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Asea, you lazy git...

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Total Members Voted: 8

[Aseaheru]

Oh, so you guys want the giant pool o' dudes again? Allright, that makes it easier.

Also, you have radar...

[Maegil]

We have some basic radar, generally capable of telling more or less the whereabouts of... stuff, if used with really big antennas.

Spoiler: Early war radar antennas (click to show/hide)

Really huge British radar antenna  Less huge German radar antenna
           

With more refinement, we can make both the antennas and the equipment itself smaller, so we can mount in on ships, and even on a heavy fighter/light bomber, albeit with low definition, short range (up to 4Km) and problems with surface clutter.
At this time, the radars were still on the metric definition, unable to detect small objects such as periscopes.

Spoiler: 1940 XCAM US naval radar (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: 1940 Bristol Beaufighter night "fighter"with Mk.IV radar (click to show/hide)

The Germans fell behind, so their radars were not only bulkier and less effective, their drag actually slowed the planes down.

Spoiler: 1942 Ju 88R1 night "fighter" (click to show/hide)

With British massive improvements on the cavity magnetron, in 1941 the UK and the USA leapt forward to microwave band centimetric radars, which were easily directed to the target, avoiding ground clutter. Successive improvements made them ever smaller and more versatile - so small as to allow even proximity fuzes, and uncluttered enough to use for bombing ground targets. Naval gun laying radars were already in use, but they became accurate enough to also direct AA guns, and small enough to easily fit in normal fighters.

Spoiler: 1942 Tachi-4 Fire Control Radar (click to show/hide)

As you'd expect of them, the Japanese reverse-engineered, improved on, and miniaturized an older British AA FCR captured in Singapore. I can't see it, but I'm quite certain they also added a watch to it, just because.
Wavelength        150 cm
Power   10 kW
Range    20 km aircraft
Antenna
   Transmitter: single 4-element Yagi antenna (for a change, this is something they invented and patented, and everybody else went on to use.)
   Receiver: Four 3-element Yagis in diamond array connected through a capacitive phase ring
Weight   2500 kg

Spoiler: 1941 Bristol Beaufighter night "fighter"with Mk.VII radar (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: 1942 TBF Avenger with ASB radar (click to show/hide)

This is still rather crude at almost 60cm wave, latter models would run at down to 3cm, with much higher accuracy. I also bet the Americans didn't pay royalties on those Yagi antennas...

Spoiler: 1944 SCR-720 airborne radar (click to show/hide)

Wavelength    10 cm
Scan rate   100-360 rpm
Power   3 kW
Range    Bombers at 10,000 feet (3000  m): 16 km
Fighters at 17,000 feet (5200 m): 8 km
Antenna   74 cm parabolic
Accuracy   3 degrees
Weight   187 kg
Production     In production by 1944-5

[tryrar]

We have some basic radar, generally capable of telling more or less the whereabouts of... stuff, if used with really big antennas.

Spoiler: Early war radar antennas (click to show/hide)

Really huge British radar antenna  Less huge German radar antenna
           

With more refinement, we can make both the antennas and the equipment itself smaller, so we can mount in on ships, and even on a heavy fighter/light bomber, albeit with low definition, short range (up to 4Km) and problems with surface clutter.
At this time, the radars were still on the metric definition, unable to detect small objects such as periscopes.

Spoiler: 1940 XCAM US naval radar (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: 1940 Bristol Beaufighter night "fighter"with Mk.IV radar (click to show/hide)

The Germans fell behind, so their radars were not only bulkier and less effective, their drag actually slowed the planes down.

Spoiler: 1942 Ju 88R1 night "fighter" (click to show/hide)

With British massive improvements on the cavity magnetron, in 1941 the UK and the USA leapt forward to microwave band centimetric radars, which were easily directed to the target, avoiding ground clutter. Successive improvements made them ever smaller and more versatile - so small as to allow even proximity fuzes, and uncluttered enough to use for bombing ground targets. Naval gun laying radars were already in use, but they became accurate enough to also direct AA guns, and small enough to easily fit in normal fighters.

