Hi everyone, new to the forum, but not to the concept of AH.
Scenario: Imagine a world where the PoD is in 1979, the Soviet brass decides that there is too little to gain from an invasion of Afghanistan. The USSR instead focuses on exploiting an opportunity to regain its prestige in space by further bolstering its program of space station construction. Sensing a distracted and wounded US reeling from years of stagflation, the oil embargo of earlier in the decade, and the Iranian revolution/hostage crisis the USSR decides to restart its Almaz program. (Almaz was a program of military space stations intended to destroy enemy satellites.) Later, when Gorbachev announces glasnost and perestroika, the hardline elements within the USSR react more violently and much earlier with a successful coup. Still sensing the imminent stagnation of the Soviet economy just as Gorbachev did, the ruling junta decides to use one of the USSR's few remaining healthy economic sectors to save themselves....
In 1987, the Soviet Union brokers a deal with the OPEC nations warning that increasing US interventionism as well as the development of SDI (approached as a much more serious project in this timeline due to the Soviet deployment of Almaz military space stations) will encroach on the sovereignty of non-aligned nations should they continue to allow the US economy access to cheap oil. The USSR is successful in brokering a deal with the majority of OPEC countries to drastically reduce output in exchange for MASSIVE Soviet military aid. The increase in oil prices manages to give the staggering Soviet economy some much needed relief. The military aid, however, fans the flames of the Iran-Iraq war, which in this timeline will continue into 1993 and ultimately involve Saudi Arabia and other Arab League nations coming to Iraq's aid with US logistical support.
By 1996, the first of the new ATF fighters come into service in the US. Instead of the traditional M61A2 Vulcan cannon, the US decided that the production models of the F-23 Black Widow II would be equipped with a particle beam weapon to supplement its missile armament. In the same year, SDI is declared officially operational with the introduction of numerous systems including the ground-based laser reflector satellites for defense against threats during their boost-phase, midcourse interceptors with MKV (multiple kill vehicle) payloads, and the Excalibur array (a series of orbiting bomb-pumped X-ray lasers). The Soviets, who have eschewed true stealth technology in favor of Radar Absorbent Materials placed on conventional airframes, is left with a much less viable nuclear deterrent against the US. With a crumbling economy in the USSR, a devastated middle-east mostly loyal to the US (with the notable exception of Iran, which controls the southern Iraqi oil fields seceded to them as a concession during the Amman peace accords of 1993), quickly growing US and allied economies (because of the proliferation of computer technology and the internet) the Soviet Union is left in a dire situation. The ruling junta is desperate to hang onto power and to keep the USSR relevant in this rapidly progressing world.
I'm not sure what the protocol is for posting scenarios but I'd welcome criticism (be gentle, it's my first try at this), and I'd certainly welcome continuations on this timeline. Enjoy!