Let me state again that…
the Raptor was built to be THE air superiority vector,
the one that rules the skies. I believe that it attained
this goal as far as BVR combat is concerned.
The fact that it may not be as dominant in dogfight is
not a problem IMHO.
First, F-18s ( and around 2030, the JSF ) get closer to
where dogfights are susceptible to happen. Elmendorff
is not a carrier, nor do F-22s really relish cable-arrested
landings ( Unless I missed something and someone has
a link to offer? ).
Second, aerodynamic qualities are darn essential to “in
your face” dogfighting. As such, a plane that stealthy
should NOT be in a better than good position when it
becomes close and personal.
Third, if the Raptor cleans the sky from enemies at 100
or even 120 klicks, what would it dogfight against???
This being said, what happened in Al-Dhafra was a f.ck.ng
exercise! Which means that different things are tried
out to simulate operational conditions but not in do or
die conditions. Military politics ( I know : a conundrum
of sorts ) dictate that this or that plane will be sent, such
squadron, etc. Then, as the training is undertaken, air
force 1 doesn’t want to play with air force 4, air forces
2 and 3 play in the corner by themselves and air force 5
has stomach ailments preventing them from doing much.
The Raptor and Rafale agreed on scrambling a bit.
( Maybe the others didn’t. ) Would YOU like to be “driving”
a Mig-21 remake against one of those two?
As sketchy results begin surfacing, every one and their
dogs form an “expert opinion” ( often an euphemism for
talking through their …ses ), mostly hearsay on top of
prejudice.
Not wanting to partake in such folly, some wait for official
declarations, those infos having themselves been stripped
clean of substance by public relations people after brass
defined what was non-vital and thus permitted.
In our case, Rafale and Raptor did. The others, as far as
I know did not.
SO, Raptors got BVR control; that makes sense.
SO, Rafale came out as darn efficient; no problem there.
SO also, PAF’s J-something did not report downing all other
A/Cs; i tend to believe i know why!:o
SO also, UAE did not report “owning” all those foreing guys;
is anyone surprised?
SO lastly, the RAF did not answer anything; but then again,
they almost never do!
I’ll tell you this from the bottom of my heart : if some had
not built up a crazy belief about the Typhoon being twice
as good as a Klingon Bird-of-Prey based on the video game
while also adhering to the belief that Rafale had an old 1.3L
diesel engine to propel its WWI sensors into combat, this
thread would have been about four pages long.
Luv, kisses’n common sense, TAY.:)
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