Spoiler: 1941 Bristol Beaufighter night "fighter"with Mk.VII radar (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: 1942 TBF Avenger with ASB radar (click to show/hide)

This is still rather crude at almost 60cm wave, latter models would run at down to 3cm, with much higher accuracy.

Spoiler: 1944 SCR-720 airborne radar (click to show/hide)

Wavelength    10 cm
Scan rate   100-360 rpm
Power   3 kW
Range    Bombers at 10,000 feet (3000  m): 16 km
Fighters at 17,000 feet (5200 m): 8 km
Antenna   74 cm parabolic
Accuracy   3 degrees
Weight   187 kg
Production     In production by 1944-5

We also managed to refine it enough to mount on a ship remember? Like you said though, next step would be working on cavity magnetrons

[3_14159]

Yep.

Also, sorry for the wait on the turn, I have been stuck using a laptop for a bit instead of my desktop, turn should be up in a day or two.
Atleast, after I figure out the new team structure.

No worries.

Then I'll vote for the Beachmaster (to make it as good as possible), the POAC SPG (to ensure it'll actually still float), and the electronics improvement (you know, for !!☼SCIENCE☼!!. Seriously, now, we're going to need as much basic science as we can get if we're going to join the radar-advanced powers).

So do I, though for the SPG/Carriage mostly to make the carriage better.

[snip]

We also managed to refine it enough to mount on a ship remember? Like you said though, next step would be working on cavity magnetrons

Nice list, Maegil.
As tryrar already said, right now we have two available radars: The D-R-M1936, mounted on two of our peaks, has a range of 75km and an accuracy of about 500m. It can - and is being - used for home defense, and probably for vectoring our fighters on the enemy. The D-R-N-M1937, mounted on at least the Kloun Bychok, is able to detect submarine periscopes up to ten km away.
I agree with researching a cavity magnetron next. My ideal plan would be to add, over the next turns, radar designs for planes (both more limited for fighters, and a bigger one for a dedicated, medium-bomber based radar plane), fire control for ships and proximity fuses.

The latter, especially, is going to be very, very useful. I've seen claims that it increased the anti-aircraft fire effectiveness about fivefold, and its airbursts seemingly allowed a similar increase in lethality for artillery fire.

[Maegil]

I forgot about the D-R-N-M1937; in any case we should retcon it to detect submarine conning towers, not periscopes, as radars still couldn't detect things measurable in less than meters across.

In any case, the cavity magnetron was a product of years of intense, sustained basic science research; if we want to be able to actually invent new stuff instead of just engineering with pre-existing components, we'll need one or more well staffed dedicated research centers - and years of work - on each project.
How long? I'd say that each basic research project should yield results in 3-5 years or even more, depending on project difficulty, staffing, equipment, morale, funding, political meddling (political appointees, commissars and pogroms tend to be detrimental to scientific research) and enemy action (be it sabotage, commando raids, or outright carpet bombing of the research centers):
-the cavity magnetron itself,
-atmospheric jet engines (which are different from the self-contained rocket engines),
-vehicle-portable remote control should also be feasible ahead of time as live TV broadcasting already existed (remember, back then spies needed a large suitcase to carry even their "miniature" morse-keyed valve radio sets),
-magnetic recording tapes should be easy enough, as the Germans already developed (top secret) audio tapes from magnetic wire technology; it's only a small(ish) cognitive jump to also start working in applying the medium to video and data (VCRs and getting rid of IBM's punched cards decades ahead),
-the transistor is still a decade away, as it requires previous work on semiconductors (and hard enough to merit a Nobel prize),
-magnetic propulsion, leading to both railgun and maglev researches,
-magnetohydropropulsion (from "the hunt for the Red October") is based on the previous one, but still in the realm of sci-fi (or maybe not? It's not too outlandish not to have been at least attempted by someone, and it might very well still be a secret if it actually worked),
-or even genetically modified cyborg sharks with laser death rays on their heads (to which we could add some ninja training, and... no, never mind).

[Funk]

-atmospheric jet engines (which are different from the self-contained rocket engines),

Work on useable Jet engines will take a few years before we get any thing usable as an motive engine.

