Wow Sea Sparrow has come a long way. They ought to rename it and make it the primary anti-air weapon of the new frigate the Navy wants and mid-range defense for destroyers/cruisers.

So Boeing is making the claim that their latest “F/A-18XT” or whatever it is called beats the F-35C in terms of acceleration, maneuverability, range, and payload. How much truth is there likely to this? Does the F/A-18XT even include the more powerful EPE engines that the earlier Advanced Super Hornet did?

You can’t simply convert a MiG-29 into a 5th generation stealth fighter. By the time you were done it would be an entirely new aircraft.

The first phased array radars didn’t really offer much over the latest and greatest mechanical sets so can we expect the same of the first GaN radars compared to current CaA designs?

The chopper on the left labeled as a Black Hawk doesn’t look like one. I’m willing to guess it is a NH90 judging from the four main rotor blades and tail configuration. However the chopper on the right labeled as an Apache is more likely to be a Black Hawk instead.

Something isn’t right how Northrop went silent on their design after withdrawing from the competition.

I’m really surprised its been virtually zero information released. Boeing in sharp contrast is running a media circus.

Why wouldn’t Northrop go silent about it considering they don’t intend on selling it anytime soon?

Mig-29 100 or 150 round capacity
Rafale 125 round capacity
Eurofighter 150 round capacity
Su-25 250 round capacity
Su-35 150 round capacity
Su-34 150-180 round capacity
Gripen 120 round capacity
F-35A 182 round capacity
F-35B/C 220 round capacity (external pod)

All above numbers from Wikipedia.

The F-35 is pretty much right among the pack where ammo capacity is concerned. It isn’t a lot of ammo, but it is about what you get…

I know it compares well with what everybody else is carrying but an external pod isn’t limited space available within the airframe so why not design a larger gun pod? When you considering its likely uses the extra weight wouldn’t have mattered very much. 220 rounds isn’t much compared to what the old 20mm gun pods could carry for example.

Or maybe I am mistaken about how often they intend to carry the gun pod?

This.

If the F-14 were still active, the bulk of the fleet would be one of the Advanced F-14 designs. There may have been some legacy F-14D’s like there are legacy F-18 A/B/C/D, (by the way, take a look at the availability rates of these early Hornets), but the bulk of the fleet would be new build ASF-14’s.

The Navy really lost out when the decision to move away from the ASF-14 was made. With the current state of anti-carrier cruise missiles, the ASF-14 with paired with something like the AIM-152, would have moved the outer ring of anti-cruise missle protection that much further out from the fleet (both in terms of shooting archers and arrows).

Read this quote from the link ijozic posted…

“A side note: I once talked to an accomplished engineer that worked for Grumman on the Super Tomcat 21 proposal. He told me that the performance models they were seeing with the Super Tomcat design were absolutely stunning and the jet’s low speed handling, especially with thrust vectoring and the bigger engines, and the sheer amount of territory it could cover in a single mission were unprecedented. This man went on to work for “other contractors” on major fighter programs, but he maintains that the Super Tomcat’s maneuvering performance and ability to operate as a fighter independent of tanker assets over large distances has still not been accomplished in any US or foreign design to this day. He did mention that he does see a large degree of the Super Tomcat’s potential in the Russia’s late model Flanker series, especially with its thrust vectoring and large internal fuel, but according to him it still does not really compare.”

Knowing what we know now I don’t think thrust vectoring would be worth the extra weight and complexity. It would still have great enough performance without it.

The ASF-14 was a step too far unlike the more realistic Super Tomcat 21 proposals. It is better to design an entirely new aircraft once you’re at ASF-14 levels of redesign. Had the Navy gone for the Super Tomcat I imagine they would have had a much larger program to buy (or remanufacture) F-14Ds. This would be followed on by an “F-14E” which would be the ST-21.

The question is what comes after this? Back when the Navy was having the Super Hornet vs Super Tomcat argument the plan was “A-X” (later renamed as “A/F-X”) which was to be a stealthy attack aircraft following the cancellation of the A-12 Avenger II. Could we assume this is cancelled and the Navy becomes partner to the JSF program again?