A look into some of the possible past and present influences for a selection of the Command & Conquer : Red Alert 3 units as depicted at the official site at www.redalert3.com. Mainly the Allied and Soviet units since the Empire of The Rising Sun mechanized units are far too futuristic to have any present or even near future counterparts
First, we’ll start by examining the Soviet units.
1. Apocalypse Tank - The chassis of this tank shares some similiarity with “Obyekt 279″, a prototype heavy tank designed by a team led by L Troyanov in 1957. While it had rather impressive cross country performance, the complexity of its track layout would probably cause maintenance problems in operational use. The sole example of this tank now rests at Kubinka Tank Museum (Look under Pavilion N 1 - Soviet Heavy tanks & AG).
2. Bullfrog - This amphibious half-track looks more like the M2 half-track used by the Americans during WWII. Half-tracks weren’t used in great numbers by the Soviet in WWII, a selection which can be found at Engines of the Red Army in WWII and WW2 Armor.
3. Twinblade - Now its’ pretty obvious that this helicopter gunship is inspired by the fearsome Mil Mi-24 Hind and augmented with an additional main rotor (although I don’t see the point unless it provides additional survivability as a backup rotor). The Mi-24 design is fused with the tail assembly of the utility helicopter Ka-60 “Kasatka” of the Kamov bureau which developed the Ka-50 “Hokum” gunship.
4. Akula Submarine - No idea what it’s inspired by since submarines aren’t exactly my cup of tea. Anyway here’s a photo of the Akula-class ballistic missile submarine of the Russian navy taken from Mitch’s excellent Armour, Ship and Aircraft blog.
Now for the Allies..
1. Sky Knight UCAV Drone - Looks like a RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV manufactured by Northrop Grumman but with forward-swept wings (see Grumman X-29).
Image taken without permission from Sailors, Mariners & Warriors League.
2. Assault Destroyer - Reminds me of an upsized version of the unmanned Protector developed by Israel’s Rafael.
3. Precision Bomber - The silhouette of this sleek jet is undeniably that of the SR-71 “Blackbird” combining the stealth technology of the 1960s like black radar absorbent paint with the today’s techniques like the CAD-based and stealth-optimized designs of the air intakes of the F-22 and sharply angular surfaces of the F-117.
4. Apollo Fighter - From the top, it looks like the Swedish Saab 35 Draken and the side profile reminds me of early post-war US naval jet fighters - namely the Vought F7U Cutlass.
Vought F7U Cutlass
5. Century Bomber - A VTOL version of the ungainly pre-WWII seaplanes - imagine the luxury Boeing Clipper airliner powered by high tech engines.
Otokar Cobra
6. Multigunner IFV - Several APCs like the French Panhard VBL, Turkish Otokar Cobra and Ukranian Dozor-B look quite like the Multigunner APC though none of them comes close to the futuristic looks of the Multigunner.
Check out the other units and concepts at the official site for Command & Conquer : Red Alert 3.
MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Possible Influences for Weapons in Frontlines : Fuel of War
Next Generation Infantry Concepts from Tom Clancy’s EndWar
Call of Duty 4 Mini-Artbook PDF
Weapons in Ghost Recon : Advanced Warfighter 2
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Armour Games Military
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