon was a captain in the submarine service during the war, and garnered the nickname 'the Great White Shark' among Japanese sailors for his brutal attacks on Imperial Japanese shipping anywhere from the Malacca Straits to Okinawa.

The Blackfyre class is fitted with four 533 mm torpedo tubes which can fire a variety of torpedo-launched missiles. Its main armament however is its complement of Basilisk fighters (or alternatively helicopters or UCAVs). This 'naval squadron' allows the submarine to perform a variety of long-range reconnaissance and strike missions in places where no-one would otherwise expect British aircraft to show up, making it a powerful force projection tool. However space constraints aboard the submarine mean that only limited maintenance can be done on its embarked fighters, cutting down on maximum deployment time. Standard Royal Navy protocol dictates that at least one SSN be nearby whenever a Blackfyre is conducting active operations.
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Booted Vulture »

... and I thought that was a hovercraft carrier when I stuck it in the ideas thread. :oops:

Now does a submersible aircraft carrier, come with submersible aircraft? Or do they all stay safely below decks most of the time? It's not something that can be used spur off the moment. Pop-up launch aircrafts and disappear again. So its interesting just what tactical/strategic doctrines they are useful for.
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Siege »

It has to surface to launch and retrieve aircraft. In-between it could dive, but then it would be difficult to coordinate with its squadron, so it'll probably stay on the surface. It doesn't have the air control radar or the escort of a proper carrier but it can more easily perform hit-and-fade attacks than a CBG which is, after all, kind of conspicuous as it steams along the coast :). It's probably best suited for quick strike missions, infiltrating commando's ashore, VIP evac, local air superiority missions, picking off lone warships, that sort of thing. Kind of like a submersible miniature amphibious warfare ship.
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Ford Prefect »

The comment in the article about the project running hugely over-budget makes me think that there might be some mileage in writing articles about things which did get canceled, even in the world of Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda. For flavour.
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Malchus »

Now I get what's bugging me about that design (aside from the whole submersible carrier bit): I see no proper radar mast.

Every carrier I've ever seen always has a huge mass of those on the superstructure or it wouldn't be able to do the whole air traffic shtick. Perhaps they're retractable to avoid generating too much flow noise when submerged?
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Siege »

Ford Prefect wrote:The comment in the article about the project running hugely over-budget makes me think that there might be some mileage in writing articles about things which did get canceled, even in the world of Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda. For flavour.
:D What a great idea. That would open the door for some pretty absurd insanity. I wonder how crazy your proposal to the DoD has to get before it's rejected out of hand...
Malchus wrote:Perhaps they're retractable to avoid generating too much flow noise when submerged?
Probably yeah. And for all other solutions I turn to my old standby: 'they do it with, like, satellites'.

EDIT: Or rather, a dedicated AEW drone. Using a drone has benefits: it provides better coverage from higher up, its detection doesn't immediately compromise the sub's position, and it's moderately expendable.
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Siege »

Revisiting another oldie...

Zhujiang class mobile offshore base

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Point of Origin: People's Republic of China

Unlike the United States and the Western European Union, the People's Republic of China does not have naval bases dotting the oceans of the world. And unlike the USSR, it does not have a steadily expanding fleet of boomer submarines and supercarriers to make up for this deficit. But like those other great powers the Chinese government wishes to protect its strategic interests, with specific emphasis on the resource-rich islands of the South China Sea and the oil shipping lane from the Middle East via the Strait of Malacca. To compensate for its lack of a blue water navy to rival that of fellow superpowers China has developed a two-pronged strategy: one part of it the 'string of pearls', a strategy of bases and diplomatic ties includes the Gwadar port in Pakistan, naval bases in Burma, electronic intelligence gathering facilities on islands in the Bay of Bengal, construction of a canal across the Kra Isthmus in Thailand, a military agreement with Cambodia and building up of forces at Hainan Island in the South China Sea. Through cooperation with local powers and strategic positioning of forward forces the 'string of pearls' protects Chinese energy interests and security objectives in the Indian Ocean and even into the Middle East.

The other part is the Zhujiang class of mobile offshore bases. These are modular floating bases that can be tug-deployed to provide flight, maintenance and forward logistics operations in a region of the People's Liberation Army Navy's choosing. A fully deployed Zhujiang platform uses several serially aligned modules and approaches 2 km in length. They thus are large enough to land the largest of China's transport planes, hold a theater reserve of fuel and supplies, and can house an entire army brigade. It has a well deck as well as port facilities for unloading and loading of conventional container and Roll On/Roll Off ships. The modular design makes the base extra resilient to missile strikes, and has enough space to mount sizable defense systems of its own.

Moving a Zhujiang MOB around is an expensive and technically challenging proposition so they are only positioned in regions considered to be of particular strategic importance, whereupon the platform operates as a base for an extended period of time. The PLAN has currently positioned one off the Spratly Islands, and another off Socotra near the entrance to the Gulf of Aden. This last platform was heavily damaged in an attack by Somalian insurrectionists -- an attack that, according to China, was sponsored by the Indian government. The Indians strenuously deny this claim, but it is no secret that India does everything in its power to thwart all Chinese attempts to flex military muscle beyond the Malacca Strait...
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

The Philippines would need a Minuteman base just to deal with that thing! :P

Man. This actually reminds me of those floating fortresses from 1984. Maybe, since it'd be a pain in the ass to drag these things around with a fleet of destroyer-sized and destroyer-armed tugboats, like once it reaches its designated operations area it "drops anchor" much in the same way as those oil rig platforms, but much hueger and armed to the teeth with missiles, rockets, and warplanes.

oooh another possible picture
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

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Expert Kernel

Waiting for the orbital drop was the worst part. The instructors at Sary Shagan said that with the bypass you wouldn’t feel a thing but Yakov knew that was bullshit. You could feel the bone crushing acceleration even through the link, if it wasn’t for the gel and the biomods it would be fatal. As it was it only made you want to have died. Waiting for that sort of thing just was no fun at all.

