Command & Conquer is a strategy game featuring numerous military technologies inspired by real-life vehicles. This feature invites you to identify these vehicles and briefly compare them with the originals.

Allied Vehicles

In the first instalment of Red Alert and its expansions, the Allied forces possess light, fast equipment and rely primarily on speed and certain technologies to achieve their objectives. The game features numerous vehicles that actually existed in real life.

Note: Vehicles not mentioned, such as the Chrono Tank, simply do not exist and are therefore not featured here. Others have not been formally identified and are not included either (ships, in this case).

Ranger

In reality, the Ranger from Red Alert is in fact the famous ‘Willys MB Jeep’, used in large numbers by Soldiers during the Second World War. Fast and robust, it could be fitted with an auxiliary Mini-Gunner for light fire support. It is a vehicle that is fairly well represented in the game.

Photo of a real Willys MB:

VBT

The Armoured Personnel Carrier is also a faithful reproduction of an existing vehicle: it is the American ‘M-113’, developed in the 1960s, capable of transporting 10 people quickly. It was also a huge success on the export market.

Original M-113:


Artillery

In Red Alert, the Allies have a slow and fragile self-propelled howitzer, but one that inflicts heavy damage by firing over obstacles. This vehicle appears to be an exact replica of the real American-designed 175 mm ‘M-110’ self-propelled howitzer.

Real M-110:


Light Tank

This fast but fragile and underpowered tank is almost certainly the virtual counterpart of the real American ‘M2A2 Bradley’ ’ tank. The unit’s icon allows it to be formally identified.

M2A2 Bradley in real life:

It should be noted, however, that in the Red Alert: A Path Beyond mod, the Light Tank is depicted as an ‘M-48 Patton’.

The M-48 Patton in the APB mod for Renegade and its real-world counterpart:



Medium Tank

Here too, there is no room for doubt. The Allied Medium Tank is undoubtedly an ‘M1A1 Abrams’, the standard American main battle tank, which, incidentally, is still in service with the US Army.

The game’s Medium Tank alongside the real-life M1A1 Abrams:



Attack Helicopter

The Allied Attack Helicopter is easily recognisable thanks to its distinctive, unmistakable shape. It is the American ‘AH-64D Apache Longbow’. It is an all-weather Attack Helicopter that excels at air-to-ground support and anti-tank missions, making it a perfect match for the one featured in the game.

The Attack Helicopter in the game is modelled on a real AH-64 Apache:



Chinook Transport

Both sides have this unit. This helicopter does indeed exist in reality under the name ‘CH-47 Chinook Transport’, but it is exclusively American and not Soviet, although it has been a great success as an export. It is a heavy-lift Transport Helicopter renowned for its ability to carry a large number of people.

A US CH-47 Chinook Transport Helicopter in real life:


Soviet Vehicles

In the first instalment of Red Alert and its expansions, the Soviet army possesses heavy equipment suited to an aggressive strategy, which is fairly representative of the perception of the Soviet war machine during the Cold War. The game introduces numerous technologies that did not exist in reality. However, some of the vehicles featured in the game did actually exist or are inspired by real-life vehicles. This short feature aims to identify these vehicles and briefly compare them with the originals.

Note: Vehicles not mentioned, such as the M.A.D. Tank, simply do not exist and are therefore not featured here.

V-2 Rocket Launcher

As for the V-2, there is no room for doubt, even if the name is misleading. To recap briefly, in reality, the V-2 was a long-range rocket used by the Germans during the Second World War. The capture and study of these rockets following Germany’s defeat enabled the Western Allies and the Soviets to develop their own rockets.

The V-2 rocket launcher in the game is in fact an unguided ‘9K52 Luna’ rocket mounted on a ‘BAZ-135’ chassis (known as the ‘FROG-7’ by NATO). Widely used at the start of the Cold War, they gradually disappeared over time, giving way to long-range cruise missiles.

The V-2 in the game compared to the real-life 9K52 Luna:



Heavy Tank

The Soviet heavy tank is quite unique in that it is twin-barrelled (i.e. it has two guns integrated into the Turret). There are several real-life Russian tanks that may have inspired this design. The most notable are the ‘KV-7’ and the ‘ZSU-57-2’.

A KV-7 followed by a ZSU-57-2:



However, the former is not very well known and the latter is not strictly speaking a tank, but a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun. Furthermore, when looking at certain 3D images from the game, the Soviet tanks only have one gun. With a good image-editing programme, you can modify the image to add a second gun.



