Syria has a rather large, but outdated air defense network. Around 130 sites. It’s a question of how many standoff PGM’s would Turkey be able to deploy, since their A2G weaponry is more advanced than Syria’s SAM systems. However, due to sheer number of SAM units, plus the early warning capability of S-200, only full scale attack would suffice.

Again, I don’t think Turkey will do it. Certainly, there are hot-heads in Ankara that would support military option, however USA won’t allow it (not yet, anyway), and the public opinion is strongly against.

I’ve yet to find a source confirming that active version of r27 went into production. So far, i’d say evidence suggests AE version never left the drawing board/testing grounds.

That’s a reasonable assumption, however R-27 is a modular platform. Seeker, explosives and guidance/propulsion are different units. They can fit active radar seekerhead, as easy as they fitted longer (bigger) propulsion section on ‘E’ models, to increase range.

A rare sighting, R-77 on VVS fighter.

Guys, I appreciate the detail, but this Al vs Il thing is boring. Open a new thread and rant there.

That’s right, in a nutshell. Coilguns, railguns, and some more obscure electrical weapons use pulses of very high voltage and/or current, thus you need to use capacitors. Capacitor needs to be charged over a resistor because typical internal resistance of source, capacitor and wiring is very low and too much current would be drawn into the capacitor. Time to charge a capacitor equals capacitance multiplied by overall resistance.

Railguns have a major problem with structural damage on rails during the operation. A lot of kinetic energy stresses the rails, plus you have ionization which can result in arc welding. Air brakedown occurs at 3.2kV/mm at standard atmosphere.

Energy bank charge time isn’t that much of an issue if you have top-grade capacitors and big power supply (like ship’s powerplant). If your supply can hold lots of amps then you lower down the charge circuit resistance and time goes down proportionally, not to mention that you’ll have less local resistor losses in form of thermal dissipation. However, cooling down and cleanup of the whole thing is a major issue, and that’s why even cutting-edge system needs several seconds between launches.

Supercruise is a marketing term just like “5th generation”, etc. Each vehicle has cruising speed, eg. where it covers greatest distance in a respected regime. So supercruise-capable aircraft are all aircraft with crusing speed inside supersonic domain, regardless of afterburner. Some engines are engineered for extended afterburner operations, some are not. It all depends on task.

Before USA-s 5th generation hype, I never heard that term describing what it tries to stand for today, albeit various Western / Eastern aircraft achieving above M1 speeds without reheat.

At the end of the day, F-22 has combat radius of 760 km with mixed dry/wet supecruise, having reheat for 60-70% of the path, reaching ~ Mach 2 speed. MiG-31 has 720 km radius, with afterburning Mach 2.35 all the way. Afterburner significantly increases engine’s thermal signature, and dry supercruise was part of F-22’s overall low-observability grand scheme of things. However it doesn’t necessearily mean that it’s better(TM).

Yes, to represent national colours. But it’s still a Red Star with an outline.