[14 May 2005] You may have noticed there hasn't been much activity around here lately. Thats because this encyclopedia is being superceded by a bigger better model. Dimitris has been working a new database stripper version. This will combine some of the best features of a wiki interface with some basic security so we can continue to ensure the quality of the content. Work has been progressing well with new contributors taking advantage of the new interface to expand the encyclopedias coverage. In addition to the DB2000, Dale Hilliers ADB, Paul Bridges Colonial Wars db and Quinton van Zyl's 1960-79 db are available and it is hoped to add a WWII db in the near future. Just wanted to to take this opportunity to catch everybody up and say a big thanks to Dimitris for all the work he has done. More than ever the encyclopedia is another Harpoon community project.

[4 February 2005] Quite a bit has been done over the last couple of months. More pages have been updated to the new format and at least we have been through at least five database revisions. The Chinese surface fleet pages have been completed all in the new format with spec as currently available. Much assistance for these pages was provided by folks at the Harpooners Point forums and also at the China-Defence forums. Thanks folks. Work is progressing on the US surface fleet pages with the CVs, BBs and about half the CGs done. As always any assistance is welcome, contact us via the Forums.

[6 December 2004] Okay starting to get back into this and do some updating. First off I will be updating to the latest DB version v6.5.21. Ragnar has been very busy since I last did this and list of new platfroms is quite long. Ninety new aircraft, fifty new ships, fifty-seven new facilities and a new submarine. I'll list them all on the appropriate pages. Apart from just updateing I'll be starting the long process of converting to the new format and continuing to expand the encyclopedia, particularly in the ships pages.

[24 May 2004] Ruslan Gorbunov has completed the SSBN entries for the Soviet Union and Russia and these have been uploaded. The aircraft pages have been updated to match the latest DB2000 v6.5.18. New entries are:
1828 Super Etendard M|1995
1829 Super Etendard M|2000
1830 AT-27 Tucano|Venez/1987->99/EMB-312
1831 T-27 Tucano|Venez/1986/EMB-312
1832 T-27 Tucano|Iran/1989/EMB-312
1833 T-33B Shooting Star|Iran/1980->99
1834 Falcon 20C ECM|Norway/1980
1835 Falcon 20C ECM|Venez/1986
1836 Falcon 20C ECM|Spain/1980/TM.11
1837 Falcon 20C ECM|Morocco/1980
1838 Falcon 20C ECM|Pakist/1980
1839 AT-29 ALX|Brazil/2003/EMB-314/trn/atk
1840 A-29 ALX|Brazil/2003/EMB-314/attack
1841 T-27 Tucano|Brazil/1983/EMB-312
1842 AT-27 Tucano|Brazil/1984/EMB-312
1843 A-4G Skyhawk|Australia/1980->84
1844 S-2G Tracker|Australia/1980-82
1845 Shackleton MR.3|S.Afri/1980->84
1846 Shackleton AEW.2
1847 Hawk 60|Zimbabwe/1982
1848 Hawk 60A|Zimbabwe/1992
1849 Hunter FGA.9|Zimbabwe/1980

[5 May 2004] The latest entries from Ruslan Gorbunov, John Osborne and Francois Guerin have been uploaded. Ruslan has now completed all the entries for the SSNs and SSGNs of Russia and the former Soviet Union. John has provided information for three more USN SSN classes; SSN 642 Kamehameha special operations submarine, SSN 671 Narwahl and the early Los Angeles class boats (SSN 688-SSN 750). Finally Francois has provided data for the submarines of the French Navy as well as some data on French submarines in service with other navies.

[25 April 2004] The encyclopedia has been updated to match the latest DB2000 version 6.5.16. New db entries incorporated into the Encyclopleadia are:

Aircraft: 1809 SA.365FDauphin 2|Bahrain/1988/Panther
1810 Mirage IIIEV|Venezuela/1980
1811 Mirage IIIEA|Argentina/1986
1812 Mirage 50EV|Venezuela/
1813 F-5A Freedom Fighter|Venezuela/1980
1814 F-16A Falcon|Venezuela/1982
1815 F-16A Falcon|Venezuela/1998
1816 OV-10E Bronco|Venezuela
1817 F-5A Freedom Fighter|Venezuela/1993
1818 Boeing 707-320C|Venez/1993/Tank
1819 Mirage 50FC|Chile/1980
1820 AB.212 ASW|Venezuela/1980
1821 F-16AM Falcon MLU|Netherlands/2010+/DO
1822 F-16A Falcon|Netherlands/1986
1823 B-52H Stratofortress|2001
1824 A-4KU Skyhawk|Kuwait/1980
1825 Mirage F.1CZ|S. Africa/1980
1826 Mirage F.1CZ|S. Africa/1982->92

Ships: 1484 F 21 Mariscal Sucre|1980/Venez/L

Subs: 361 S 31 Sabalo|1980/Type 1300/Venez
362 S 31 Sabalo|1992/Type 1300/Venez

Facilities : 756 SAM (Type 81 Battery)|1982
757 Runway (12k ft)

[24 April 2004] In the aftermath of public release three new contributors have joined the team. John Osborne is working on the US, Australian and Algerian submarine pages. Ruslan Gorbunov is doing the same for the Russian submarines. Already a number of new entries have been posted up. In addition Francois Guerin has offered to work on entries for France and South Korea. As result of this new work, progress on the facilities pages has ceased for a short time

[19 April 2004] Work has been progressing on the facilities pages over the last month. Pages are currently available for AAA, Artillery, SSMs, Ground Units, Structures and SAMs. The Russian SAMs page has been completed today as has the credits at the bottom of this page.

