Don’t hold back, Spud, tell us how you really feel…

Seriously, this is a debate?
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The ESM of the F-22 is so good about detecting datalinks that it can fire an AMRAAM just on that information.

Not that it will hit anything unless the tomfool meat servo in the target is banging on like some digital Rush Limbaugh, but it can fire it.

I don’t think that there is any evidence that the DoD held SDD spending down. If you look at the profile, SDD is already a small and declining percentage of program funding.

http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/652948.pdf, page 24

Throwing more assets at the problem does not work in and of itself, although note that the post-2010 restructure included more assets on the critical path of software.

Along with DJCross and the “blame the test mafia” meme, this is another comforting myth for JSF supporters.

BiO – IRST mode on a pod (and EOTS is no more advanced than the latest pods) is not the same as a dedicated IRST. The pod has a focal plane array with optics that zoom out to an image area, and a slew mechanism that matches target and platform movement. The IRST is a telescope with high magnification and small field of view, and has a very fast mechanical scanning mechanism (fast enough for a navigation video on the Typhoon). Thus, although its instantaneous field of view is smaller than the EO pod, its ability to scan a large area may well be better.

Note that Singapore and Korea (followed by Saudi) have IRST on F-15s, in addition to modern targeting pods, which does imply that the capabilities of the two systems are different.

A few random thoughts…

Obligatory’s fascinating link to the analysis of the Gripen points to some canard advantages that US commentators tend to overlook, including very neat packaging with the engine(s) right at the back and no structure to carry H-stab loads around them. Consider also that the original Gripen has much the same fuel fraction as its bigger contemporaries despite the fact that things like the cockpit, radar and other avionics, and the gun don’t scale.

Higher sweep also seems to avoid buffet and transonic roll-off. The art is to avoid pitfalls, such as the canard wash interacting with the wing.

One thing I’d add about the Gripen is that, like the MiG-29 and (I believe) the Su-27, it has small aero devices on the tip of the radome to trip vortices consistently and symmetrically. IIRC from long-ago discussions, asymmetrical vortices are one reason for alpha limits on some aircraft.

On the Phoon and ALSR: One goal was to achieve high supersonic maneuverability without TV. I have been told on occasion that (1) the Phoon is near neutrally stable supersonic, (2) that it would be about neutrally stable without the canard and (3) even in early flight tests with nose ballast it was less stable (subsonic) than anything except the Grumman X-29 FSW. The low-speed departure was a BFD, and kept from becoming a big issue (at a point where the Germans were wobbly about the whole program) with the help of BAE’s little friends, to wit:

http://www.carter-ruck.com/

I don’t think Dassault or its customers were as sold on supersonic maneuver as the UK and Germany had become, and I suspect that the Rafale doesn’t tread as far into the instability zone as Typhoon.

BiO – Ol’ Sarge Mac-and-Cheese says he knows how to spell “assume” but there are some pretty big assumptions in that series. Max STR is only one element of air combat kinematics, and not the only area where the F-35 may not match its contemporaries – and the relaxation of STR specs does not bode well for other performance aspects because it can only mean that the aerodynamic or propulsive efficiency is not where it was projected to be. And speaking of contemporaries, the F-16A was designed 40 years ago, and it’s another large assumption to say that it’s still the gold standard in STR or anything else. And indeed, Mac-and-Cheese’s evidence that it was the gold standard almost 30 years ago is a set of documents out of Fort Worth. He doesn’t indicate that he knows who most likely compiled them. I do, and it’s fair to say that the author doesn’t share the good Sgt’s enthusiasm for the F-35.

Sure WW. Just like this plan:

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