Art Friday : DIA Military Art Collections

Thursday, October 18th, 2007, 8:15 pmRoys

Artwork done by visual information specialists (aka military illustrators) from the US Defense Intelligence Agency during the late 1980s in the Cold War era when the Soviet Union was still a military superpower to be reckoned with.

The 50+ art pieces display the air, land and sea military capabilities of the ex-Soviet Union, many being armed for nuclear or chemical warfare.

The huge 203mm 2S7 “Pion” self-propelled gun which could fire nuclear or conventional rounds to at least 30 km. (up to 47.5 km according to wwww.enemyforces.com)

I believe the 2S7 is also one of the units for the USSR army in the RTS game World in Conflict (See image at www.regnum-irae.net . More screenshots here)

AS-16 nuclear missiles being loaded onto a Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bomber.

The distinctive Mil Mi-24 ‘Hind’ gunship, shown here armed for chemical warfare.

280mm Multiple Rocket Launcher, a modern-day Katyusha.

The above thumbnails are from Series I of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Military Art Collection which can viewed in much higher resolutions at www.fas.org or at www.dia.mil.

Series II and The Smithsonian Air & Space Museum Exhibits (9 images) are exclusive to the official Defense Intelligence Agency site @ www.dia.mil. Below are two of my favourites.

Delta IV Submarine launching a SS-N-23 nuclear missile.

Soviet SS-20s in firing positions.

24 other artworks with captions are also available on the Defense Intelligence Agency site here and here.

Many of those works featuring land-based systems highlight the threat from the Soviet conventional artillery, rocket and guided missile systems - the Soviets seem to place a heavier reliance on their artillery assets than their Western counterparts (and so do the modern Russian armed forces - check out this video of Russian hardware at Darth Grievous’ Dark Domain).

For even more photos of the massive missile/rocket launchers, take a look at Dark Roasted Blend’s articles on Russian ballistic missile carriers and extreme ex-Soviet Union military vehicles.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
OPFOR Worldwide Equipment Guide
Dick Kramer - Military Artist
Sukhoi Su-37 Artwork by Stalinlasar
World War 2 800mm Dora Railgun
Kyoshi Harada - 3D Modeller / CG Artist
Keith Thompson - Illustrator

2 comments:

DeskMutant, Friday, October 19th, 2007, 1:33 am

Nice collection, I’ve always liked the looks of the Hind helicopter. The Hind is one massive beast.
Roys!, Friday, October 19th, 2007, 3:29 am

For me, I like most Russian military hardware. The Hind is also one my favourite attack helicopters other than the AH-64

I believe my interest partly stems from the fact that quality illustrations of their weapons are relatively scarce outside Russian sites.