Comments by "Pogo" (@pogo1140) on "Sandboxx" channel.

  1. In one exercise an F-22 pilot saw a flight of C-130's down in the weeds. The F-22 pilot dove to get the easy kill. He did not see the A-10 that was trailing the C-130, who promptly killed it
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  2. A recent simulation involving a USAF AI controlled drone, the drone Identified it's target, when the operator denied the drone permission to kill the target, the drone proceeded to kill the operation and then the target. When the program was modified to prevent the drone from killing the operator, it proceeded to kill the communications tower that the operator used to give it instructions before killing what it had designated as the target. So still want AI controlled drones?
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  3. ​@bbaker3510 yes. Especially when one of those places has been aching to settle blood debts against the Russians.
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  4. It's how an A-10 driver got a Raptor kill. His squadron noticed a pattern in the F-22's fight. So they sent an lone A-10 out and he flew in the radar shadow of a C-130. The F-22's seeing the intruding C-130, ignored it while they continued killing F-16's and F-15's. At some point one F-22 went low to make another kill and soon the Raptor pilot heard "Guns, Guns, Guns on F-22" and looked around to see a lone A-10.
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  5.  @1224chrisng  I wish it were true. But it actually runs on commercial jet fuel.
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  6. India decided to by French I think
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  7. @Armor Cast  the USAF was in a worse shape than the Navy. It was dominated by strategic bomber generals and often had tanker and bomber pilots in F-4's. Institutionally it no longer taught a2a combat. It was not uncommon that the only BFM training pilots got were informal ones that happened on the way back to base after a bombing or intercept practice.
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  8.  @danielc9312  In particular, the Poles. When the Russians crossed the border on 2/24/2022, the Poles were the first to go to their warehouses grab everything that could be used quickly and without training and put them on trucks to Ukraine. They were among the first to show up to volunteer to fight
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  9. Not tactics. Training
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  10. US fighter pilots currently struggle to get 150hrs per yer. The current Air Combat Command this spring seems to be more concerned about uniforms grooming standards than getting the pilots trained to fight
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  11.  @xero6774  Mach 10 means your warhead is a glowing torch, most modern IR seeker heads are fairly immune to decoys.
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  12.  @Ariccio123  Maybe he wanted a clean kill, the volume of chaff and flares a C-130 can pump out is insane.
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  13. The Soviets were not the only one's flying MiG's with a red star
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  14. How many aircraft carriers are you going to risk landing a C-130 on a Ford Class Carrier knowing that if you make a mistake, the carrier and every it's entire air wing are going up in flames? When they tried this, they had to get 40 knots over the deck, and you could only land 1 because there was not room to land anything on the deck once one C-130 was on the deck. No, you'd be better off using a C-2 or an Osprey.
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  15.  @RobertHollander  You don't, you end up giving waivers. It's also not even. You have pilots in high demand units that fly a lot, 2-3 times a day 5 days a week. They rack up 700-1000hrs a year. The front line units from 2018-21 hovered between 81.6-130.8 hrs/yr. It got better in 2022 at 128hr/yr. The Alaska based 18's Fighter Interceptor Squadron is a former Aggressor squadron and acts as both interceptor and aggressor squadron for the 2 F-35 and 2 F-22 squadrons and Red Flag Alaska. Their F-16 are flying 2 time a day when they are not intercepting aircraft. And based on that and the number of F-22's F-35, the 5th gen pilots are probably flying maybe 2-3 times a week
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  16. Well they could call them Cylon Raiders
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  17.  @Xenomorphine  what's the blast radius of the JDAM (knowing full well that a JDAM is just the guidance kit and not the thing that goes boom)?
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  18. @xavierwilmerng6317  I watched the full video, I also watched the video of the original test flights. It's impressive but pointless. It would be less dangerous, faster to fly the C-130 out of Guam or the Philippines.
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  19. Also they expect to spend more time in the simulator instead of actually flying the F-35A.
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  20. There are limits. It's easier to adapt a carrier plane for Air Force use than it is to adapt an Air Force plane for carrier operation. You can for example take an F-35C and fly it to an Air Force base and the USAF pilots can be flying it without any modifications. You can't take the USAF's F-35A and land it on a carrier, not without building a new plane.
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  21.  @xero6774  All that changes is the intercept angle and the how soon you launch the SAM. The defender does not have to chase the missile, it's coming towards you. You just has to put a bunch of shrapnel in front of it.
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  22. It's 82m for the flyaway cost. Then you add in the 20 year maintenance contract because only LM is authorized to do to all but the most basic maintenance. If the computer goes down, LM will fix it, if the helmet goes down, off to the manufacturer it goes.
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  23.  @Jeff-mv2vm  no harm no foul :)
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  24. ​@islahinckley4746 it pentrated Iraqi IFV, BTR's BMP's and Iraqi tanks
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  25. It's the aggressor camo
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  26. The US has pointed out that they will not be providing any support for an Israeli strike against Iran. Iraq is a no. Will the Saudi's help 50/50?? Either way, they would have to fly via Saudi air space and use tankers. They have 7 tankers, this limits the size of the attack force.
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  27. ​​ @ThatGuyKazz  F-15 and F-16 7 an 5 seconds.
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  28.  @rogerwilco5918  some nation led by a charlie chaplin cosplayer?
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  29.  @thehoogard  the f-35 cost analyst works in peacetime. It does not work in wartime when from d0 your airbase is being attacked with missiles and an Airborne regiment landing to within artillery and mortar range of your runway and a armor brigade pushing up to support the Airborne troops ti capture the base
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  30.  @Florkl  The reason the F-16 is what it is is because of the folks who opposed it had run out of options. The F-16 program manager knew that to keep his program alive, he needed to play the political game and accept the edicts from the bomber and eagle mafia and integrate enough of their demands into the platform while preserving as much of the design as possible.
