The test pilot of F-35 has said that the ultimate speed target for F-35 to achieve in the near future flight test is: 1.6 Mach with two 2,000 Ib bombs and two AAMs in its internal weapon bays.

Even F-22A may not be able to achieve such speed in the same combat configuration, since it has to carry 2,000 Ib class weapons outsides.

By comparison, Typhoon with the similar combat configuration (four 1,000 Ib LGBs, three 1,000 L tanks, and two AAMs) can only reach the speed of no more than 0.9 Mach for the safety reason (LGB is not designed for supersonic flight).

Sorry to bring this back, but in the original first post it suggested that UK Taranis would be flying in 2010. However, in the hoopla around the damaged wind turbine in Louth in the UK this week, the newspapers are reporting that the MOD as saying that the Taranis was using the ranges in the area at the time. One of the newspapers on the attached link. Its also being reported elsewhere

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4178800/UFOs-spotted-by-hundreds-at-wind-turbine-site.html

Could this be that very rare occurance when a UK project is actually ahead of schedule ? 😮

Don’t worry, it will be far, far behind schedule, or even be terminated finally, once UK prepares to formally introduce productional UCAVs instead of just playing with an experimental toy……

TSR-2, FOAS, Future Attack Submarine (FASM), FSC, FRES………So many previous examples…. 😀

Are there any other trainers that are capable of Mach 1?!

A:

Examples:

T-38 Talon (USA)

MAKO (German)

JL-9 / FTC-2000 (China)

JL-15 Falcon (China)

T-50 Golden Eagle (Korea)

I believe that 5th generation Gripen = Gripen NG ~ It is unrealistic for any country to invest a completely new fighter and then buy just ten of them……

If any European country other than Russia decides to invest and start a 5th Gen fighter program, I think it won’t be the size and scale of F-35 fighter, which is actually in the class of F-15, and should be not affordable to any Western European airforce.

The F-15C for example have flown against well equipped and armed Mig-29’s and still one every time. (and with Sparrows)

The MIG-29s that F-15C has fought and killed in the real wars (Gulf war and Yugoslavia confrontation) are all the early basic and down-graded types for exportation. According to the point of views of some US pilots, the performance of the radar and EWS the Iraq AF’s MIG-29 had used was even poorer than the performance of the radar and EWS of the MIG-23/25 it had. And the real combat record of the basic AA-10 (24 missiles for hurting only one MIG-29) during the confrontation between Eritrean (MIG-29s) and Ethiopian (Su-27) in 1999 is even worse than the combat record of AIM-4 during the vietnam war.

Not to mention the huge difference and advantage in fighter numbers for A2A combat, pilot’s training, logistics, C4ISR, AWACS, EW and so on of the F-15C’s side over MIG-29’s side during the Gulf war and Yugoslavia confrontation……..

Really, exercises are not ment to be fair. Which, is why I LOL when some make such a big deal about them. Hey, did the F-15C win every match………Hardly, yet in the real world it never lost one!:diablo:

Yes, F-15C won every real A2A air combat in the past 30 years, but how many times did the enemy fighters it face are something like Su-30, Su-35, EF-2000, Rafale or so on??? How many times did the enemy fighters it face had the weapons like R-77 or MICA??? How many times did F-15C had no significant advantage of number or the AWACS / C4ISR support over its foes???

It is true that exercises does not mean to be fair. However, neither did the F-15C A2A combat record in the past 30 years……….

About the DRFM techonology mentioned above….

http://www.eads.net/1024/fr/pressdb/archiv/2003/2003/fr_20030614_ew.html

EADS Technology enhances Aircraft ProtectionCore element of EW systems newly developed

Paris, 14 June 2003

Advanced defence technologies of EADS open up unprecedented opportunities in the field of aircraft electronic self-protection.

As announced by the company during Paris Airshow, its Airborne Systems unit, part of the future Defence Electronics Business Unit of EADS, has developed and successfully tested a third generation Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM), the key element of modern electronic warfare systems. The DRFM on board combat or transport aircraft as well as naval vessels can manipulate hostile radar signals before retransmission. Thus, the threatened platform is able to electronically hide its position or identity against missile attacks. To do this, the newly developed techniques generator of the DRFM creates deceptive range, Doppler or other signal falsification which makes accurate tracking of the aircraft by air defence radars extremely difficult.

“The new jamming technologies we have developed in this company-financed project decisively increase the effectiveness and security of aircraft in military and humanitarian missions. Without state-of-the-art electronic self-protection, airplanes cannot be operationally used in modern threat scenarios”, explained Johann Heitzmann, designated Head of the future EADS Defence Electronics unit.

The newly developed DRFM combines unprecedented instantaneous bandwidth with very high frequency accuracy and multi-threat capability. It has considerable growth potential due to its software programmability. The DRFM currently is under production.

AIM-9X Block II has entered the stage of test now ~ It should be ready for F-35 before F-35 formally enters service at the time of around 2014~2016.