National Force Estimate Resources.

[tjhkkr]

Back in the days when I was a wealthy man, I was able to get plenty of resources identify what a nation had: how many tanks, artillery pieces, fighters, ships, and so on.

The best one I was able to find was the yearly IISS compendium, but now that is getting very pricey.

What do you all use to know how a nation is armed.

[DeSade]

For aircraft best quick reference resource imho is Flightglobal's World Air Forces (currently 2017 edition). You can get it here:

https://www.flightglobal.com/asset/14484

or just google it. For more in-depth look there is excellent Scramble DB:

http://www.scramble.nl/orbats

with airfields, location data etc.

[TYHo]

Wow... thanks for the heads-up, really cool! [;)]

[tjhkkr]

ORIGINAL: TYHo
Wow... thanks for the heads-up, really cool! [;)]

I agree; thank you!

[kevinkins]

Knowing how a nation is armed is only part of the puzzle. Understanding their geopolitical strategy and force readiness is important as well. A country may have 50 F-16s but might not be able to (or want to) launch them into combat for various reasons. The Command DB is very cost effective and I think most players only need to rely on it and it's updates. And pay attention to current events. Perfectly plausible scenarios result.

Kevin

[Rory Noonan]

I'm building up a collection of references, some of which have been bought really cheaply through Amazon.

There are some really good web references like:
gonavy.jp - USN Carrier and air deployments; USMC deployments
hullnumber.com - Great resource for individual USN ships
https://sipri.org/databases/armstransfers - Want to know exactly how many Mk82's your side should have? Look no further

However I still find that actual reference books have much more info. My favourites (in various editions) are:
Combat Fleets of the World
USNI Guide to the US Navy
USNI Guide to the Soviet Navy
Janes Fighting Ships

All of those can be had for about $50AUD each delivered from second hand dealers in the US to Australia, so really very cheaply (most of the cost is shipping). Current day stuff can be fairly easily sourced through Wikipedia, but Wikipedia will seldom tell you what a country had at a certain point in the past--which is where these books come in really handy.

I have a Janes All The World's Aircraft and was kind of let down. I was hoping it would have OOB data, but unfortunately while it has exhaustive technical specs it doesn't cover OOB. If anyone knows of an air equivalen to to Combat Fleets of the World I'd love to hear it!

[Gunner98]

I agree that Jane's All the World's Aircraft is a bit lacking in detail on numbers.

I use The Encyclopedia of World Military Aircraft by David Donald and Jon Lake, which has production and sales data for most aircraft. Cross-referencing with scramble and a couple other sources you can make some pretty good estimates. Was published in 2000, and most developments after that are easy to find.
https://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Air ... 0760722080

I have a few Jane's Fighting Ships, roughly one per decade from the 50's onward, since ships take several years to build you can pin things down by bracketing your scenario year and then searching individual ship detail.

Only have the 84/85 edition of Combat Fleets of the world, need more as it is quite a good comparator to Jane's

Picked most of them up at used book sales for under $30 CAD each.

The online referenced above are great as well. Another good one is: http://www.airvectors.net/ this guy does some great research.

Enjoy. B

[thewood1]

Military Balance 20XX books are still the best reference for contemporary fleets (and armies and air forces) out there, as the OP stated. I convinced my research librarian at work to buy it three years in a row. There is nothing out there to compare for modern OOBs. But as the OP stated, $400 or so is kind of expensive.