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  31. Maverick and Rooster are stealing the F-14 to escape. Su-57 will be one of the planes sent to stop them. Oh, and the F-14 is capable of out turning the Su-57, for one, repeat one turn. I've seen the F-14 do a 9g turn with it's wings folded back and at 500 knots is said to be capable of 10g without damaging the airframe. A pilot once pulled 13g in one then limped home and landed the thing. It's power on stall speed appears to be slower than the Su-57's so at speeds below 250 knots it will have more available g and turn rate than the Su-57 though the 57's trust vectoring might be able to compensate at the cost of forward velocity and lift. So a viable counter to the Su-57's low speed thrust vector turn could be to for the F-14 to merge below 350 knots, entice the 57 to vector thrust and when it does, go vertical force the 57 to vector thrust even more and stall it's wings, then drop the 14's nose back down and gun the 57. (it's an F-15 tactic used against Indian Su-30 pilots who tried to use that plane's vector thrust in a dogfight)
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  32. ​@bryonslatten3147 laserpig ignored the incident where 2 a-10's got 2 gun kills for every 7-8 tanks they killed
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  33.  @bryonslatten3147  it means they destroyed 7-8 tanks during one sortie, 5-6 using missiles 2 using their 30mm cannons
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  34. @bryonslatten3147  Re F-111. Flying at night means they were attacking immobile targets. As a rule, the Iraqis did not like to fight at night. So the F-111's were attacking static targets. The A-10's in question attacked 3 different Iraqi units in 3 different locations as they were moving to engage US mechanized infantry. They only counted the ones that brewed up, they did not count the ones that were just smoking. T-55's T-62's don't have the armor of later models, not the roof, back to top of the hills. This is because the protection is expected to resist an attack from the same height more or less as the tank.
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  35. What is the power on stall speed of the F-35? Asking because it does not matter what the pilot claims are, at some point that wing will stall and the available g at any given speed and load will be determined by it.
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  36.  @colejones594  Now last I checked, the beaten area of the A-10's gun is smaller than the lethal blast radius of a 500lb bomb. Note this is not with the APDU round but rather for the explosive 30mm round which are like supersonic 30mm grenades
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  37. ​@ADB1979 there are more nazis in Russia then there are in Ukraine. Some work for putins youth groups, RT the Russian backed militias and PMC's
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  38. @markwood4555  those non Nimitz class can't generate the speed needed to keep 40 knots of wind over the deck. And none can carry more than 1 c-130 but they can handle 5 - 8 v-22's. So no, better to use something that is already capable of and is built to land and operate out of existing carriers and has the required lift capability, hence C-2 or V-22
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  39.  @xavierwilmerng6317  Because the USN can't afford to not be using the Nimitz and Ford class for the purpose they are currently used for. They can't sideline their air wing in order to accommodate a single C-130
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  40.  @natehammar7353  Why would you need the carrier when it's easier and safer to use a tanker? If you use a carrier, from the time it lands to the time it leaves the deck, the carrier's entire air wing, can't use the flight deck. Planes that are in the air, that need to be re-fueled can't because tankers can't take off or land. Fresh fighters can't be launched and the ones that are in the air can't land.
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  41.  @bricefleckenstein9666  We have access to storage facilities and the runways that service them. So we can forward deploy the munitions and refuel aircraft there
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  42. @Jeff  Jeff read what I posted. I did not say that the US lost a carrier much less 2.
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  43.  @piotrd.4850  So was the F-35. It currently costs more than a 30 year old F-15E to to keep an F-35A in the air, and that's with the F-15E flying more hours than the F-35A.
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  44. 6,000 Shaheed drones cost less than $200k less than a single AIM-9X
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  45. Also in 1999 2 F-14's and 2 F-15's lunched 6 BVR missiles (AIM-120,AIM-54, and AIM-7's) were launched at 4 MIG-25. All 6 missiles missed.
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  46.  @slider292  detection does not mean positive id either. Ir can be blocked by smoke, clouds, fog, a mountain or hill.
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  47.  @scottyius  Not sure. The original plan was to build new M1A2's with tungsten armor, I think the Ukrainians howled at the extended timeline which meant that the M1's would not be able to get into the fight until 2024, by which time the US would be delivering them to the Russian backed government in Ukraine. So the new plan is to take M1A1's that had already been upgraded from storage and send those to Ukraine
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  48. @T51B1  the maverick usually worked, and so did the gun. They counted the score via results from the gun cam and the pilots checking each other's work.
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  49. @Skinflaps_Meatslapper  the A-10 was expected to attack armor columns that were being defended by radar guided Mobile SA-5's and ZSU's and MANPADS. They expected to lose a lot or all of them. In the same vein, the USAF expected to lose every single European based F-15, F-16, and F-111 in the 1st 1-2 months of fighting. And they expected to lose the replacements nearly as quickly. Got that from the various reports and analysis during the 80's when the Warsaw pact was still a threat.
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  50.  @truisticprince  OK, that places its at about the same performance as the F/A-18.
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  51.  @Trigger_Treats  They could use the EJ200 as a temporary replacement for the F414, with the RR EJ200 and develop the EJ2x0 stage 1 or 2 as a permanent replacement or the Snecma M88-3
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  52. The F-22 has lost to the A-10 without handicap.
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  53. As far as the financial oversight folks are seeing the DoD is being overcharged by LM & it's subcontractors by at least 30% over cost plus and have been since production began. Components that cost $400 in the commercial market are being sold to the services at $1,200.
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  54. One of the Darpa dogfight AI's lost to a DCS pilot. He lost the 1'st couple of sets, then got a guns kill on the AI.
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  55. ​ @krizzle4087  how do you use an aim-9x if the enemy's stealth hard to find. Now add pilots taking the fight down to the deck to use terrain masking.
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  56.  @lagrangewei  Lockheed Martin made the pitch, also denial of export permission was threatened whenever alternate aircraft were considered.
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  57. The f-16 losses energy in a 9g turn ai or human. It has 1 maybe 1-2 9g turn before it has to reduce the turn
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  58. ​ @asherwiggin6456  $200,000 for a 6,000 unit buy.
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  59. ​ @Inkling777  Russia already has a factory building drones under license
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  60. Yes, that's a grand total of 2 F-16's lost since they were deployed
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  61.  @colejones594  that's ok, I use to know this stuff but not anymore and my hard drive that had the blast tables went kaput
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  62. 2nd F-16. not 3
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  63. Thing is missiles can be defeated by a pilot who is trained and practiced at it. Starting with learning how to reduce the enemy aircraft's radar systems.
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  64.  @SwarmerBees  KIS, the 340 has a smaller logistics footprint and Ukraine has pilots who are rated to fly it. They just need the radar operators.
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  65. That was addressed by Vought. It's not like the company had not ever built a carrier capable fighter.
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  66.  @fredmdbud  He's talking about when the F-35B was years behind schedule and 1/2 of the USMC's F/A-18 fleet was grounded due to lack of spare parts and the F-35 that was supposed to replace them had yet to be built.
