Look at the vid again and follow the black speck I marked, to me it looks like the cable didn’t snap until the Su was at the position in this screenshot. Seems to me the cable held on long enough to slow the Flanker below minimum take-off-speed even with full thrusters.

Yes, it appears the Flanker lost too much momentum and didn’t have enough speed to get back in the air. I wonder how often the Russians replace their cables.. I heard somewhere that the USN changes cables after every 100 traps. can anyone confirm this figure? seems a bit low.

Seeing is believing for some folks.. for years USAF pilots have been extolling the supermaneuverability of the Raptor. Amazing as its handling is, I’m pretty sure that the USAF puts greater value in its Stealth,supercruise and sensor fusion capabilities.

Given the proliferation of weapons, its easy to imagine a scenario where protagonists buy their weapons from the same supplier. So if nation A is fighting nation B and both use the same model tanks, and say the US enters the fray on the side of nation A, how would a LOCAAS or similar type weapon differentiate between the two?

Any idea what caused the splash after the 2nd jet was waved off?
Also, why didn’t the Fulcrum go to full power when he felt the tailhook catch,like USN pilots do, just in case the cable snaps? Or isn’t this SOPfor russian naval pilots?

Wasn’t that project replaced by SMACM?

Story about that should be somewhere in Signal magazine.
http://www.afcea.org/signal

SMACM is a bigger, longer-ranged version.. don’t think its a replacement though.

Until this information emerged Link-16 was described here as high-speed state-of-art datalink.. Now we learn that one image needs 48 mins to transfer.. Funny you haven’t mentioned this before..

I always thought of Link-16 as simple text messaging and not really that fantastic.. now this AESA broadband capability is really something else.. and to think they really never foresaw this possibility at the start.

Any comparisons will always be inconclusive as public demonstrations of the Raptor’s actual capabilities will be probably be restricted for the foreseeable future. Even when the F-22 becomes a regular at air shows in a couple of years, I don’t see it being pushed to do russian-style maneuvers demonstrated by the Su/MiGs. It serves no useful purpose in USAF circles, IMO though some enthusiasts will surely be disappointed. I’m very content in the belief that the plane is as good and probably even better than advertised and can take care of business if and when called upon.

The situation would seem to be tailor-made for the Israelis to deploy their TROPHY system.. sipposedly successful in intercepting ATGMs and RPGs before they hit their targets.. or is it a case of the technology not being mature enough? It looked great in the videos but i guess one can’t trust the glossy sales brochures…