Yet again, i don’t see any reasoning in fancy weaponry orders for Georgian Army. Even if they got F-22’s, the quantity they could operate plus the size of their country and the distances between airbases would render them useless. Half of them would be destroyed on the ground, other half wouldn’t even manage to take-off properly and they’d find themselves in WVR combat against Flankers or whatever, outgunning them XY:1.

The idea of fancy weaponry orders is popular because they serve as force multipliers… Unfortunately, unless fundamental problems with Georgia’s military are taken care of first, from the ground up, they would never be able to use them to their fullest potential and it’s likely that even with the new technology they would just end up in Russian hands.

Personally I think they could use an air force, albiet a simple one. F-16’s (if they can get them for near free) or even upgraded F-5s… of course they can’t go toe to toe with Russia and survive long, but that applies to, well, almost every country adjacent to Russia. Doesn’t mean they should just go ahead and disband their air forces too.

That being said, this is IMO a long term issue and there are far more important priorities in the short term, ie reconstruction, humanitarian relief, major reformations in training, leadership, and doctrine, etc.

So it’s all or nothing? Don’t even have an air force (or navy), just go with the army and a decent IADS?

IOC F-15E: 1988
IOC Su-34: 2008

Timewise like comparing the BF-109 versus the F-104.

Yes…. however the Su-34 first flew in 1990, and both aircraft trace their roots back to the 70’s.

From what I understand, short of open warfare, Phoenix (for the most part) wouldn’t get to stretch it’s legs anyway due to ROE. Not that it would be a great choice against fighter sized targets anyway…

AMRAAM and AIM-9X would have been welcome additions had they gone the distance

Between the design of the F-14 (mid sixties) and modern supercruisy aircraft (end 80ies, early 90ies) something happenend

While the Superhornet integrates some modern lessons to achieve LO, the basic design still came from the late 60’s (still way before the 80’s/90’s mark). It ended up being way draggier than they would have liked…

Most F-14 proposals (including new-build aircraft) were avionics modernizations, with structural modifications only to the wing glove area (as well as modern flaps and spoilers) so the basic design, aerodynamically, isn’t that far off the mark.

I don’t doubt at all that the F-14 would have been the more expensive route. It’s simply in a different class. For it to last till the 2030’s and beyond like the Super Hornet is expected to, you’d need new build airframes (as opposed to refurbishment of aging aircraft) and totally revised avionics — it’d be basically a new aircraft that resembled the Tomcat (kind of like the SH compared to Hornet).

I don’t know how much it would cost. More expensive than SH for sure, but still way cheaper than NATF… and no doubt closer in capabilities. The money just wasn’t there.

Just curious, would it be difficult to develop a 3P round for the 76mm?

How does home on jam mode affect the time it takes to get a lock?