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  67.  @frankrenda2519  The Ukrainian Air Force still has 20-30 aircraft, it still flies sorties daily. Thing is a lot of the Ukrainian Air Force was grounded for lack of spare parts, so when an aircraft would need major maintenance, they would park it and use it for parts to get other planes back up in the air. When the pictures of the destroyed aircraft were shown, what you immediately notice is none of them were in shelters or revetments or separate parking areas that are needed if you have an airplane with an engine that runs. Instead you had groups of 6-12 aircraft parked wingtip to wingtip in one row, nose to nose with the next row. That's not how you park active aircraft.
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  68.  @michaelkendall662  The story when I was going through the various reports was that the human was to be the final yes/no decision maker.
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  69. As chaosXpert said, they are engaged. Most of the Russian losses are of their top of the line stuff. the only one's missing are the MiG-35 and the Su-57. The armor, the artillery, rocket systems, the SAM's, all their advanced stuff are all represented in Ukraine and it makes up almost 1/3 of the stuff that was destroyed or damaged or captured.
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  70.  @ricodelpiero  If the jet you are trying to shoot has it's exhaust shielded and cooled, and it's skin cooled, your IR missile may be restricted to 1960's era looking straight up the exhaust pipe limits. so there go your HOB and forward quarter shots.
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  71.  @drosendahl  They've had a Gripen E operating for a decade now, it's the prototype/testbed that the production Gripen E is based on. They also have a number of early production E's
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  72. A slow missile can hit a fast missile.
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  73.  @matchesburn  The F-22 was reduced to 200 planes because it cost $150 million dollars, this is why we still have F-15C's in service and why the F-15EX is being purchased
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  74. The hours are man hours.
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  75. Need something to keep those 100km missiles from being launched at them from 8km up.
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  76. Tell that to Russian TV, they are wondering why they have not been able to win. And they are beginning to wonder if they ever will.
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  77. ​@cancelanime1507 I've seen the thing as close as they let the public at airshows, it makes the F-14 look svelte.
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  78.  @nomar5spaulding  The MiG-25 was thought to be a wonder weapon because it could fly at Mach 3. The thought was that it was a Mach 3 F-15. It wasn't. It's radar was big but wasn't anything to write about, it could not turn worth a damn with it's 2.5g turn limit. it's range was horrible. There's a HUD video of from an F-14 with a MiG-25 in it's guns crosshair desperately trying to escape and the F-14 was just lazily turning to keep it's pipper on the MiG.
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  79. The Ukrainian Air Force have been training with visiting California ANG pilots for a years.
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  80. The Navy would be better off making a Rapid Dragon Launcher small enough to fit into the cargo bay of an MV-22. If you use the C-130, it will have to fly out of land bases and do aerial refueling along the way
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  81. These are f-16A/B's probably with MLU upgrades.
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  82. It just means re-learning how to hide from enemy sensors until you are close enough to make a killing attack from behind
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  83.  @mikoi7472  Radar locks can be broken, we've been doing since the 1940's. And you can avoid getting locked on to begin with. heck even a propeller driven WW2 era transport can evade radar.
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  84. The most recent data released by the DOD about the F-35C's mission capable rate was that it was between 15-30%. Also recently released was that the Navy was changing the F-35 deployment from 2 10 plane squadrons per carrier with to 1 16 plane squadron and 3 F/A-18E/F squadrons with 10-8 planes each, . 30% of 16 is 4-5 planes available at any given time. Mind you even if the MC rate doubles to 60%, it would still be lower than the MC rate of the F-14A at the same stage in it's career.
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  85.  @mrp9023  Soviet doctrine uses tanks, but not the way US or Western doctrine does. Ukraine is kinda using a mixture of both depending on the unit. They'll need to adapt to make use of the new equipment's strengths
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  86. Was the Vietnamese pilot wearing a G suit?
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  87. What happens when the Stealth fighter meets another stealth fighter? Neither will see each other at BVR ranges.
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  88. Meantime millions of people get into their Hondas and Toyotas turned the ignition keys and drove off 90% of the time.
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  89.  @milisha98  Then F-35's should have zero problems locking on to an F-22 or another F-35 right?
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  90. That was WW2, deployment was the priority
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  91. @islahinckley4746  also I don't recall if the tests were done with live rounds in the tank.
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  92. The reason the F-16 made the intercept is because they are trying to reduce the preserve the F-22. With no new F-22's they are trying to conserve airframe life and maintenance. Problem is that the F-16 Block 30/32 are over 35 years old and the last one was delivered in 1982 and the last block 42 was delivered in 1992.
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  93.  @Trigger_Treats  The proposed M88-4 and the EJ2x0 Stage 3 have equal to or more thrust than the F414 used for the Gripen E
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  94.  @josephchristianson3001  Fly by wire does not compensate for poor aerodynamics. The F-117 could get away with it because it did not have to fight, it really should not have an "F" designation at all but should have been designated A-117 as it has no air to air capabilities.
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  95.  @John_Smith_86  And how prey tell was Denmark "misbehaving"?
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  96. What are the chances of a rape victim marrying her rapist who also murdered her husband? Yeah, it's that bad..
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  97. That would be a ground up build, 150 to 300 mil each
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  98. ​ @alexturnqest6202  what makes you think you will have that ew support? Those planes need to based somewhere and a GPS or laser guided mortar will kill them just fine.
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  99. That works out to something like 18-20 million per aircraft which bring the cost of an 89 million dollar plane to 109 million
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  100.  @kathrynck  The only time you send in the AC-130 is when there is no active SAMs, hostile fighters or helicopter gunships.
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  101. The one used in the movie is a non-flying museum piece. There may be 2 F-14's in the USA that could be restored to flying condition, maybe.
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  102. It's not the radar that would kill the japanese carriers, it's the 4 2,000lb bombs that can be delivered to the IJN carriers without any significant resistance. You just need one in each carrier's flight deck.
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  103.  @reallifeengineer  it's a scenario borne out of final countdown and the Grim Reapers dcs video of a modern fighter stopping the pearl harbor attack. As to finding the carriers, it's the only large group of ships north of Oahu.
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  104. The NGAD will probably be reduced to 100 or less units.
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  105.  @kokofan50  You'd be surprised how much maintenance is needed if you want that stored aircraft functional.
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  106. The problem with "concurency" was and is its running at the same time as you are building the plane which leads to the customer refusing delivery of the plane because the software needed to fly it that you were supposed to provide is not ready yet. Or that aircraft just delivered have to fly with restrictions or have to be "fixed" because what you delivered and are still delivering are beta models and not the finished product. This was not the case with the F-16 as those early blocks were exactly what they were meant to be. That the aircraft had other requirements added was a USAF thing. They wanted a bomb truck in order to protect F-15 procurement. Thus they even came with the idea of mounting a 30mm gunpod hoping to use it to kill off the A-10 program.
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  107.  @Pathfinder1932-t5d  The US turned off the Datalinks required by HIMARS effectively disabling their ability to use their long range capabilities reducing their range to less than the short range Grads.
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  108. ​ @jonathanpfeffer3716  the F-35 does not have sidewinder when in stealthy mode. The B and D don't have guns in that loadout either.
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  109.  @MrSJPowell  speed is needed to throw the missiles further
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  110. Does anyone know what the actual range is of that Russian Hypersonic AGM? I see multiple ranges. Putin, Tass and Pravda have 3 different ranges and the test launch was less than 400 miles.
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  111. Effective because the Ukrainians don't have the Air Force than can patrol it's airspace.
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  112. Is a missile kill at 1km a dogfight?
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  113.  @ChilapaOfTheAmazons  10 km is WVR, the range that all dogfights have taken place at.
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  114.  @ChilapaOfTheAmazons  A missile launched at 10km will require extreme agility and maneuvering in order to defeat it even if it means just going into a high g rolling break while popping chaff and flares and hoping that the decoy that you are pulling works.
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  115.  @kathrynck  Defensive and offensive maneuvering are part of a dogfight. If I'm defensive, maneuvering to evade an attacking aircraft, you bet your bippi I'm in a dogfight. When Saburu Sakai was dancing all over the sky with 9 Hellcats trying to kill him, he was 100% defensive and in a dogfight.
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  116.  @ChilapaOfTheAmazons  The dogfight or ACM is defined commonly as the tactical art of moving, turning and/or situating one's fighter aircraft in order to attain a position from which an attack can be made on another aircraft. That can be at 1km it can be at 50km.
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  117.  @kathrynck  If you are doing so in order to get your own weapon launch, yeah, you are in a dogfight. Think two warriors with spears, swords and daggers. Long, Medium and short range.
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  118. ​ @ruhtraeregel  hint at that range, all the radar plane has to do is change direction and the missile runs out of energy
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  119.  @RobWalters-w7x  Kyiv is 75 miles from the Belarus border and inside the Patriot coverage. From the eastern side of Kyiv, they can see as far as Kharkiv to the east, Shatolov Airfield Smolensk to the North, Halino Airdrome in Kursk giving 20-30 minutes of warning before a raid can hit
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  120. @user-de6vc3lw2x  from kyiv the plane can warn Kharkiv of an inbound missile launch aircraft 5 to 10 minutes before it launches a hypersonic missile or a strike aircraft 15 to 30 minutes before it can reach glide bomb release range.
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  121.  @АлександрКовалев-х6ы6щ  that's what Russia said about the HIMARS, they destroyed all of them, or about Patriot, btw Ukraine now has what 4 batteries instead of 2 and another 7 are being negotiated. Russia is still trying to regain what it lost from the 2023 Ukrainian summer offiensive
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  122.  @АлександрКовалев-х6ы6щ  You really should have stayed out of Ukraine.
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  123. GPS guided bombs
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  124. The YF-17 was the Nothrop entry and when it lost the USAF contract to the YF-16 Northrop sold it to the Navy and they modified the design to meet the Navy's specs and it became the F/A-18A. Same process here with the General Dynamics/Vought proposal.
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  125. Can you guarantee it can shoot?
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  126. @jloiben12  has it ever fired/launched a missile in anger? There have been a lot of weapons that worked 100% of the time in testing only to fail 80% of the time in the real world
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  127. Go marines, they can have you from never ever touched an airplane to flying a prop trainer in a few weeks then off to more advanced prop plane then jet trainer.
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  128. Are they block 30 or 40? Been reading conflicting reports
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  129. Has the F-35 fixed that issue of the stealth coating getting damaged at M1+?
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  130.  @ThisPartIsAndrew  Really? it's IR sensors have learned to see through a mylar blanket, glass sheets, triple layer canopy?
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  131. The A-10 isn't going to be flying 400 miles to contact. At most it will be flying 300 miles 200ft above the ground. And over the battlefield 50-100ft. The same envelope that the Ukrainians are operating their SU-25's.
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  132. As far as I can tell, the AESA radar does not show up as a radar on most radar warning systems.
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  133. Typhoon is about the same maintenance but less capable of the low altitude war that is being fought in the skies over Ukraine
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  134.  @jamesmaddison4546  I though so too when I read it.
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  135.  @mcbellyman3265  I hope, cause we've seen lately that after all is said and done, the denial was the fiction that covered something the USAF/USN was uncomfortable with or was unwilling to admit to at the time.
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  136.  @JackMyersM66  The first time I saw it was on the Drive
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  137. And the S400 seems to be vulnerable to small plywood drones
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  138.  @natehammar7353  If you can get a C-130 out that far, you can get a KC-135, heck, you can tank off the carrier's own tankers which would not put her flight deck out of operation
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  139.  @bricefleckenstein9666  The Osprey can carry the 4 missile variant and fit it inside the cargo bay
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  140. Alex, they stopped buying spare parts for the A-10 and that is what's driving their low availability rates and the same thing also effects the F-16
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  141. How do you keep the EW drone from jamming it's own side?
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  142.  @hphp31416  So all the other side has to know is which frequencies are not being jammed which they can find is short order.
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  143.  @NZobservatory  There was reason to be worried. Americas rep at the time consisted of a failed hostage rescue in Iran, a bombing raid in Lebanon that resulted in minor damage and the loss of 2 US Navy aircraft and captured crews and a short naval engagement against the Iranians
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  144. No, it won't, it will just require a bit of reprogramming to adjust for the speed and have the missile launch earlier since that speed increases the intercept range of the Patriot missile.
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  145.  @JR-ng9yo  The've working this out for years and they've come up with 2 approaches. A Shoot it on reentry. harder, speeds are much higher It's a matter of programming and where you need to put the shrapnel for the missile to fly into. Option B is shoot the launcher or the missile during it's launch phase. This means moving an Aegis destroyer under the expected launch path and killing the missile as it launches from it's land base or killing the launch aircraft using a fighter.
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  146.  @JR-ng9yo  They have a land based Aegis system, they actually had it in Romania while the THAD system was offline. Re-entry was for ICBM's which was what they were studying at the time, the warheads come in at faster than Mach 10.
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  147. The Thunderbirds gave up their F-4 Phantom II's because it cost too much to keep them flying. The F-22 costs more than the F-16's they are flying now. About 60,000/flt hr vs the F-16's $22,514/hr
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  148. @phillipbanes5484  they haven't built any because external tanks compromise the stealth of the F-35. The stealth fuel tanks and pylons being developed for the F-22 will change that.
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  149. @phillipbanes5484  the current external tanks are not stealthy. When you drop the tanks the pylons stay on the plane. These show up on radar.
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  150. @@phillipbanes5484 The F-35 especially the B and C models will need those tanks. They need to push well past their current combat range in order to keep their launch platforms as far away from hostiles as possible. Similarly the F-35A also needs to operate from fairly secure bases, as far to the rear as possible. And while aerial tankers are available, these show up on radar from over 300 miles away allowing the enemy to know where to focus their attention.
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  151.  @andrewday3206  And yet the F-35B forced compromises on the F-35A and C. A better option would have been to build the F-35C and have all 3 services buy just that model.
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  152.  @andrewday3206  The space required for the lift fan behind pilot dictated the shape of the B model and that shape carried on to the A and C model. Without that fan, the area behind the pilot in the A and C model would have looked like that on the F-16 or F-22.
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  153.  @andrewday3206  Short answer, yes. That fan space meant larger fuselage from the cockpit all the way back to the exhaust. That means extra weight in a design arena were every extra pound counts. Extra weight means more fuel burned, means more fuel needed, means more weight.
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  154.  @andrewday3206  The B was build because the Marines wanted a supersonic Harrier. News flash, the Marines use to fly A-4 Skyhawks, F-8 Crusaders, F-4 Phantoms and F/A-18C's, None of which can fly off their ships. And operating F-35's off the assault ships means offloading the helicopters, which means the Assault ship can't do it's job which is to bring helicopters to transport the Marines to the fight.
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  155.  @andrewday3206  1 In order to operate the F-35B you need supplies, spare parts, munitions, support equipment which will require space, and secure facilities which the assault ship does not carry when operating helicopters, so all that will displace the stuff used to operate the helicopters. 2. The Marines wanted the F-35 for CAS, In order to have a tactically useful impact you have to have numbers, 4 planes is not enough. To provide CAS for marines they need 12-24 planes. 3. For CAS, they also need an airborne FAC and that guy is in an F/A-18F on the big carrier.
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  156.  @andrewday3206  Commanders and pilots defer to the politicians who buy the gear and set policy. It does not change the math of how many planes are needed to provide air support for the Marines in contact. Something this Assault ship is tasked with doing, And that math says 12-24 planes or 12-24 AH-1s.
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  157.  @andrewday3206 I take it you were not around when the USAF we're purchasing F-15's? Look up the history of the A-10 and F-16. Neither of which would be in USAF service if it were not for the intervention of politicians. Come to think of it, a similar political intervention is why the F-4 and A-7 were purchased by the USAF. Also look up why the USN bombed Lebanon with the sun in their face, hint political intervention. Same goes with target selection and ROE.
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  158. Yo can open a bay door at mach 25 to launch a 5 ton payload, you just have high enough. The space shuttle use to do that a lot
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  159. POTUS is not the one who needs to know, but the folks who are responsible for making it happen.
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  160. Robin Olds used that same USAF planning stupidity to bait the NVAF into the air so his F-4's could kill them.
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  161. I'd ignore the sam launchers and just kill the command cab. With those gone the missiles are just lawn ornaments.
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  162. Funny but in DCS we've been dealing with stealth ac by using terrain and putting our radar on standby until we find them. After that it's knife fight in a phone booth with F-35's having a less than happy time when they face F-16's, F-15's, MiG-29"s and Su-27 family.
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  163. Russians love mariskova
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  164.  @mill2712  Yep, typo
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  165. The Ukrainians will not be flying 4hr missions, 1.5hr max. So 1.5hrs = 25.5 man hours of maintenance A 6 man crew crew generates 6 man hours/hr That means they can have the plane ready in 4hrs 15 min. 3 shifts with 6 men/shift will be able to generate 4 F-16 sorties/day.
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  166.  @spacecore117  the Ukrainians are not engaging in dogfights period. To do that requires them to fly high enough that the Russian SAM radars can see them and shoot them long before they ever get in range of the Russian aircraft. Ukraine is an air to ground war. Almost all of the confirmed aircraft kills have been by SAM'S.
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  167.  @LuvBorderCollies  Near as I can tell it would be a high risk proposition for the Russians to place it's SAM systems within 15-45km of the battlefields so that give a 13km wide band over the battlefield that are kinda S300 safe provided you fly 10m off the ground. AA guns, unless they are mobile would also be leery of getting too close for the same reason. Ukrainian drones targeting them for artillery or rocket strikes. That same problem persists for the Ukrainians
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  168. Re armor on fighters, Other than dedicated CAS aircraft none of the fighters since the P-47 have any significant armor beyond fairly thin lightweight stuff that do little to protect the plane's pilot or it's systems from combat damage.
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  169. No, just get a lot of street sweepers and vacuums to clear the road before each launch and recovery.
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  170.  @robkafczyk2752  using the latest available for a bulk purchase of 6,000 units. Bulk purchase get discounts
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  171. True, unfortunately the last True SAAB was the 900.
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  172. ​ @kathrynck  as I recall that 100 mile shot was also flying towards the missile thus helping close the range. if it was going away from it the range could be 50 miles, add some maneuver and the range drops as low as 20-30 miles
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  173.  @kathrynck  Yeah, you have to give the -71 so much lead that the missile's guidance system just does the math and goes, "nope, by the time i get there the plane will be going faster then me" We also see it in DCS when folks with Amraams launch at 30 miles and we just drop to the deck and start zigzaging away from it, it either hits the ground or every so often we find it 200-600 behind us, flying in formation unable to close before it just runs out of energy and just falls to the ground.
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  174.  @metalmikenz  Based on US estimates, the Ukrainian casualty number is about 10,000/month with 4,000 of those returning to service
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  175. Seen a lot of Russian women too. Almost 1/3 of the prwn models are Russian
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  176. It will take 2 days worth of work to reduce the Russians ability to detect the F-16 by half.
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  177. In DS 18 kills were made by WVR missiles or BVR missiles launched WVR. 16 kills were BVR and almost all the missiles that missed were launched from BVR. BVR missiles had a kill ratio of 34% while WVR missiles had 67%. Oh and there were 2 guns kills.
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  178. ​ @RichardBaran companies/corporations are people.
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  179. The F-14 had bombing as part of it's mission list since the before the first Tomcat reached the fleet. It had had the A-7's bombing system built into it. The only thing added to the F-14 was 1/2 of the F-15E's Lantrin Pod and they wired the pod's controls to the RIO's cockpit but the release button was still with the pilot.
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  180. Russia's numbers are greater than the entire Ukrainian Air Force's total number of aircraft
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  181.  @Orverge  No, it's for turning a normal, unguided free fall bomb into a glide bomb, as for range, depends on the weight, release altitude and release speed, max maybe 75 miles
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  182. So the F-15 finally went with GE-110's like the F-16 did
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  183. Back when the F-14 was new to the Navy, the 1st 2 fleet squadrons were able to mentain an 75-80% mission capable rate during their 1st cruise which took them to Vietnam where they covered the US evacuation. This was while they were still learning how to fly and mentain the plane
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  184.  @georgehenan853  The only country to invoke NATO article 5 has been the US.
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  185. If the F-35 can't be seen by enemy radar, how does it get them to turn on? Answer you get the real wild weasel in an F-16 to dance in front of the missile search radar to turn on and shoot at it
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  186. So they will be like the Cylon raiders
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  187.  @mikoi7472  Average dogfight lasts between 15-90 seconds. One, maybe two turns.
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  188. Tell me, where does it say that it's Aviation Week's job to hide information for the US govt?
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  189.  @lqr824  Part of the reason is that they are taught to avoid the gun fight.
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  190.  @Albertkallal  They should be lower, the legacy jets are at the peak of the maintenance cycle. Compare the cost of the jets when they were new and you find that the cost per flight hour of a 5 year old F-15 and F/A-18 is less than that of a 5 year old F-35
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  191.  @Albertkallal  The difference between the F-16 and the F-35 is that by this time the F-16 had gone from a clear weather daylight dogfighter armed with just AIM-9's to an all weather multi mission aircraft with an MC rate north of 80%.
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  192.  @EEEEEEE354  That 30% commonality was recently acknowledged by a Canadian F-35 pilot who is thinks that the plane is the perfect plane for every country.
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  193.  @EEEEEEE354  1st cruise to Vietnam when they took 2 squadrons of F-14A's. Also Desert Storm when it hit 82%
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  194.  @EEEEEEE354  Aside from the RAG, those two squadrons were the entire operational f-14 fleet at the time. To be fair, the Navy did stack the deck by staffing the squadron and it's maintenance unit with senior people ( the two squadrons only had 4 JG's between them)
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  195. What's the combat radius of an F-16 without external fuel tanks?
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  196. The Chinese have security camera's focused on the doors and factory. They are on a certain religious monument that was placed there by them.
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  197.  @sneakerset  Local feds
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  198. There was an incident back during WW2 when a battle damaged P-47 landed with just one wing.
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  199.  @wil-e4i  Brazilian pilot 1945 47 I think France
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  200.  @mauriciomdea  That's not the reason they are using the simulator for. Typically you actually fly the plane as part of routine training. This is to keep you familiar with the plane and how it feels when you are actually on a mission. Simulator's can't simulate gravity, g forces and don't induce fear in the pilot. So pilots need about 150 flight hours of actual flying time every year just to maintain their training, their qualifications. Well instead of actual air time, they intend to use simulators instead of actual flying in order to reduce the costs of operating the F-35
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  201. They need 12 with another 12 for spares and about 12 years of spare parts for each plane every year.
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  202.  @Rob-vv5yn  4 years if you are starting from a person who has never flown a plane. It's 3 months to transition a pilot from one fast jet to another fast jet, 5 weeks to get that pilot up to Fighter Weapons School graduate
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  203.  @Rob-vv5yn  Roughly There are roughly 200-250 experienced fighter pilots in Ukraine. Time and availability of secure and extensive training areas is why training should be done at NAS Fallon or Tonopah, not in Europe. Not sure how to speed up the training for the aircraft mechanics other than to use a modified Swedish model of 2 certified mechanics and 8 trainees and those trainees become the lead mechanics of their own 5 person team.
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  204.  @Rob-vv5yn  The normal staffing is 1.5 to 2 pilots per plane, if you look up the Ukrainian Air Force staffing levels, as the number of planes dropped to 200, the number of pilots stayed at what they were when they had 400 planes. And at peak activity the Ukrainian AF were flying 3 sorties per day, all of it on the deck. This means they had 2-3 pilots flying the same plane
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  205. @Rob-vv5yn  oh and the Ukrainians have lost about 80 aircraft and pilots, with 7 of them in 2023
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  206. @Mr P  the reason that the majority of the kills are by artillery is due to the fact that both side were trained to fight Soviet style.
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  207. A snail will reach Kyiv before the Russian Army can
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  208.  @Just_A_Random_Desk  The Russians have 2 Steath Fighters and a cardboard mock up of a 2nd stealth fighter design.
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  209. Too far, they would need to land and refuel just to get to a patrol zone over Kyiv.
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  210. @Purvis 1993  where do you think the Ukrainians have been flying out off since February 2022?
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  211. ​​ @NoobNoobNews  probably 4-8 makes. Potential launchers, any aircraft that uses the same munitions lug pattern, F'-22, B-1, B-2, F-16, A-10, JAS-39, some Ukrainian MiG-29's
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  212.  @ГеоргийМурзич  The pilots in Ukraine do, 2-3 squadrons of them and most of that are bombing runs or drilling holes in the sky.
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  213.  @mike7652  Was the US with 2,400 troops supposed to go to Afghan army units and collect their vehicles and guns as the US was packing up it's own kit?
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  214. The simple defense is to shoot down the launch system before it can release the missile. This requires 2 things. 1. A radar that can detect the launch vehicle as it lifts off and track it to it's launch area. 2. An interceptor that can get to the launch aircraft before it can release the missile. The USAF has both.
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  215.  @jerseyshoredroneservices225  There is a big difference between 350 and 550 knots as it means more than a few miles of flight
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  216.  @johnbeaulieu2404  it's the range of the plane, it's drop in range of the MALD after launch
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  217. Unless the US is willing to send F-35B's to Ukraine any fighter or attack aircraft that is sent will be operating no higher than 1000ft off the ground and that drops down to 100ft as it gets within 100 miles of the front an 50ft when over the battlefield. Good luck trying to keep an F-16 alive and fighting at those altitudes. That assumes you don't fod the engines when it's on the ground.
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  218. @doujinflip  the F-35 is years behind schedule because of decisions made by the company and the clients who bought into the company's claims. Personally they should have just built one model, the F-35C.
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  219. No, not as long as the F-16 and the F-35 are being made by Lockheed Martin. LM will always push to sell the F-35.
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  220.  @FirstLast-zk5ow  I take it that you assume that no weapons are lost during a war? Heads up, in WW2 a us tank regiment that fought from Normandy to Germany lost more tanks than it had after it landed at Normandy
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  221.  @kentstructures4388  The Russians lose more jets to age, training crashes than they build
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  222. So what happens when those ai powered drones run into a wall of ECM? Something that has been degrading the performance of weapons and utterly making a mess of communications in Ukraine. It's so bad that Ukrainian jets flying near the front line are often flying deaf and blind, unable to communicate with each other or their command. The same ECM has been hitting the ground forces down to the platoon and squad level with squads and individual units unable to call for help, commanders unable to send orders.
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  223. You can calculate the optimum turn rate of any aircraft if you know it's stall speed with the engines on. To pull 9g, the F-22 needs to be north of 400 knots, but that performance drops as the speed does. Meanwhile the A-10 clean with just guns and 2 Aim-9's have a stall speed that is lower than the F-22. This plus the higher lift from it's wings mean the A-10 is able to pull more g, more degrees/sec at lower speeds.
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  224.  @onetruekeeper  If Falco exceeds human tolerance, the plane falls out of the sky. The higher the g's the heavier the airframe as you have to strengthen the airframe to tolerate the extra stress. Which in turn means more fuel, lower T/W = lower available g.
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  225. @T51B1  yes look at Ukraine, you see any F-111 analog's doing CAS? Answer no. The bulk of the F-111 tank and vehicle kills were done at night and they flew a single sortie per day. A-10's flew 2-3 times per day, day or night. The F-111's had pre planned targets, the A-10's were assigned a kill box and hunted for their own targets unless they got a call for help.
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  226.  @DarkenedOne55  Iran has had years of observing Israel's missile defense capabilities. The Iranians also know about the US's defense capabilities.
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  227.  @Sweet92879  Size does not change the fact that you don't warn about the attack when your drone is moving at under 200 mph. If I wanted to actually make the attack count, I would announce the attack about 2-5 minutes before the drone hits.
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  228.  @DarkenedOne55  the attack was meant to be stopped. It's something that Iran does when it needs to give a response but does not want to escalate. Think shot across the bow or warning shot. They just gave a show of force demo and now you can look at what it took to stop it after they warned you it was coming and extrapolate if you had just 5 min warning and the volume was 5-10 times that.
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  229.  @DarkenedOne55  And the Joerdanians and Saudis passed the warning to the US. The missiles and drones were intercepted by US F-15E's, F-16's and Patriots in Iraq, Jordanian jets over Jordan. Only a handful made it to Israel.
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  230.  @michaeld1170  I doubt that the performance will get better. For that to happen PW will need to upgrade their engine and they've not made any announcements of that happening or the F-35 will need to shed weight, aircraft tend to get heavier not lighter as the program ages.
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  231.  @michaeld1170  Until those engines are installed, the performance is not changing
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  232.  @michaeld1170  k. That 9g/7.5 g is the design spec. So it's where it should per contract. I'm thinking more along the lines of the F-14 which the contract called for a 7.5g aircraft which the Navy limited to 6.5g to reduce maintenance, but her pilots were routinely pulling 7.5 to 8.5g with occasional trips to 9g
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  233.  @brocksafbom1355  That was the reason they bought new wings for the A-10. That re-wing program added about 10,000 hours, roughly 20-40 years
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  234.  @timonsolus  The Ukrainians will usually know where the SU-57 is, it's always escorted by pair of Flankers
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  235.  @haakoflo  They've been flying with a mixture of AIM-120B/C AiM-9M and X, they are using pylons with built in chaff/flare dispensers and an ECM pod in the center pylon
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  236. @dmitry4c996 It's 2 F-16's lost
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  237. @dmitry4c996 correction, 1 crashed, 1 downed
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  238. @Silver_Prussian As of April 2025, 1,150 F-35's have been built and about 156 are being built per year, 190 will be delivered in 2025, nearly 1,100 have been delivered to customers including European partners
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  239.  @andrewt.5567  they used the F-22, that's why they're trying to reduce its annual flight hours. So it will last long enough to be replaced by the f-22 replacement.
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  240.  @Elthenar  Those sensors did not allow it to tell friend from foe when it dropped a string of laser guided bombs on US soldiers.
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  241. ​ @NewAlbionTV  the 890 can detect targets at 100ft from 380km, the higher the target the further out they can see.
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  242. ​ @MacDaddy8200  apparently the only time the SU-57 has flown combat missions in Ukraine was to make bombing mission while protected by SU-27's
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  243.  @amaneyugihanako-kunofthesi8849  The USAF did not want to buy an airplane with an A prefix.
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  244. Were the drones shooting back?
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  245.  @shorewall  When that happens then it's time to remove CAS from the USAF's mission list since they seem to not want it anyway.
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  246.  @user-dq1je7zy3p  The USAF wanted its entire tac air composed of F-15's without a single bomb rack. It did not want the F-16 nor the A-10. Both were forced on the USAF.
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  247. If you can install the Scorpion in the A-10 and F-16's you can install it on an F-22. The question I have is why not mount an IRST on the nose, above or below the radar. The F-14D had an IRST mounted under the nose and it was tied to the F-14D's fire control system. This allowed the pilot to keep track of the target even if the radar lost contact.
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  248.  @kathrynck  Stealthy F-35 will have a limited lifespan once optical or laser sensors become the standard guidance for SAMs
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  249. It's just a flight sim, but in DCS, mods of the F-22 and F-35 are starting to show up. And "pilots" in 4th Gen planes are learning to score victories by using the terrain to close with the stealth planes and kill them from within 10 km using IR missiles and guns. And no, the 4th Gen radars don't see the stealth planes until 20 or so miles.
