Alpha Jet WTD-61: Guided Fury!

Armen_Lozone · November 16, 2025, 6:09pm

Alpha jet WTD-61

Ingenuity incarnate

The Alpha jet (or one of) the ones used by WTD-61 for tests

History and origins:

The Alpha Jet is a light attack/trainer jet aircraft jointly developed by Dornier Flugzeugwerke of Germany and Dassault Aviation of France. Initially, there were plans for Germany to develop an attack-focused version of the aircraft, and France would develop the trainer-focused version, but as it is with many other programs, with the increase in interest in the product, a few more versions and modifications arose.

While France made away with their Alpha Jet E and Alpha Jet 2, Germany seemed to be standing in place with their initial model A. However, there were plans underway for an Alpha Jet ICE (or KWS in German). The AJ ICE would include a lot of features that would make it a true light attack aircraft with precision strike and self-defence capabilities. It was to have an integrated self-defence suite of radar warning receivers and, of course, the countermeasure dispensers in the tail. The ICE was planned to have compatibility with the AGM-65 Maverick missiles for striking enemy tank columns.

For air-to-air, it was planned to have AIM-9L Sidewinders, which, while they made it to the integration and then to the testing phase, did not carry forward to the ASRAAM that was also planned/proposed to be adapted for the Alpha jet’s anti-helicopter duties. More sadly, the planned FLIR was not adapted at all.

However, because of the timing of the KWS program, many projects were being shelved, and the AJ ICE was one of them. It never got past the small-scale model step.

But what is interesting to note is that the testing for the aforementioned integrations and upgrades was already underway. Being handled by WTD-61 of the German military. The Alpha Jet WTD-61 was trialled, tested and adapted to use many of these modifications and upgrades.

Among them, they integrated the EW station with RWR akin to the F-104G (audio-only RWR which only gave ping and lock warning), AIM-9L, as well as some speciality weaponry such as the VBW rocket launch system and a precision strike weapon called the SR-SOM (short range stand off missile) which carried a payload of small anti-tank bomblets.

The most interesting is the SMAT AGM. It would be most similar to the penguin missile in-game currently. It was an IR-guided bomb (Prototype) which could distinguish light vehicles from tanks and target the latter.

With all the above-mentioned upgrades, I believe the Alpha jet WTD61 will make a fine CAS aircraft for Germany around 10.0. One that is desperately needed in the tech tree.

PS. upgraded C20 engines kekw

Specifications

Max speed: 1020kmph
Max altitude: 12,200m
Engine: 2 х SNECMA Turbomeca Larzac 04-C20

Power: