Success in no success

[Gary]

I was reading my copy of Hustler,


the B-58 story... What? Why are you laughing?

Anyhow I was reading this book and found a line that tugged at me and then started digging through my magazine piles to several references about our apparent fascination with machines designed to kill. Blaa blaa blaa really. Look, some of you have commented on my builds that you never see weapons loaded. I prefer not to, I keep my planes clean or in training configuration most of the time. I am not a war monger or peace nick, I like fast! I don't drive a minivan, I drive a Mustang! I have a penis so I tend towards fast vehicles and what better than fighter planes. I'm getting off topic here and this is the topic that I was curious about.

The B-58 has a rare distinction. It was a weapons system that was so successful, it never fired a shot in anger. Sure, in practice I am sure it dropped tons of stuff, but it was never deployed to a combat zone and thus the bazillion dollars spent on the systems never got tested in an actual theatre of combat. The now rest in museums and boneyards and unbloodied warriors and yet I can't think of anything more successful than to say she was never used.

Got me thinking... how many other weapons systems have been developed and deployed in squadron service or in the ranks of the Army or Navy, and never fulfilled their design intention, that of killing it's enemies. Boomer subs come to the forefront of my thoughts, however, can we say that 100% of the boomer submarines never fired cruise missiles or carried SEAL teams or such? I simply don't know. (Do attack subs carry cruise missiles?) It just got me thinking about a group build or something.

So, does anyone have a weapons system that was deployed and never ever used?

[Shasper]

ICBMs & tactical nuke lobing battlefield ballistic missiles come to mind (sure, the Iraqis launched Scuds & Silkworms, but they weren't carrying plutonium warheads), same could be said for the nuke tipped cruise missiles.


Shas

[Hobbes]

Cruise missiles on boomers is being discussed or worked on right now, but traditionally it's been the attack subs that carry cruise missiles.

[PR19_Kit]

Are we talking 'weapon systems' in general as a class or specific vehicles, either air, ground or sea here?

If the latter this thread could run and run............

[Captain Canada]

Bomarc, Voodoo in the ADC role. I guess it did some intercepts, but I don't think either USAF or CDN Voodoos ever actually shot at anything.

[Ed S]

The B-36, B-45, F-89, F-94, F-106, EE Lightning, TU-128, Yak-38, ...

I don't think the B-47 ever dropped any bombs in anger, but several of them fell victim to SAM and A-A fighters, so I don't think they would count.

I'm sure there are a fair number.  It seems that air defense fighters, strategic SAM's and long range bombers may be the most common to have gone through their career never having fired a shot or having been shot at.  Most jet fighters, attack planes, tanks, artillery, ships have seen some action or another in the many wars, police actions and confrontations of the last century.

Captain Canada, I don't know if you could count the Voodoo since they were busy dodging SAM's and Migs in Vietnam.  Maybe not dropping weapons, but in the thick of conflict.

(edit)

Plus some neutral nations like Sweden with the Viggen, Lansen, S-tank,... have gotten through their careers with no action as well.

Ed

[Gary]

Are we talking 'weapon systems' in general as a class or specific vehicles, either air, ground or sea here?

If the latter this thread could run and run............

Specific Vehicles

[Doc Yo]

My favorite is the Davy Crockett...a (nearly) man-portable battlefield tactical nuclear weapon.

here's the Wikipedia entry...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_(nuclear_device)


I think my little brother Wen has half a dozen in his garage, but he swears they're Tiki torches...)

[PR19_Kit]

OK, HMS Ark Royal, the real one, not the toy we have in the RN fleet at the moment.

In similar vein HMS Vanguard, the Royal Navy's last battleship.

Venom NF3, and I know the fighter bombers saw action in Malaya but the night fighters didn't.

If actually opening fire is a criteria I'd add the Javelin, in all its various Marks. I know it was on QRA for the Malaya-Indonesia fracas but AFAIK they never actually shot anything (to mis-quote 'Alias Smith and Jones...)

How about the CF-100?

This is turning into a memory test.........

[B777LR]

Lets see, i do not think any Flanker has been to war as of yet, though i may be wrong.

[pyro-manic]

Didn't the Russians use them in Georgia? And I think the Saudis used Lightnings (with those combi rocketpod/droptanks over the wings) for ground attack at some point.

What about the RN's Tiger-class cruisers? They spent millions completing them, and then rebuilt them into (hideous) commando cruisers, and then scrapped them. I don't think they ever did very much...

[B777LR]

Didn't the Russians use them in Georgia?

Nope, only Tu-22, Su-25 and from what i understood, a few MiG-31 and MiG-29

[Shasper]

Wouldn't be surprised if the Eritrean 27s have been used against the Ethiopians in recent years . . .


Shas

[rallymodeller]

Well, the CF-100 never fired a war shot in either Canadian or Belgian service. The F-101 Voodoos never fired war shots either, in USAF or Canadian service. They were used as recon aircraft, but not as bombers IIRC.

[ChernayaAkula]

Wouldn't be surprised if the Eritrean 27s have been used against the Ethiopians in recent years . . .

Yup! And the Ethiopian Flankers beat the crap out of the Eritrean MiG-29s. There's even an Ethiopian female Flanker pilot with a kill to her name against the Eritreans. First female jet fighter kill!

And a Russian Su-27 shot down a Chechen L-39 in the First Chechen War.