[20 March 2004] The new look aircraft page is now complete. Scroll through the list and find the aircraft you are after. If you find anything missing or incorrect please let us know. Work has now shifted to building the facilities page. This is not anticipated to take very long - in the geologic time scale at least:-). After that we'll get back to the ship and submarine pages.

[2 March 2004] Work has progressed significantly in the last month. The rebuild of the aircraft page has begun to make it more user friendly, ship pages have been added for ten nations, Algeria to Chile plus a page for civilian vessels and all platfroms now have the DB2000 entries listed and are linked to the data pages created by Dimitris database stripper program. These page contain all the important data on the platforms as they are implemented in the DB2000 database. This is a huge advance for the encyclopedia and we thank Dimitris for his work. Thanks also to those who have contributed by checking encyclopedia content and functionality.

Credits

We would like to extend a thank you to all those who have assisted in the development of these pages.

First of all the Harpoon HQ crew, Ragnar, Mike, Dale, Craig, Ron, Tom and Dimitris for all their help with web page construction and how to stuff, being ever ready to check out pages, give feedback and generally making the whole thing possible. Also to Dimitris for the wonderful database stripper application that allows you to the exact database entries data in html format. Without this marvellous little utility the Encyclopedia wouldn't half as useful.

Also to the members of the Harpoon Database Group. This group is a real asset for all harpooners, contributing to the continuing improvement of the data used in all forms of Harpoon.

To Calum Gibson who has always been a great help with information, formatting concerns general encouragement.

To all those over the months who have looked over the pages for formatting errors, data errors and to check the general accessibility of the Encyclopedia project. The feedback and encouragement received has meant that the project has kept moving even after numerous and major redesigns have been required.

Below is a list of the references that have been used to prepare these pages. I think its pretty comprehensive but anyone sees anything that is not properly credited please drop a line so it can be fixed. The same goes for any other errors you may spot.
-Daniel Hayes
References:

Books and Magazines

Australian Aviation magazine, various issues, Aerospace Publications Pty Ltd, Fyshwick.

Bishop, Chris and Drury, Ian, World Military Weapons, Crescent Books, New York, 1988.

Foss, Christopher and Miller, David, Modern Land Combat, Tiger Books International PLC, London, 1991

Gunston, Bill and Spick, Mike, Modern Fighting Helicopters, Tiger Books International PLC, London, 1991

Jordan, John and Miller, David, Modern Submarine Combat, Tiger Books International PLC, London, 1991

Miller, Chris and Miller, David, Modern Naval Combat, Tiger Books International PLC, London, 1991

Koenig, William, Scofield, Peter, Soviet Military Power, Brompton Books Corp., Greenwich, 1989

Frawley, Gerard, The International Directory of Military Aircraft, Aerospace Publications Pty Ltd, Fyshwick, 2002.

Frawley, Gerard, The International Directory of Civil Aircraft, Aerospace Publications Pty Ltd, Fyshwick, 2001.

Wilson, Stewart, Military Aircraft of Australia, Aerospace Publications Pty Ltd, Fyshwick, 1994.

Wilson, Stewart, Combat Aircraft Since 1945, Aerospace Publications Pty Ltd, Fyshwick, 2000.

Faulkner, Keith, Janes Warship Recognition Guide, Harper Collins Publishers, Glasgow, 1996.

Foss, Christopher, Janes Tank Recognition Guide, Harper Collins Publishers, Glasgow, 1996.

Ripley, Tim, Modern US Army, Salamander Books Ltd, London, 1992.

Miller, David, Modern Sub Hunters, Salamander Books Ltd, London, 1992.

Jordan, John, Modern US Navy, Salamander Books Ltd, London, 1992.

Miller, David and Gibbons, Tony, Modern Warships, Salamander Books Ltd, London, 1992.

Miller, David, Modern Tanks and Fighting Vehicles, Salamander Books Ltd, London, 1992.

Ripley, Tim and Spick, Mike, Modern Attack Aircraft, Salamander Books Ltd, London, 1992.

Gunston, Bill, Modern Fighters and Attack Aircraft, Salamander Books Ltd, London, 1980

Walmer, Max, An Illustrated Guide to Strategic Weapons, Salamander Books Ltd, London, 1988.

Chant, Chris, The Hamlyn Concise Guide to Military Aircraft of the World, Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited, Feltham, 1981.

White, B.T., Wheeled Armoured Fighting Vehicles, Blandford Books, Poole, 1983.

V.P.Kuzin, V.I.Nikolskyi, Voenno-Morskoy Flot SSSR 1945-1991, IMO St.Petersburg, 1996.

Yu.V.Apalkov, Podvodnye lodki, t.1, ch.1-2, Galeya Print, St.Petersburg, 2002-2003.

Podvodnye lodki Rossii, t.4, ch.1, TsKB MT Rubin, SPb, 1996.

A.B.Shirikorad, Oruzshie otechestvennogo flota 1945-2000, Kharvest, OOO Izd.AST, 2001.

A.N.Gusev, Podvodnye lodki s krylatymi raketami, Galeya Print, St.Petersburg, 2000.

V.E.Il'in, A.I.Koleskikov, Podvodnye Lodki Rossii: Illustrirovannyi spravochnik, OOO Izd.Astrel, OOO Izd.AST, 2002.

Websites