CF-18 over Hawaii: Breathtaking

[Topspin]

That is not bad,...and cheaper than the Raptor

Pugachev’s Cobra?

[lownslow]

Ahh, the seldom seen aircraft carrier handbrake turn


That deck was full of F-18s until a couple seconds before this pic was taken...

-Low-N-Slow

[Rockie]

Shit...forgot my wallet.

[Fox 3]

Here is a picture of the thing moving under it's own power changes in Latitudes.

Same airplane different paint job for different client.


http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e353/ ... nriver.jpg

That is one of my favourites taken taxiing down the Senegal River in St Lewis, Senegal.....a real nice African scene.

That photo is just plain cool. It makes me think of Venice...like in the movie "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"

Very Cool.

~FOX~

[x-wind]

Given equal pilots, I don't who would win a maneuvering fight between it and the F-22. But in reality the F-22 would blot this out of the sky before he even knew the Raptor was there. That makes it pretty cost effective.

Sure that's what the military channel claims. But I'm not so sure, my propaganda sense is tingling.

[iflyforpie]

But in reality the F-22 would blot this out of the sky before he even knew the Raptor was there. That makes it pretty cost effective.
.

Yeah they've been saying that since before Vietnam. We all know what a gong show that was for BVR kills.

[Rockie]

There was hugely unwarranted confidence placed in the early AIM-7's and AIM-9's to the point where they took the gun off the airplane because they didn't think they would ever need it. Today is a different story.

The F-22 doesn't even have to light up his radar to kill someone. In fact I'm sure they would prefer not to since any emissions from the aircraft increase the likelyhood of it being detected. There is so much battlefield information and direction coming in from so many sources, all immediately datalinked to aircraft in flight that the F-22 can launch against discreet targets without actually seeing them itself. And modern missiles are light years more capable than the Viet Nam era.

It's pretty much invisible to radar and very capable against IR threats. I'm sure it also has an excellent EW package in it as well, but they probably don't want to use it either unless they absolutely have to for the same reason they minimize using their own radar. So, unless someone can get behind it and do a manual deflection gun shot on it, it will be nigh on impossible to shoot down.

It is also no slouch in the maneuvering department if that proves necessary, Oh yeah, it has a gun too.

[iflyforpie]

But even if they don't lite up the radar the Slammer still emits RF when seeking. Also they don't want to knock out airliners (the US has done that before) and if you have enemy aircraft flying airliner profiles they must visually confirm the target is hostile (FLIR might work, but the Sukhois have pretty good FLIR too).

It is only invisible to radar when flying low and slow, not when flying an interception profile with weapons bays open.

Plus only 180 or so airframes? That's Canadian style numbers. The US would run out pretty quick in a war if it is not as good as they say.

[AuxBatOn]

But even if they don't lite up the radar the Slammer still emits RF when seeking. Also they don't want to knock out airliners (the US has done that before) and if you have enemy aircraft flying airliner profiles they must visually confirm the target is hostile (FLIR might work, but the Sukhois have pretty good FLIR too).

The AMRAAM will use the launcher's radar or the datalinked info to track to its target initially (with its INS) on a long range launch. In the final stage, it will go active and use its own radar. So, it will not emit anything until it goes active.

There are many ways to ID an aircraft. One is visual, but there are others. If AWACS tells you to shoot the aircraft down, it means it went through the ID process (which can be complex) and is a valid order. Otherwise, there are ways to intercept an aircraft, VID it and/or Kill it and be undetected, especially with something like the Raptor.

It is only invisible to radar when flying low and slow, not when flying an interception profile with weapons bays open.

I don't think they fly with the weapons bay open the whole time. Only when they fire.

Plus only 180 or so airframes? That's Canadian style numbers. The US would run out pretty quick in a war if it is not as good as they say.

What was their kill ratio in some of their exercices? 108-0 in Northern Edge 2006. For math's sake, make it 108-1.

That means you'd need 19440 enemy airplanes to shoot down the 180 Raptors.

[Rockie]

The AIM 120 doesn't have to go active until very late in the flight as I understand it. It gets target data sent to it from other sources via datalink. By the time it goes active things happen pretty quickly. Low and slow implies ground clutter and low doppler shift, which admittedly can only help hide the airplane. But that applies to every aircraft and the F-22 shouldn't need it, in fact it was designed specifically not to. The weapons bay only opens long enough to set the dog loose as well, which is only a few seconds and then it closes up again.

Good point about the proper ID'ing of a hostile though. The USS Vincennes incident I'm sure taught them a lot, and the battle field SA is greatly advanced from those days. There are various electronic means of identifying targets that are better than they were in those days as well. The whole point is knowing who's hostile early on and then killing them. If despite everything else a target status is still unknown then they have to get a little closer to positively ID it before killing it. That will put the aircraft at greater risk.

But like I said, in a knife fight with a Sukhoi I would still put my money on the Raptor.

[. ._]

Does anyone else feel like this guy becuase they think this stuff is kinda interesting?



I might be alone here.

-istp

[Nark]

It's been my experience that chicks don't run away nearly as fast when you tell them your an airplane dork as oppose to a comic book collector.



Not to discount the F-22, but we also have the F-18 E/F Super Hornets and the F-35 JSF coming online.

I was shown a nice HUD tape of an F-22 getting shot down by an old fashioned F-18C. Can't remember the exercise, but with all the fancy toys, it can still come down to pilotage.

[AuxBatOn]

It's been my experience that chicks don't run away nearly as fast when you tell them your an airplane dork as oppose to a comic book collector.



Not to discount the F-22, but we also have the F-18 E/F Super Hornets and the F-35 JSF coming online.

I was shown a nice HUD tape of an F-22 getting shot down by an old fashioned F-18C. Can't remember the exercise, but with all the fancy toys, it can still come down to pilotage.

Happenned once, and as far as I was told, the Raptor guy did (obviously) a deadly mistake.

The Hornet is no competition to the Raptor. 1 full generation apart.

[lownslow]

The Hornet is no competition to the Raptor. 1 full generation apart.

"Youth and enthusiasm are no match for age and treachery."

Low-N-Slow

[Expat]

I read somewhere last week that the Pentagon favored cancelling further purchases of the F-22, in favor of boosting the F-35 acquisitions. They said that the speed and stealth were not important in today's war environment. Interesting! I guess it may have to do with fact that the Sukhoi is faster, and can detect it.

[canwhitewolf]

try downloading the power point photos from here

http://file010.mylivepage.com/chunk10/9 ... arNone.pps

some of the best Ive seen