It’s quite difficult to draw a direct parallel. Perhaps the inspiration comes from the T-80. It is indeed the Soviet tank model that bears the closest resemblance and, from a certain point of view, this would make sense as it is the counterpart to the American Abrams, which would perfectly highlight the contrast between the Allied Medium Tank and the Soviet Heavy Tank. Furthermore, this tank was emblematic of the Soviet forces at the end of the Cold War and was produced and deployed in large numbers. It is still in service in Russia and other countries of the former USSR.

A genuine ‘T-80’:


Mammoth Tank

The moment you’ve all been waiting for has arrived! Yes, I’m talking about the moment when the answer to the existential question that every true Red Alert player has asked themselves at least once is revealed: did the Mammoth actually exist in real life?

Sorry, but the answer is no! But don’t despair just yet, because it could well have existed. We’ve seen that Heavy Tanks with two guns (and sometimes even more) did exist in the Soviet army. But these projects were scrapped under pressure from Stalin, who preferred a single, powerful and effective gun rather than two light and inaccurate ones.

However, the Germans were undoubtedly the leading experts in ultra-heavy tanks during the Second World War. They fielded the heaviest tanks of the war. And they had conceived a veritable steel monster weighing 1,000 tonnes, heavily armoured and heavily armed: the ‘Landkreuzer P.1000 Ratte’. This project would never see the light of day and remained on the drawing board, mainly due to the vehicle’s excessive weight-which made it unsuitable for crossing any type of bridge-and its excessive fuel consumption. One might, however, speculate that it was this monster that inspired the Mammoth.

Left: Soviet Mammoth in the game; right: an artist’s impression of what the ‘Landkreuser P.1000 Ratte’ might have looked like:



Chinook Transport

Both sides have this unit. This helicopter does indeed exist in reality under the name ‘CH-47 Chinook’, but it is exclusively American and not Soviet. It is a heavy-lift Transport Helicopter renowned for its ability to carry a large number of people.

However, the Soviets produced a more or less faithful copy known as the ‘Yak-24’; this could well be the one featured in the game (under the same name, which is no big deal).

The Chinook Transport in the game compared to the Soviet ‘Yak-24’ in real life:



Hind

The Hind helicopter really does exist in reality under the name ‘Mi-24 Hind’ and is perhaps the most famous of the Russian combat helicopters due to its distinctive design. Here, it is faithful to the original model, apart from the fact that, in reality, it is primarily a Tank Hunter and can fire rockets. It is still in service with the Russian army and many other armed forces around the world.

The Hind in the game and its real-life counterpart:



Yak

This unit is also based on a real-life aircraft, as it is undoubtedly a ‘Yakovlev Yak-3’ fighter (one of the finest aircraft used by the Red Army during the Second World War). However, in reality, it was primarily an air superiority fighter and not a ground-attack fighter as depicted in the game. It was nevertheless capable of carrying out machine-gun dive-bombing attacks, as seen in the game.

The Yak in the game and in reality:



MiG

The MiG is a classic of Russian aviation; it’s even become something of a stereotype. It’s therefore no surprise to find it in the game. MiG is actually an abbreviation of the manufacturer’s name: Mikoyan-Gurevich, so it doesn’t refer to any specific model. The model featured in the game is not clearly defined; there are two possibilities:

1- If we go by the icon on the selection bar: this is a ‘MiG-27 Flogger’, a ground-attack fighter from the 1970s:

2- If we go by the game’s cutscenes, it is a ‘MiG-29 Fulcrum’, an air superiority fighter:



In short, logic would suggest the MiG-27 (it’s the one featured on the icon and, what’s more, it’s designed for ground attack), but the MiG-29 has a bolder and more modern design.

It’s worth noting in passing that the MiG and the Spy Plane share the same design.

Badger Bomber

The name of this bomber might raise a smile. And yet, it is a crucial detail that allows us to identify the original model that inspired this unit. ‘Blaireau’ is ‘Badger’ in English. Now, ‘Badger’ is the NATO codename for the Soviet ‘Tupolev Tu-16’ bomber (a Soviet bomber from the early Cold War). It therefore becomes clear that this is the model in question.

A ‘Badger’ bomber from Red Alert followed by a real ‘Tupolev Tu-16 Badger’:


Submarine

Here too, it is rather difficult to formally identify the model on which the submarine was based. Judging by the cutscenes, it seems likely that it is a Soviet attack submarine of the ‘Proyekt-671 Shchuka’ type (NATO designation: ‘Victor class’):

Soviet Submarine in Red Alert and a ‘Victor-class’ Submarine in real life: