Russian attention will most likely take the form of bombers or Spetnaz teams i.e. like what took out Cheyenne Mountain if the Russians really want to erase us.
There are good political reasons why the Russians wouldn't lob an ICBM or other comparable weapon of mass destruction just to eliminate a potentially annoying Revivalist state in Middle America. Remember, they've got the whole rest of the planet to think about, and they don't have the muscle to terrorize it all into submission.
F-16s are post 1930's so no.
They do have f16s. California supplies them, on Russian orders.
Victoria isn't getting the nuke. The question is which other power does; they aren't in the running. California, for instance, can acquire it via normal actions.
They do have an air force. It consists of F-16s, for air superiority missions, and Cessna prop planes, for reconnaissance. Which is, in Lind's mind, the only thing aircraft are useful for.
why not. It does have Established and Efficient bureaucracy(which are my favourite advantages) and population boom (which is my favourite disadvantage IF it comes with the means to manage it) I'm not completely convinced by your other maluses, but at least they come with the means to solve them if all goes well.
Victorian retroculture explicitly makes exceptions for military technology. The catch is that they don't necessarily use post-1930s military tech even when they probably could*, and that after decades of having a retroculture society overall, their civilian military age population is going to be unfamiliar with any modern technology, to the point where it's probably impairing their ability to train men to use modern equipment even if they want to.
If Victoria indulges in nuclear terrorism for a third time it is entirely possible that Russia will cut their throats themselves, as the rest of the world glares at them and growls "If you do not restrain your dog, sir, we will restrain it for you."
Had, I suspect- or at least, the Russians don't make it easy for the poor bastards to operate the things.
On the other hand, I bet we could operate a recon drone air force in such numbers that the Victorians would wear out their planes wasting expensive and limited supplies of missiles trying to shoot them all down. Their overall air defense may actually be very bad. Just because you have the jets, doesn't mean you have the rest of the components of a viable air defense system.
We can probably make gen 1 atgms fairly easily, as copper wire and solid rocket fuel are not exactly hard to make. Plus, first/second gen heatseekers along with generation 1 semi-active seakers are probably doable with a bit of industrial buildup, and knowledge. Another option, of course, is to accept hideous casualties in a propeller only airforce and to just force them to the ground in sheer numbers along with constant airfield attacks.
True.
