Hi everyone,
The immediate Post-WW2 period was a time of exceptionally low military spending in the US, sinking to as low as 100 million 2004 dollars, most of it in the Air Force and SAC. The Army and Navy were gutted, and narrowly escaped complete termination.
Yet the US had left WW2 with possibly the greatest technological potential, with various new designs in development or nearly entering service. Unlike the USSR that definitely spent less than during WW2 but was still actively modernizing its military, the US squandered its advantage with low budget leading to tech entering service way later than expected, sometimes nearing obsolescence (case in point being the 90mm L52 gun remaining in service all the way to the 60s in spite of its limited capability against the late 1940's T-54 with kinetic ammunition).
So the point of this thread is: Assuming Truman isn't gutting the military in the 1945-50 period, give the US as much conventionnal bang for the buck with a 300-million-2004-dollar budget (close to Cold War average).
There have already been somewhat similar threads like post-WW2 britwanks, "Stuff that should/shouldn't hve entered service" or "Sanity options". This is it.
Ideally such US forces should:
-be powerful enough in Korea to deter NK
invasion.
-have a Navy capable of performing the regular Cold War job, such as doing what it did in the Korean War
- Not necessarily be large but mainly competent and sufficiently well-equipped to expand in case of crisis.
One example I'd like to explore: US tank designs in the early 50's (M46 and M47) owe much technologically to WW2 programs: cross-drive transmission, AV-1790 engine, 90mm ammo, concentric recoil mounts, gun stabilization (never entered service on these tanks). Had the US kept at least decent funding on such tech, a tank as good as or better than the M47 by 1948 or 49 (instead of being combat ready in 1953, and yet still with some flaws). A longer 90mm gun had been considered and was getting quite ergonomic yet was not adopted because of budget issues which led to the regular gun being merely updated.
Any ideas?
The immediate Post-WW2 period was a time of exceptionally low military spending in the US, sinking to as low as 100 million 2004 dollars, most of it in the Air Force and SAC. The Army and Navy were gutted, and narrowly escaped complete termination.
Yet the US had left WW2 with possibly the greatest technological potential, with various new designs in development or nearly entering service. Unlike the USSR that definitely spent less than during WW2 but was still actively modernizing its military, the US squandered its advantage with low budget leading to tech entering service way later than expected, sometimes nearing obsolescence (case in point being the 90mm L52 gun remaining in service all the way to the 60s in spite of its limited capability against the late 1940's T-54 with kinetic ammunition).
So the point of this thread is: Assuming Truman isn't gutting the military in the 1945-50 period, give the US as much conventionnal bang for the buck with a 300-million-2004-dollar budget (close to Cold War average).
There have already been somewhat similar threads like post-WW2 britwanks, "Stuff that should/shouldn't hve entered service" or "Sanity options". This is it.
Ideally such US forces should:
-be powerful enough in Korea to deter NK
invasion.
-have a Navy capable of performing the regular Cold War job, such as doing what it did in the Korean War
- Not necessarily be large but mainly competent and sufficiently well-equipped to expand in case of crisis.
One example I'd like to explore: US tank designs in the early 50's (M46 and M47) owe much technologically to WW2 programs: cross-drive transmission, AV-1790 engine, 90mm ammo, concentric recoil mounts, gun stabilization (never entered service on these tanks). Had the US kept at least decent funding on such tech, a tank as good as or better than the M47 by 1948 or 49 (instead of being combat ready in 1953, and yet still with some flaws). A longer 90mm gun had been considered and was getting quite ergonomic yet was not adopted because of budget issues which led to the regular gun being merely updated.
Any ideas?