A Turkish-Korean-Swedish fighter?

Will it be delivered in a flat-pack with a wordless instruction sheet and an Allen key?

Spud – Would you care to review your many posts and comments over the years, and figure out how many times you have said “this and that will happen in 20xx” and how many of those predictions have been accurate?

The risk mechanism in excessive concurrency (and the entire Pentagon leadership now accepts it was excessive) is that the goal in the process of transitioning from DT through OT to operations is to get fully operational jets to the squadrons.

So when it comes to modernizing pre-IOC-standard jets, the lowest cost and fastest payoff is to start with the newest aircraft, which need least work and have most lifetime left, and then work backwards through the production numbers. The result is that you end up with a rump of old airplanes that need a lot of work – which is where 40+ F-22s are stuck today.

Bogdan made it clear the other day that they are trying to get the concurrency problem tamed, but I would not bet any money on when jets before Lot 3/4 get upgraded to full combat capability.

Is there any evidence that CUDA exists beyond resin models and briefing cards? Where is the tech demo plan for a compact HTK seeker and a flight control system never used before on an AAM or a missile this size? How long will that take and how much will it cost? What’s the real projected performance?

And when did anyone at LockMart last design an AAM? Neither LM nor its legacy companies were involved in the last two US competitions for an all-new AAM (AIM-9X and AAAM).

On the other hand, it’s interesting that a jet that is 600 per cent better than all others (except F-22) in air-to-air suddenly needs to carry twice as many AAMs as we previously thought that it did.

Diagnosing anti-Americanism as “racism” is a bit of a stretch given the number of ethnicities resident in the US population. But that’s why people are on my Ignore list…

Hardeharhar.

Obviously impossible to estimate RCS from 3D models based on photos. That’s why F-117 and B-2 shapes were revealed so early.

Funny how some people are technically skilled programmers one minute, and can’t be expected to explain the most basic concepts the next.

Picard/MC – IIRC the issue is that the wavelength of the RF radiation is changed in the RAM. So yes, you may need wavelength-related depth, but the wavelength is not the same as that in space or free air.

Spud – Can you explain how the supposed “internal CPU” in EO-DAS “geolocates” anything on its own, based only on relative Az-El data?

Geolocating a terrestrial target would require at very least a digital terrain model and platform position and attitude (it actually requires more than that because tiny errors in sensing are big errors on the ground). Determining a position for an airborne target would require two platforms triangulating one another or the use of radar.

Northrop Grumman describes DAS as the only 360-degree, spherical situational awareness system in existence today. Comprised of [sic] six mid-wave infrared cameras located on the forward and center fuselage of the F-35, DAS can warn JSF pilots of incoming aircraft and missile threats, provide 360-degree day and night vision, fire control capability, and precision tracking of wingmen/friendly aircraft for tactical maneuvering.

When the system detects a missile or aircraft, DAS provides the detection information to the F-35’s sophisticated suite of mission systems, known collectively as its integrated core processor (ICP). As Dave Bouchard explains, the ICP or what he refers to as the F-35’s “fusion engine,” then fuses the information.

“All mission systems sensors in the F-35 input to Lockheed Martin’s fusion engine. Ultimately, the fusion engine determines the outcome. It’s not that the radar will do this or DAS will do that. The radar and DAS input information into Lockheed’s fusion engine and then that system provides the answer or output. DAS is a key player in the entire kill-chain with the system being on the front end.”

http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/front-end-of-the-kill-chain/

Spud, can you point to where IIR FPA pixel pitch can be reduced? You’d have to do that in order to provide higher resolution in the same size unit, This paper…

http://client.blueskybroadcast.com/spie/dss08/6940-95-a7c_maillart/manuscript.pdf

.. suggests that there’s a diffraction limit that starts to cut in at 15μm because you’re basically bumping into a pixel size that is close to the wavelength of IR radiation.

Actually, there’s probably more mileage to be gained with dual-band technology.

Do I work for NG?

Really, Aurcov.

Hot things in the sky? Well, there are a lot of white things that reflect solar IR quite efficiently.

EOTS can give you some idea of ID as long as the target cooperates by staying below or just above your waterline.