"Ten seconds to drop." The annoyingly calm voice of his suit kernel gave the warning. He toggled the personality filter to something that sounded a little more human. "Pfft. Sucks to be you!" said the suit.

CRUMP! The pod was spat out of the Sukhoi orbiter. Nothing to do now but watch the displays, this part was completely automated. There was a brief pause as the drop shell oriented itself then the rocket engine started firing for the evasion and deceleration phase, shedding its ablative heat shield as it screamed down through the atmosphere at high-hypersonic speed. Yakov felt the gees trying to squish his bones into the back of the capsule. The stims took the edge off it, but it still felt like being pureed.

On the VHUD display he could see the other pods of his orbital rifle troop squad, little glowing triangles angling down around the projected threat bubbles that appeared like wireframe balloons towards the drop zone somewhere in southern Somalia. Suddenly the suit spoke. "Crap. New threat detected... S-2 just shot us a satvid of some S-400 missile sites. Correction, now it's saying it's decoys. Oh now it's saying they're real again. Never mind it just retracted the threat warning. Well anyways we're about ready to hit, might want to hold on to something and kiss your ass goodbye!”

He switched the filter again. Sometimes he just didn’t feel like joking.


The Expert Kernel is a piece of sophisticated Soviet software intended for use in conjunction with a cybernetic memory implant. First developed and field-tested in the second decade of the 21st century, the Kernel is an expert system designed to solve complex problem by quickly cross-referencing all available digital information on a given subject and succinctly conveying pertinent bits to the user via surgically implanted electronic devices, usually a hearing device, ocular augmetics or a combination of both. In a way the Expert Kernel resembles digital schizophrenia as it adds sound, images and in the most advanced cases direct memetic input into the brain that isn't originally the user's own. The goal of the Kernel is to ensure the user is supplied with essential information but doesn't have to spend vital time assimilating it, increasing information awareness particularly in high-stress situations like, for example, battlefields. By keeping track of all digital feeds available to the 21st century Soviet trooper up to and including SICKLE itself a Kernel can provide the user with vital information such as the locations of friendlies, objectives and hostiles, satellite and drone feeds, terrain information, the availability of tactical support and so forth -- without requiring the trooper to go over all this information himself.

Although a complex piece of 'smart' software, the kernel is not self-aware. However, its answer/response protocols are clever enough to fool almost all users particularly after it's been active for a while. Later iterations of the kernel are fitted with integrated personality filters that further enhance this illusion of sentience. To further muddle the waters, the implants that support a Kernel already function as a communications device that can be accessed by SICKLE. It is thus not always clear to users whether that voice in their head is simply a bit of clever information management software, or in fact the near-godlike AI hovering invisibly over all Soviet digital systems.

Expert Kernels, like the augmetics that they are installed on, saw their first official field deployment during the Russian Crisis, although it seems likely that select commando units and KGB operatives have been using similar devices for some time before that. Throughout the 2010s however this technology would remain the remit of special forces and other trusted elite units, such as the Army's Orbital Insertion Rifle Troops, the OSNAZ of the Ministry of the Interior, the Commissariat and the KGB's ultra-assassins. Only at the turn of the century's third decade, when the Soviet government's information control paranoia wound down a little, did these devices begin to filter down into the regular ranks.
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

The name totally sounds like a NATO designation though. :)
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Siege »

What d'you think it ought to be named then?
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

I just thought that the name sounded something like those cool NATO code names for things. Able Archer, Blackjack etc. Because usually Soviets just call their stuff Project/Objekt [insert number here] or alphanumeric something + numbers and don't usually give it cool names. It's a good name and a good device, and shows just how ridiculously way ahead the Soviets are in the whole futuristic cyberpunk front.

I wonder how the West ever gets informations on these systems, or if they are even able to do so. It's unlikely that they'll be able to "reverse-engineer" captured Soviet cyborgs. And SICKLE is SICKLE.
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Mobius 1 »

Shroom does have a point though. The USSR has out crazy-teched the US by miles. There's only so much equalization that being the chief producer of plucky heroes can give you.
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Siege »

That's a good point, and one that bears pondering. I figure that by the 2010s the Americans ought to have some system up and running that can compete with SICKLE (if nothing else surely someone like Charlie Saint ought to be able to build a JARVIS look-a-like) but I'd like it to be cool and unique and distinctive and not just another AI, and I can't quite think of a way to do that just yet. Your ideas on the matter are certainly welcome...
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Mobius 1
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Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery

Post by Mobius 1 »

Well, especially with the destruction of MIR, NATO is at this point would be the chief operator in most things space-related. There's moon bases, I'm sure something on Mars, and at some point they'd have to have starfighters capable of standing up to the UCAVS by the 2020s if they haven't converted themselves. But the ACTIVITY (or whatever agency, I forget), does tons of stuff with interdimensional gates, and through MIDNIGHT's partnership with WRAITH right up until Kroner's demise they're the chief experts on anything Monolith related. That's what I can think of off the top of my head. Most other things just end up being catch-up/knockoffs of Soviet tech.
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