The Sparky's Revenge GB

[Weaver]

Simple idea - blowing things up is so very 20th century, so let's have a GB for platforms whose sole, or primary weapon is the humble electron, their primary purpose is to indulge in some form of electronic warfare, be it ELINT, SIGINT, EW, whatever. Obviously planes will be favorites, but entries could also be ground vehicles or ships (AGIs?), Hell they could even be buildings or cabins,aslong as they're a whiff.

Optional refinement: ban Wild Weasels or other SEADs as Whiffs-of-Mass-Destruction in order to keep it more varied and interesting.

[pyro-manic]

Do electro-lasers count?

Sounds like fun - I have lots of ideas for lumpy-and-bumpy versions of things.

[Taiidantomcat]

How about TACOMO stuff?

[Weaver]

Hmm, a TACAMO's more of a command centre/communications relay, but I don't see why not: it's in the same design ethos as the more aggressive EW types, and equally under-modelled. That would mean AWACS types should be in as well.

[Weaver]

Some non-aircraft ideas:

Ships:

Spy "trawler": take any civilian ship kit and give it a suspicious array of extra aerials, domes, and shifty-looking characters.

Space tracking ship: what if it wasn't just the Russians that used these? Take any replen ship or cruise liner and give it an array of golf-ball domes and/or huge parabolic antennas.


Vehicles:

ECM/ELINT/SIGINT vehicle: take just about any tracked or wheeled load-carrying vehicle and put a cabin on the back with suitable aerials. The current Revell MAN truck kits would be ideal for this; indeed, you'd have to check to make sure your model really was a whiff....

Counter-battery radar: usually an APC (since, by definition, it operates near the front line within range of enemy fire) with a radar aerial on top which tracks artillery/mortar rounds and extrapolates their firing position in order to direct counter-battery fire.

Artillery meterological unit: usually a collection of soft skins with various equipment including small weather balloons.

[proditor]

Heck, on ships, look at what the Russians did with that one Kirov hull.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_command_ship_SSV-33

Now imagine doing something with an Iowa, KGV, or aircraft carrier hull!

[Cliffy B]

Neat find Proditor!  Interesting, same power plant as the Kirovs but max speed is only 21.6 knots?! 

[Thiel]

NATO also had its fair share of "Spy-ships"

[Weaver]

Heck, on ships, look at what the Russians did with that one Kirov hull.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_command_ship_SSV-33

Now imagine doing something with an Iowa, KGV, or aircraft carrier hull!

Or, indeed, amphibious ship hulls (lots of volume). The USN's Blue Ridge and Mt. Whitney were based on the Iwo Jima class LPH hull:



The La Salle and the Coronado were also command ships, based on Raleigh and Austin class LSDs respectively.

Those wide decks on the Mt. Whitney are begging for huge domes/dishes for space tracking! How about British equivalent based on a redundant WWII carrier (of which we had loads due to hangar height issues) or on the Victorious, as an alternative to scrapping her after the late 1960s fire?

[Weaver]

This is a US Army RC-12 Guardrail SIGINT/DF aircraft, based on a Beech Super King Air:



You could easily imagine alternative platforms for a similar system... I presume that low and slow are part of the mission profile (otherwise they'd have used a business jet), so how about these (based on available kits):

1. British Army version, based on BN Islander, possibly turbopropped later (Airfix kit).

2. RAF pinches the role from the Army (as they are want to do) and uses a Jetstream (Airfix kit - admittedly not exactly "easy" to get hold of these days).

3. Early Germany version based on Do-28 (Revellobox kit).

4. Later German version based on Do-228 (Revell kit).

5. Canadian version based on Twin Otter (Revellobox kit).

6. Japanese version based on Mitsubishi Mu-2 (Hasegawa kit).