Back in the day, if one wanted to read the capabilities and performance of naval combat platforms systems without a security clearance you used Jane’s Fighting Ships or Aircraft or books from Naval Institute Press. Jane’s was usually only found in a library and the tomes from Naval Institute Press were expensive but for wargamers it made a U.S. Naval Institute membership with book discount worth it.
As a Harpoon naval miniatures player there was an alternative source from Adventure Games then GDW and Clash of Arms who published data annex books for the game. Those data annex books live on today thanks to the fine wargamers at the Admiralty Trilogy Group. Earlier this year I acquired two of the more recent data annex books: Commonwealth Navies: Ships of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand 1955-2023 and Commonwealth Aircraft: Aircraft of he United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand 1955-2023 both of which are edited by Larry Bond, Chris Carlson, and Peter Grining.
Both Commonwealth Navies and Commonwealth Aircraft are digital products available through WargameVault for the price of $16 each.
- Commonwealth Navies is 112 digital pages and includes the various ships, weapons, and electronics used (Annex A Ships, C Naval Guns, D Missiles, E ASW Weapons, F Torpedoes, G Mines, J Radars, K Sonars, L Tactical Data Links, and R Carrier Air Wing Assignments).
- Commonwealth Aircraft is 99 digital pages and includes data for the aircraft and associated weapons and electronics (Annex B Aircraft, E1 Depth Charges, F Torpedoes, G Mines, H Air Ordnance and Electronics, J Radars, K Sonars, and L Tactical Data Links).
As is typical in Harpoon V data annexes, the information provided for each platform is written in game terms, but in reality come darn close to being a full-up open source compilation of characteristics and performance data. The remarks section of an annex entry is an often detailed recap of the class or platform history from launch/entry into service through retirement or today if still active. The quantity and depth of research rivals anything Jane’s or The Naval Institute Press did in the day. Indeed, ATG has proven quite agile at routinely updating their data annex books; not quite on an annual basis but at least a bit more regularly than the Naval Institute does these days. ATG data annexes also often exceeds anything the open source milblog community creates on social media.
If I have a criticism of Commonwealth Navies / Commonwealth Aircraft it is that there are no illustrations. I realize that adding a line drawing for each ship/aircraft would almost certainly drive production costs up significantly. That said, there are alternative sources for images or line drawings available for gamers. One can always print or purchase, mount, and paint miniatures for Harpoon V. I am fortunate enough to have several sheets of the counters Clash of Arms published with Harpoon IV. You can also purchase paper standees on WargameVault. For Commonwealth Navies I recently acquired the small scenario package Swarming HMS Duncan from Scoutbush Publications. The scenario pack is expressly designed to work with Harpoon V.
This four-page product for a mere $4.50 has standees for the Royal Navy Type 45 guided missile destroyer (DDG) HMS Duncan and Russian ships and aircraft to recreate confrontations in the Black Sea in 2018.
For myself, Commonwealth Navies and Aircraft serves several purposes. First, as a wargamer, I use the data annexes in Harpoon V games as is their first intent. Second, as an (amateur) wargame practitioner, I use the data annexes in development of wargame scenarios to gain some insight into and explore what is happening in the real world. Previously, I used Harpoon V to attempt to better understand what happened in April 2022 when the Russian Navy lost the cruiser Moskva in the Black Sea. For comparison, the ATG assessment was presented at Historicon 2022. I look forward to more such scenarios in the future. For example, I have played out a few scenarios pitting a Royal Navy Type 45 DDG against a swarm of one way attack (OWA) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned surface vessels (USV) in the Red Sea…
Feature image courtesy royalnavy.mod.uk
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Rocky Mountain Navy Gamer 
A very nice article Ian/RMN. I hope we can play it sometime face-to-face. Get in touch if you also ever want to play some Naval Command Falklands action 🙂 as we talked about during the Armchair Dragoons board game convention. – Peter Robbins -of -> https://wargamingwithpeter.blogspot.com/