-vehicle-portable remote control should also be feasible ahead of time as live TV broadcasting already existed (remember, back then spies needed a large suitcase to carry even their "miniature" morse-keyed valve radio sets),

--------------
So you want to try Teletanks?
It some thing we can try, indeed short range remote driving is simple but how do we aim the weapons?

TV cameras look like this

Spoiler: at the 1936 Summer Olympics (click to show/hide)

Not some thing we can just fit in a tank.
--------------

[Maegil]

-atmospheric jet engines (which are different from the self-contained rocket engines),

Work on useable Jet engines will take a few years before we get any thing usable as an motive engine.

My point precisely, any basic scientific research will require years worth of sustained work by dedicated teams.

-vehicle-portable remote control should also be feasible ahead of time as live TV broadcasting already existed (remember, back then spies needed a large suitcase to carry even their "miniature" morse-keyed valve radio sets),

So you want to try Teletanks?
It some thing we can try, indeed short range remote driving is simple but how do we aim the weapons?

TV cameras look like this

Spoiler: at the 1936 Summer Olympics (click to show/hide)

Not some thing we can just fit in a tank.

That pic is just the camera, you forgot all the rest of the stuff required to broadcast the signal! Fortunately, the war had a side effect of making anything electronic much smaller - for instance, before the war a radio telegraph station required enough equipment to fill a small room, but the aforementioned spy's radio had compacted it all to fit in a single suitcase; however, this miniaturization did require yet more research.

Anyhow... at this point we shouldn't try to fit a camera on a a tank, as it wouldn't fit; according to the article, the Russians used them either with spray-and-pray weapons (MGs, flamethrowers) or to deploy heavy demolition packages (which really isn't such a bad idea).

However nice teletanks may sound, I was thinking more on the line of heavy fighter-sized RC missiles like the cross between a V2 and the Japanese baka bombs, and air-droppable RC PT boats with enough armor to resist against a 40mm gun (anything larger would have a low RoF and would probably miss such a fast target anyway, especially if it zig-zags during the approach) and enough explosives to sink a battleship...
...Optionally, the latter ones could be done with radar guidance - a ship is is so big it's kind of hard to miss them even with crude radars.



The thing is, to do any of the above we need... what? You got it, scientific research, and lots of it.

[Aseaheru]

 Pigeon guided missiles anyone?

 Also, to make sure I am not doing this unnecessarily, you guys want to ditch teams and go with a pool of engineers, right?

[Funk]

The main problem with remote control is that were limited to Manual command to line of sight so range is going to be limited.
The second problem is that we lack any kind of proximity fuzes, we need to actually hit the target.

Also, to make sure I am not doing this unnecessarily, you guys want to ditch teams and go with a pool of engineers, right?

i like haveing teams but if the other's want to go with a pool then there welcome to.

[Maegil]

Pigeon guided missiles anyone?

 Also, to make sure I am not doing this unnecessarily, you guys want to ditch teams and go with a pool of engineers, right?

I think they actually tried that with pigeons, along with fire-bombing bats, magnetic mine dogs and even an infantry bear... they should have thought it through first, though, the results varied from "simple failures" to "gone hilariously tragicomically wrong". Except for the bear, who proved to fit in perfectly as a loader in a Soviet artillery gun team (down to the vodka guzzling).

---------------
Anyway!
I would prefer the single pool of engineers, as the design projects' amounts and types variate so much from one season to another; others may disagree. The poll seems a good idea.

[Aseaheru]

The pigeons worked well, but where canceled due to the whole "Pigeons?! in MY missiles?!" thing. And the bats also worked well. Too well.

Also, vote on the pool VS teams, go!

[Funk]

Wojtek the bearwas Polish artillery.

[Maegil]

All right, apologies to the Wojtek the Persian Polish artillery Syrian brown bear. That's what I get for writing off my ass from a Swiss cheese of a vague memory, without checking for sources...

Anyways, Asea, can you explain the poll options a bit?

[Aseaheru]

 Well, theres my option, the option for just a pool of dudes that get split up and assigned each turn, theres the old teams which means that projects need teams assigned again, and theres the new teams which takes the groups that you put together for this turn and makes them teams.

[Maegil]

Thanks, I've cast my vote.