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  250. @ForzaElite  Mach 4 with a turn circle that's greater than anyone flying at 500. And all the networking in the world will help if you don't get spotted. As for modeling, we've seen some of the mods tweaked to overperform the real planes. Head bvr the Gen 4 looses.
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  251. @ForzaElite  right now the way the angles are working is that by the time the Gen 5's to be able to get around the LOS issue created by the terrain, it's already inside the detection/launch range of the older plane's missiles. How accurate that is, time will tell. For now, it gives as a hint at how to deal with them.
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  252.  @randybobandy9828  the story behind the A-10 raptor kill is that the F-22 driver saw a couple of C-130's flying on the deck trying to sneak past the F-22's and went for the easy kill. The pilot missed the A-10's who were also on the deck trailing the C-130's.
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  253. The thing is the s-300/400 can't shoot what it can't see. At 100ft the Russian would need to move them within 20 miles of the forward edge of the battlefield, deep inside HIMARS attack range. Think they'll risk that when they have seen what they have been hitting with them.
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  254.  @thuggeegaming659  it can't see below the radar horizon or through hills. It's why the Ukrainians have been able to keep flying SU-24's over the battlefield.
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  255.  @thuggeegaming659  "Watches Ukrainian SU-24 bombing Russian targets from tree top altitude and blowing through leaving a curtain of flares." yep, I can see how effective those Russian SAM's are against low flying planes.
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  256.  @thuggeegaming659  facts on the ground trump propaganda. Russian Radars did not change how radio waves function.
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  257.  @thuggeegaming659  Not saying that MANPDS can't destroy aircraft, illustrating that they are not magic wands will sweep the skies of aircraft. You need time to be able to get a lock on an attacking aircraft, and a weapon engagement zone. The Ukrainian air force's sortie rate is not dictated by the threat of MANPADS but the lack of aircraft, half of it was non-operational prior to Feb 24 because of lack of spare parts. The Russian strikes against the bases destroyed all of those non-operational aircraft and a large portion of the operational ones. At this point the UkAF are averaging 1-2 sorties per aircraft most of it ground attack and all of the ground attack missions are low level sub 200ft missions.
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  258.  @thuggeegaming659  I'm using facts and events that are happening and have happened. You are hurling insults.
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  259.  @thuggeegaming659  It's not a "role playing skit" it's one of countless video that's come out from both sides of the Russo-Ukraine war.
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  260.  @thuggeegaming659  come back when you have something to say, until then До свидания
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  261. It depends on what you want to do. If you want shut down the SAM radars for 10-20 minutes, the AGM-88 works fine, if you want to kill the SAM radars, use a Maverick, a CBU, 20mm or unguided rockets. Or a drone with hand grenades or a mortar round. Heck a guy with an RPG would do more permanent damage than a HARM.
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  262.  @dougcoombes8497  Pick up Dan Hampton's book, he has first hand experience with killing SAM radars. His experience is if you want to get the SAM radar to go silent long enough for your strike package to pass through, use the HARM, if you want it dead, use a Maverick or a CBU.
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  263.  @DeportAllMAGA2Ruzzia  No one is talking about flying into Russian territory or even Russian controlled Ukrainian territory. Don't think SEAD in the traditional aircraft killing SAM radars. Think using HIMARS to take out SAM radars that are within 30-60km to create a zone over your troops and the active battlefield for aircraft and helicopters to conduct CAS.
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  264.  @DeportAllMAGA2Ruzzia  Ukraine is one of the most monitored areas at this time, the US has satellites passing overhead and Elint aircraft and drones flying as close as the 12 mile border south of Crimea and we relay what the Ukrainians need to know at near real time. You think we don't know where every single SAM radar is? We've been plotting them since the start. Give the Ukrainians the right HIMARS rocket type and the target data and there won't be a functioning SAM radar within 100km of the forward battle area in occupied Ukraine
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  265.  @paterdoloris  Yeah, the radar operating software filters out objects not moving or moving below 30-60 mph, roughly.
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  266.  @charlesrichardson8635  not to mention that the EA-6B that was supposed to be there jamming the Serbian radars was not on station.
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  267.  @elliottboomsluiter7214  Stealth absorbs radars and where it does not is supposed to reflect it away from the radar source.
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  268. @Ned Kelly  you can see it using oth radar but those can't be used to feed targeting info, their resolution is too course.
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  269. And yet there is a small country in South East Asia that did win despite being out gunned and out numbered.
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  270. @Steve White  Senators Sanders and Grassley a 2 day old story and ators are asking the Pentagon about LM, Raytheon and TransDigm, among others about making 40-4,000% profits on parts sold to the military vs the same parts sold to NASA. Their source is Shay Assad and others.
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  271. The AI can pull 9g all day, the plane can't
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  272. @buzzkillean  that's nice, the F-16 can't turn at above 5g without losing energy. The higher the g above 5.5, the faster it bleeds speed to below 450 knots where the plane's flight control computer starts reducing the angle of attack and thus g and turn rate. This was how F-14 and Hornet pilots would get kills on them.
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  273. @moistman69  425-455 knots not 310-380. 310-380 is the regime of the F-14 and F/A-18. You can tell any given aircraft's the best sustained turn rate by looking up its stall speed and its minimum landing speed. But yeah, folks forget that more g = more drag, and few if any aicraft can pull 9g without losing energy, never mind sustain a 9 g turn
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  274.  @Tbonyandsteak  "rate fight" :)
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  275.  @Jason-pq5mq  Yep, and building the g's means heavier airframe, or if you use lighter but stronger materials means much much more expensive airframe, more powerful, heavier more expensive engine. And pretty soon you'll have an airplane that double triple the cost of the manned aircraft. And because it's more expensive, you buy fewer of them and you can't afford having the AI act recklessly.
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  276.  @cmdrTremyss  look up CJ lemoine's channel.
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  277. @Tony O'Regan  at the cost of airspeed over the wings and control surfaces. Once that drops below stall speed all the vector thrust can do is push the tail around as the plane falls out of the sky.
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  278.  @manojkothwal3586  remember when the F-16N was built? The company said that it had been reinforced and had titanium wing skins to withstand the repeated 9g maneuvers that the Top Gun pilots were putting it through. Those F-16N lasted less the 6 months at the school before they were pulled off the line and sent to be scrapped because the wings developed cracks.
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  279.  @affinitytalk3979  The Ukrainians have few long range missile systems available.
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  280.  @jetfighter200  buildings, hills and mountains block radar in DCS and in the real world.
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